Om namo Bhagvate Vasudevaya.
nara-devatvam āpannaḥ
sura-kārya-cikīrṣayā
samudra-nigrahādīni
cakre vīryāṇy ataḥ param
(SB 1.3.22)
Translation :
In the eighteenth incarnation, the Lord appeared as King Rāma. In order to perform some pleasing work for the demigods, He exhibited superhuman powers by controlling the Indian Ocean and then killing the atheist King Rāvaṇa, who was on the other side of the sea.
Purport :
The Personality of Godhead Śrī Rāma assumed the form of a human being and appeared on the earth for the purpose of doing some pleasing work for the demigods or the administrative personalities to maintain the order of the universe. Sometimes great demons and atheists like Rāvaṇa and Hiraṇyakaśipu and many others become very famous due to advancing material civilization by the help of material science and other activities with a spirit of challenging the established order of the Lord. For example, the attempt to fly to other planets by material means is a challenge to the established order. The conditions of each and every planet are different, and different classes of human beings are accommodated there for particular purposes mentioned in the codes of the Lord. But, puffed up by tiny success in material advancement, sometimes the godless materialists challenge the existence of God. Rāvaṇa was one of them, and he wanted to deport ordinary men to the planet of Indra (heaven) by material means without consideration of the necessary qualifications. He wanted a staircase to be built up directly reaching the heavenly planet so that people might not be required to undergo the routine of pious work necessary to enter that planet. He also wanted to perform other acts against the established rule of the Lord. He even challenged the authority of Śrī Rāma, the Personality of Godhead, and kidnapped His wife, Sītā. Of course Lord Rāma came to chastise this atheist, answering the prayer and desire of the demigods. He therefore took up the challenge of Rāvaṇa, and the complete activity is the subject matter of the Rāmāyaṇa. Because Lord Rāmacandra was the Personality of Godhead, He exhibited superhuman activities which no human being, including the materially advanced Rāvaṇa, could perform. Lord Rāmacandra prepared a royal road on the Indian Ocean with stones that floated on the water. The modern scientists have done research in the area of weightlessness, but it is not possible to bring in weightlessness anywhere and everywhere. But because weightlessness is the creation of the Lord by which He can make the gigantic planets fly and float in the air, He made the stones even within this earth to be weightless and prepared a stone bridge on the sea without any supporting pillar. That is the display of the power of God. The Supreme Personality of Godhead assumed the form of a human being.
In the eighteenth incarnation, the Lord appeared as King Rāma. In order to perform some pleasing work for the demigods, He exhibited superhuman powers by controlling the Indian Ocean and then killing the atheist King Rāvaṇa, who was on the other side of the sea.
Srimad Bhagvatam.. a Perfect Book for mankind
In the First Canto it is describing the principle, manifestations or incarnations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead throughout the history of this creation. Srimad Bhagvatam histories are not limited to a particular country, to a particular planet or to a particular universe but it are describing various activities of the Lord & His pure devotees which are taking place in various places and various times throughout the many manifested creations. After all Srimad Bhagvatam is spoken by Sukhdev Goswami & written by VedaVyas. VedaVyas is a special personality, Tri kala Gyan which means because he is the literary incarnation of the Lord, he can see the past, the present & the future. It is described in the Gita. Vedaham sarva Gitani vartamanani charjauna bhavishyani cha bhutani mam tu ved na kaschana (BG 7.26) Krishna says that everything that is happening in the past I know. I know all things happening at the present moment. I know every activity, every thought, and every word of every living being throughout all of existence. And I also know everything completely that is yet to come. I know every living being in full to every minutest detail but no one can know Me in full. So the Srimad Bhagvatam is not going to be like the literature of this world because it is the word of God, the All Knowing. VedVyas was the incarnation in literal form of Sri Vishnu therefore we accept that whatever is in Bhagvatam is perfect. It is perfect because it is coming from the perfect Source. And we also accept that it is inconceivable,Achintya Shakti. The Lord has inconceivable potencies. And the Bhagvatam is especially dealing with these inconceivable potencies.
Krishna’s Activities are Abhigya & Swarat..
People of this world are so much conditioned to the news of the radio & the television and the newspapers where everything is based on the relative activities of conditioned souls and therefore we have a certain conditioned idea of what is possible & what is not possible. When we read mundane history books about various wars and various discoveries and various political revolutions, they are all done by people who have fallen to the lowest most degraded position of material life. After all just to come to this material world, for the eternal soul is a very low degraded position. Therefore what can such infinitesimal conditioned beings do that is very great? And if they do something little greater than somebody else, then it is considered wonderful. And then everyone must read about it, see it, and talk about it. But Srimad Bhagvatam is something completely different. Srimad Bhagvatam is describing the activities of the Supreme Absolute truth that has no limitation who is Abhigya & Swarat. Abhigya means all knowing & Swarat means Krishna can do anything he wants, anytime he wants. Sarveshavara Ishvara, He is the Controller of all Controllers. There is nothing impossible for God. If there was anything impossible for God, there would be no such thing as God. Because God by definition means The Complete Whole, The Supreme Controller. So therefore it is not difficult that all to have faith in any story that comes in the authoritative literatures such as Srimad Bhagvatam. A devotee can immediately accept, if someone says “How is that possible?” Srila Prabhupada is giving, even in this material world we can see what God is doing.
Unlimited Power of Lord Ramachandra & monkey Soldiers
It is described here that Sri Ram, He built the beautiful bridge across the Indian Ocean. If we want to build a bridge, what do we have to do? We have to get big big construction crew with all kinds of machines & pollute the atmosphere with noise & all sorts of gases. And then we have to take & put pillars going down into the ocean or build the suspension bridges. It takes a long long time many many years to build it across the ocean. No body could even imagine building a bridge across the ocean. If we can build a bridge across San Francisco Bay, may be six seven miles, if you can it is a great accomplishment. The Golden Gate Bridge is famous through out the world the Brooklyn bridge is about 3 miles.. But they are talking about 800 miles. And how did Ram do it? He simply took rocks, but not ordinary rocks, not like the little rocks that we see in the temple. Because after all He had to get the whole army across the bridge, all at once. He was taking peaks of mountains which were miles & miles wide and tying them together with vines & putting it. And it was all done in a matter of hours. So materialist will think this must be some sort of mythology, some sort of symbolic fiction, because after all how could these rocks, each one of them must have weighed hundreds of tons. How did they float in water? Is it so difficult to understand?
Krishna is Sarva Shaktiman..!!
Srila Prabhupada has explained that right before your eyes God is doing something millions of times greater. Floating something on water is not nearly as difficult as floating something in air. Ha? Water has more density than air. And Krishna has taken planets & right before our eyes when we look in the sky, we see the stars. The planet that we are talking & walking on right now is floating in the air. There’s no pillar, no suspension bridges. How is it possible? And this earth is one of the smallest planets in the solar system that we know of. Planets like Venus, Jupiter these are the planets that we know that are many times larger than this earth. And the Sun planet is thousands of times larger than this earth. It’s since time immemorial for millions & millions of years they are all floating. They never crash into each other; they always keep the exact same distance from one another. And then people will say that’s not God, that’s gravity. But where does gravity come from? It is just such an incredible invention that keeps these gigantic, enormous bodies of matter moving, rotating perfect order through time immemorial.
That is the direction of Krishna. So for Sri Ram to float these rocks on ocean that was very easy. Ocean is salt water, in salt water everything floats easier anyway. That was very easy. In fact to float the sun in the air is very easy thing. When Krishna appeared on this earth He lifted the Govardhan hill on the little finger of His left hand for seven days. And He was simply smiling. It was easy. That mountain today is 22 miles around if you want to walk around it. But for Krishna, nothing is difficult. So here we are reading from the Srimad Bhagvatam. And therefore we accept all these stories as history. And however inconceivably wonderful, beyond our imagination the Lord works, it simply increases our appreciation and love for Him. That’s why He comes in this world in the first place. How is it that Krishna had 16,108 wives, 16,108 houses & and all His servants and all His relatives they were all living on the island called Dwaraka there’s no room, it will be more crowded than Bombay why would He want them in a crazy place like that? But there was plenty room, Krishna could put the whole population of the earth on a needle & there would be plenty room for everybody. Everyone would have 10 acres of land. How is that possible? For Krishna what is impossible? Inconceivable potency, if you could conceive of God, what use is He? He would be like us. We are conceivable. Therefore when a devotee, when he reads these beautiful stories it simply increases his faith & love. So today on the auspicious occasion of Dessert, we are reading this verse from the Srimad Bhagvatam describing the purpose of Rams incarnation. The external reason why He appeared was to kill the great atheist demon Ravana. Because He was causing so much trouble, so much pain to the devotees.
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