Text 12] Gajendra’s Prayers of Surrender 87

TRANSLATION

I offer my respectful obeisances to Lord Vasudeva, who is all-
pervading, to the Lord’s fierce form as Lord Nrsirnhadeva, to the
Lord’s form as an animal [Lord Varahadeva], to Lord Dattatreya,
who preached impersonalism, to Lord Buddha, and to all the other
incarnations. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Lord, who
has no material qualities but who accepts the three qualities good-
ness, passion and ignorance within this material world. I also offer
my respectful obeisances unto the impersonal Brahman
effulgence.

PURPORT

In the previous verses it has been described that although the Supreme
Personality of Godhead has no material form, He accepts innumerable
forms to favor His devotees and kill the demons. As stated in Srimad-
Bhagavatam, there are so many incarnations of the Supreme Personality
of Godhead that they are like the waves of a river. The waves of a river
flow incessantly, and no one can count how many waves there are.
Similarly, no one can calculate when and how the different incarnations
of the Lord appear according to the necessities of time, place and candi-
et The Lord appears perpetually. As Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita
4.7):

yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata

abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham

“Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O de-
scendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion—at that time I
descend Myself.”’ In the material world there is always the possibility of
deviation from Krsna consciousness, and therefore Krsna and His devo-
tees always act in various forms to curb such godlessness.

Even impersonalists who stress the knowledge feature of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead want to merge in the effulgence of the Lord.
Therefore, here the word jidna-ghandaya indicates that for atheists who
disbelieve in the form and existence of the Lord, all these various incar-
nations appear. Since the Lord comes to teach in so many forms, no one
