Text 15]
Remembrance of Lord Kṛṣṇa
67
TRANSLATION
The Personality of Godhead, the all-compassionate controller of both the spiritual and material creations, is unborn, but when there is friction between His peaceful devotees and persons who are in the material modes of nature, He takes birth just like fire, accompanied by the mahat-tattva.
PURPORT
The devotees of the Lord are by nature peaceful because they have no material hankering. A liberated soul has no hankering, and therefore he has no lamentation. One who wants to possess also laments when he loses his possession. Devotees have no hankerings for material possessions and no hankerings for spiritual salvation. They are situated in the transcendental loving service of the Lord as a matter of duty, and they do not mind where they are or how they have to act.  Karmīs, jñānīs  and  yogīs  all hanker to possess some material or spiritual assets.  Karmīs  want material possessions,  jñānīs  and  yogīs  want spiritual possessions, but devotees do not want any material or spiritual assets. They want only to serve the Lord anywhere in the material or spiritual worlds that the Lord desires, and the Lord is always specifically compassionate towards such devotees.
The  karmīs ,  jñānīs  and  yogīs  have their particular mentalities in the modes of nature, and therefore they are called  itara  or nondevotees. These  itaras , including even the  yogīs , sometimes harass the devotees of the Lord. Durvāsā Muni, a great  yogī , harassed Mahārāja Ambarīṣa because the latter was a great devotee of the Lord. And the great  karmī  and  jñānī  Hiraṇyakaśipu even harassed his own Vaiṣṇava son, Prahlāda Mahārāja. There are many instances of such harassment of the peaceful devotees of the Lord by the  itaras . When such friction takes place, the Lord, out of His great compassion towards His pure devotees, appears in person, accompanied by His plenary portions controlling the  mahat-tattva .
The Lord is everywhere, both in the material and spiritual domains, and He appears for the sake of His devotees when there is friction between His devotee and the nondevotee. As electricity is generated by friction of matter anywhere and everywhere, similarly, the Lord, being all-pervading, appears because of the friction of devotees and nondevotees. When Lord Kṛṣṇa appears on a mission, all His plenary portions accompany Him. When He appeared as the son of Vasudeva, there were differences of opinions about His incarnation. Some said, “He is the Supreme