CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Matsya,
the Lord’s Fish Incarnation
This chapter describes the Supreme Personality of Godhead’s incarnation
as a fish, and it also describes the saving of Maharaja Satyavrata from an
inundation.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead expands Himself by svarnsa (His
personal expansions) and vibhinnarnéa (His expansions as the living en-
tities). As stated in Bhagavad-gita (4.8), paritraéndya sddhinaém
vindsdya ca duskrtam: the Supreme Personality of Godhead appears on
this planet for the protection of the sddhus, or devotees, and for the
destruction of the miscreants, or nondevotees. He especially descends to
give protection to the cows, the brdhmanas, the demigods, the devotees
and the Vedic system of religion. Thus He appears in various forms—
sometimes as a fish, sometimes a boar, sometimes Nrsirnhadeva, some-
times Vamanadeva and so on—but in any form or incarnation, although
He comes within the atmosphere of the material modes of nature, He is
unaffected. This is a sign of His supreme controlling power. Although He
comes within the material atmosphere, mdyd cannot touch Him.
Therefore, no material qualities can be attributed to Him in any degree.

Once, at the end of the previous kalpa, a demon named Hayagriva
wanted to take the Vedic knowledge away from Lord Brahma at the time
of annihilation. Therefore the Supreme Personality of Godhead took the
incarnation of a fish at the beginning of the period of Svayambhuva
Manu and saved the Vedas. During the reign of Caksusa Manu there was
a king named Satyavrata, who was a great pious ruler. To save him, the
Lord appeared as the fish incarnation for a second time. King Satyavrata
later became the son of the sun-god and was known as Sraddhadeva. He
was established as Manu by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

To receive the favor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, King
Satyavrata engaged in the austerity of subsisting only by drinking water.
Once, while performing this austerity on the bank of the Krtamala River

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