Text 26] The Residents of Jambūdvipa Offer Prayers
199
TRANSLATION
I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is pure transcendence. He is the origin of all life, bodily strength, mental power and sensory ability. Known as Matsyāvatāra, the gigantic fish incarnation, He appears first among all the incarnations. Again I offer my obeisances unto Him.
PURPORT
Śrīla Jayadeva Gosvāmī sings:
pralayo payodhi-jale dhṛtavān asi vedam vihita-vahitra-caritram akhedam keśava dhṛta-mīna-śarīra jaya jagad-īśa hare
Soon after the cosmic creation, the entire universe was inundated with water. At that time Lord Kṛṣṇa (Keśava) incarnated as a gigantic fish to protect the  Vedas . Therefore Manu addresses Lord Matsya as  mukhyatama , the first incarnation to appear. Fish are generally considered a mixture of the modes of ignorance and passion, but we must understand that every incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is completely transcendental. There is never any deterioration of the Supreme Lord's original transcendental quality. Therefore the word  sattvāya  is used here, meaning pure goodness on the transcendental platform. There are many incarnations of the Supreme Lord: Varāha  mūrti  (the boar form), Kūrma  mūrti  (the tortoise form), Hayagrīva  mūrti  (the form of a horse) and so on. Yet we should never think any of Them material. They are always situated on the platform of  śuddha-sattva , pure transcendence.
TEXT 26
अन्तर्वहिश्चाखिललोकपालकै-
रद्दष्टरूपो विचरस्युरुखनः ।
स ईश्वरस्त्वं य इदं वशेऽनय-
न्नाम्ना यथा दारुमर्यो नरः स्त्रियम् ॥२६॥