168 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 1, Ch. 3
well as indirectly empowered Lord Buddha, created faith in the mass of
people. The incarnations of Rama and Dhanvantari displayed His fame,
and Balarama, Mohini and Vamana exhibited His beauty. Dattatreya,
Matsya, Kumara and Kapila exhibited His transcendental knowledge. Nara
and Narayana Rsis exhibited His renunciation. So all the different incar-
nations of the Lord indirectly or directly manifested different features,
but Lord Krsna, the primeval Lord, exhibited the complete features of
Godhead, and thus it is confirmed that He is the source of all other incar-
nations. And the most extraordinary feature exhibited by Lord Sri Krsna
was His internal energetic manifestation of His pastimes with the cowherd
girls. His pastimes with the gopis are all displays of transcendental exist-
ence, bliss and knowledge, although these are manifested apparently as
sex love. The specific attraction of His pastimes with the gopis should
never be misunderstood. The Bhagavatam relates these transcendental
pastimes in the Tenth Canto. And in order to reach the position to under-
stand the transcendental nature of Lord Krsna’s pastimes with the gopis,
the Bhagavatam promotes the student gradually in nine other cantos.

According to ora Jiva Gosvamr’s statement, in accordance with authori-
tative sources, Lord Krsna is the source of all other incarnations. It is not
that Lord Krsna has any source of incarnation. All the symptoms of the
Supreme Truth in full are present in the person of Lord Sri Krsna, and in
the Bhagavad-gita the Lord emphatically declares that there is no truth
greater than or equal to Himself. In this stanza the word svayam is
particularly mentioned to confirm that Lord Krsna has no other source
than Himself. Although in other places the incarnations are described as
bhagavaén, because of their specific functions, still nowhere are they
declared to be the Supreme Personality. In this stanza the word svayam
signifies the supremacy as the summum bonum.

The summum bonum Krsna is one without a second. He Himself has
expanded Himself in various parts, portions and particles as svayam-ripa,
svayam-prakdsa, tadekatmda, prabhava, vaibhava, vilasa, avatara, avesa, and
jivas, all provided with innumerable energies just suitable to the respective
persons and personalities. Learned scholars in transcendental subjects have
carefully analyzed the semmum bonum Krsna to have sixty-four principal
attributes. All the expansions or categories of the Lord possess only some
percentages of these attributes. But Sri Krsna is the possessor of the attri-
butes cent percent. And His personal expansions such as svayam-prakasa,
tadekatma up to the categories of the avataras, who are all Visnu-tattva,
possess up to ninety-three percent of these transcendental attributes. Lord
Siva, who is neither avatdra nor avesa nor in between them, possesses
