Text 53] Scheduled Incarnations with Specific Functions 419

l.ord’s activities in relation with external energy useless for them, and they
may falsely claim to be higher participants in the internal energy of the
Lord, but factually the Lord’s activities, either in relation with the external
energy or with the internal energy, are equally good. On the other hand,
those who are not completely free from the clutches of the external energy
of the Lord should devoutly hear regularly about the activities of the Lord
in relation with the external energy. They should not foolishly jump up to
the activities of the internal energy, falsely attracted by the Lord’s internal
potential activities like His rdsa-lila. The cheap reciters of the Bhagavatam
are very much enthusiastic about the Lord’s internal potential activities,
and the pseudo-devotees, absorbed in material sense enjoyment, falsely
jump lo the stage of liberated souls and thus fall down deeply into the
clutches of external energy.

Some of them think that to hear about the pastimes of the Lord means
to hear about His activities with the gopis or about His pastimes like
uplifting the Govardhana Hill, etc., and they have nothing to do with the
Lord’s plenary expansions as the purusdvatdras and Their pastimes of
creation, maintenance, or annihilation of the material worlds. But a pure
devotee knows that there is no difference between the pastimes of the
Lord, either in rdsa-lila or in creation, maintenance or destruction of the
material world. Rather, the description of such activities of the Lord as
purusdvataras are specifically meant for persons who are in the clutches of
the external energy. Rasa-lila, etc., are meant for the liberated souls and
not for the conditioned souls. The conditioned souls, therefore, must hear
the Lord’s pastimes in relationship with the external energy with appre-
ciation and devotion, and such acts are as good as the hearing of rasa-lild in
the liberated stage. A conditioned soul should not imitate the activities of
liberated souls. Lord Sri Caitanya never indulged in hearing the rasa-lila
with ordinary men.

In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the science of God, the first nine cantos
prepare the ground for hearing the Tenth Canto. This will be further ex-
plained in the last chapter of this canto. In the Third Canto it will be more
explicit. A pure devotee of the Lord, therefore, must begin reading or
hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam from the very beginning, and not from the
Tenth Canto. We have several times been requested by some so-called
devotees to take up the Tenth Canto immediately, but we have refrained
from such an action because we wish to present Srimad-Bhdgavatam as
the science of Godhead and not as a sensuous understanding for the
conditioned souls. This is forbidden by such authorities as Sri Brahmaji.
By reading and hearing Srimad-Bhdgavatam as a scientific presentation,
