Krsna Kirtana Songs
est. 2001 www.kksongs.org
The Ten Forms of Krsna
Lord Krsna sang the
following verse found in the Bhagavad-gita.
paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma
samsthapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge
(Bhagavad-gita Chapter 4
Verse 8)
In order to protect the devotees, eradicate the
miscreants, and uphold religious principles, The Lord, Himself, will come every
yuga. This is one very
important secret in how the Lord comes through an avatara.
"Avatara" literally means "the descent
of the Lord." Every age, the Lord does indeed come to uphold religious
principles, and defeat miscreants of those religious principles. However, the
Lord's higher objective for His avatara is for His
devotees. The Lord is bhakta-vatsala; He loves His
devotees. His devotees are constantly engaging in loyal loving service, and the
Lord gets very moved. If a one takes one step towards the Lord, the Lord will
take a thousand steps to take that one with Him. That is the true mercy of the
Lord.
Many examples of this can be seen throughout the Srimad Bhagavatam. He would come
to earth to protect the devotees, defeat the miscreants, and then uphold
religious principles. If miscreants were on earth, Lord Krsna
can easily send one of the demigods to take care of the situation, such as Kali
or Durga. However, once His devotee truly calls out
for Him, He will come. His mercy, His avatara, and
His words, indicated by the Bhagavad-gita verse, are
exemplified with this truth.
Of course, there are all types of avataras, and each type of avatara
has a special purpose. The ten most commonly known avataras
are known as the "dasavatara." The ten avataras are Mastya, Kurma, Varaha, Nrsimha, Vamana, Parasurama, Rama, Balarama, Buddha, and Kalki. Each
avatara is extensively discussed to various degrees
in the Srimad Bhagavatam,
and other various Vedic histories. Twelfth century poet and devotee, Srila Jayadeva Goswami, wrote a book called "Gita
Govinda." The first song in the Gita Govinda is an eleven versed
poem dedicated to glorifying the ten avataras of the
Lord.
The first verse is glorifying Lord Krsna as Mastya. Matsya is the avatara of the
Lord, who descended in the form of a fish. The world was going to be under
deluge, and the Vedas were endangered. In order to rescue the Vedas, the Lord
took form of a gigantic fish, kept the Vedas on a boat, tied to His fin, and
swam out to a new world. As Vedic literature are in fact religious principles,
the Lord on earth to save them. More of Matsya Lila
can be found in the Fourth Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam.
The second verse glorifies the Lord as Kurma. Kurma is the avatar where
the Lord came as a turtle. The quest for immortality took place between the
demons and demigods. As demigods were embodiment of religious principles, it
was the Lord's desire to have the demigods drink the
nectar of immortality. In order to achieve that, they must go to the
The third verse sings praise to the boar avatara of the Lord known as Varaha.
Lord Varaha did three very important things. He
rescued the earth, which was drowned in the ocean. While doing so, He killed Hiranyaksa who kidnapped the planet. Finally, His avatara honored Lord Brahma's word. For honoring His devotee,
protecting the world, and destroying the miscreants, Lord Krsna
took form as Varahadeva. This pastime is found in
greater detail in the Fourth Canto.
The fourth verse is perhaps the most famous to Gaudiya Vaisnavas, as the fourth
incarnation is Lord Nrsimhadeva. Lord Nrsimhadeva is worshipped with great devotion and love
amongst Gaudiya Vaisnavas.
When Nrsimha prayers are chanted, this specific verse
of the Dasavatara stotra is
chanted. Lord Nrsimhadeva came to protect His ardent
devotee, Prahlada Maharaja, by His demoniac father, Hiranyakasipu. Despite His fearful and ferocious form, He
is worshipped with intense devotion that even prayers are written worshipping
His nails alone! This verse glorifies the lotus nails that killed Hiranyaksipu, just as nails can easily bifurcate
an insect. Lord Nrsimhadeva's pastime can be further
read in the Eighth Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam.
Vamanadeva is the fifth incarnation of the Lord. The fifth
verse is quite interesting, as the word "chala"
is used. "Chala" means "deceit"
or "cheating." Here, to honor His devotee, Bali Maharaja, and
preventing demoniac rule, He uses deceit to achieve this. Thus, He came in the
form of an innocent brahmana dwarf requesting three
steps. Bali Maharaja, even after knowing that this dwarf is actually the Lord
and even after hearing Sukracarya's curse,
surrendered to the Lord, and the Lord honored Bali Maharaja. In addition, the
mission of upholding religious principles was upheld. This is the mercy of the
Lord shown in this verse. More of this pastime can be found in the Eighth Canto
of the Srimad Bhagavatam.
The sixth incarnation glorifies Parasurama,
also known as "Bhrguapati." Parasurama noticed how the ksatriya
or administrative class of men was becoming demonaic.
To set order on earth and uphold proper duties as a ksatriya,
Krsna came on earth as Parasurama.
Parasurama translated to "Rama
with an Axe." With that very axe, he rid the earth from demonaic ksatriyas twenty-one
times. His pastimes can be read in detail in various parts of the Srimad Bhagavatam.
One of the most popular incarnations of the Lord is
Sri Ramacandra. Lord Ramacandra
appeared in Ayodhya, with His brothers Bharata, Laksmana, and Satrughna. He also appeared with His consort, Sita. He came to earth to protect and honor His devotees,
defeat Ravana and demoniac forces, and show the world
on the principles of a model man, and an ideal king. Lord Ramacandra
has an entire scripture dedicated to His life called the Ramayana, written
originally by Valmiki. Srimad
Bhagavatam discusses His lila in the Ninth Canto.
Next is the perhaps, the most debated incarnation.
Usually many un-bona fide sampradayas will argue that
Lord Krsna is the eighth avatara
of Lord Visnu, thus Lord Visnu
being Supreme. While Lord Visnu is indeed Supreme,
His creation comes from Lord Krsna. Lord Krsna is "adi purusam." He came on earth, with His first expansion
as Lord Balarama. Jayadeva Goswami, a bona fide acarya,
knows this truth, and thus glorifies Lord Balarama as
the eighth avatara. Lord Balarama
had many pastimes and Jayadeva Goswami
acknowledges His pastime when encountering the
The ninth avatara takes
place in Kali-yuga as Buddha. Buddha is the avatara of Krsna to protect the
Vedas and protect animals. Animals were always sacrificed by unqualified brahmanas; this act was to be done under the name of the
Vedas. To protect the honor of the Vedas, He appeared on earth as Buddha to
mislead the brahmanas out of the Vedas and founded
"Buddhism." As the Lord came to protect religious principles from
being misinterpreted or maligned, He appeared. In addition, as Jayadeva Goswami sings of His
praise, He came for the compassion of innocent animals. Buddha's avatara is explained partially in the First Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam.
The last of the dasavatara
is the Kalki avatara. Kalki appears at the end of every Kali-yuga.
By that time, everyone in the world will virtually bear the impure people,
known as mlecchas, and have no potential of how to
understand God. The only solution left for the Lord is to slay everyone, and
thus redeem them. This avatara is the last of the ten
avataras glorified in the stotram.
The sign of His appearance is found in the Twelfth Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam.
Jayadeva Goswami concludes his stotram by saying that one who sings the glories of the Hari, Kesava, who took ten forms,
will be bestowed with happiness and freedom from this material world. That is
one of the wonderful wonders of kirtana. Sravana, listening, and Kirtana,
chanting, are two of the nine ways to attain devotional service. By singing
this poem, one gets benefited by the grace of the Lord.
After the eleventh verse, he includes a special
summary verse which is often mistaken as a "twelfth verse." This
twelfth verse basically concludes the song in a nutshell. It is a
characteristic of Srila Jayadeva
Goswami's writings. He glorifies all of the ten avataras and especially writes "krsna
tubhyam namah".
"Glories to Lord Krsna", as Lord Krsna is indeed the source of all ten avataras
sung here.
One may ask while reading of the avataras
of the Lord, "Why is Lord Caitanya not glorified
or considered?" If you compare the dates of Jayadeva
Goswami's lifetime and Lord Caitanya's,
Jayadeva Goswami lived
before Lord Caitanya's lila time frame. In addition, Lord Caitanya is a chipa-avatara. He
has come hidden, unlike the previous avataras.
Despite the hidden nature of Lord Caitanya's
divinity, many scriptures had predicted of His form and arrival. Bhaktivinoda Thakura, to defend
the validity of Jayadeva Goswami's
writings, said that even though he, along with Vidyapati
and Candidasa, was before the appearance of Lord Caitanya, their writings present the bhakti
that Lord Caitanya preached.
The Lord is indeed very loving to His devotees. He
hasn't proven it just two or three times, but ten times and much more. Hari katha is not limited to a
single number. The Lord is Infinite and so are His glories. As
Narottama Das Thakura describes the advent of Lord Caitanya,
"patita pavana hetu, tava avatara."
"In compassion for the fallen souls on Earth, You take descent (avatara)." The Lord came recently almost six hundred years
ago, and He left with an important message of Harinama
Sankirtana! His message still lives and will live in
every town in village. This is the beauty of the avatara.
This is the beauty of the Golden Avatara. This is the
beauty of Lord Krsna. "kesava dhrta dasa vidha rupa
jaya jagadisa hare."
Since the article’s completion, M.S. Subbulakshmi, a famous Carantic
vocalist, passed away in December 2004. Throughout her life, she had always
rendered soulful Carantic devotional bhajans rendered by Purandara Dasa of the Sri Sampradaya. She
had also recorded many songs of Jayadeva Goswami and Lord Caitanya’s Siksastakam. One of her most famous recordings is the Dasavatara storam. This dasavatara stotram arrangement
was pretty simple, yet very unique. She sang each avatara
in a separate raga. She sang the ragas in the following order.
Introductory Verse - Bhairava
Matysa – Bhairava
Kurma – Deshkar
Varaha – Mishra Gara
Nrsimha – Malkauns
Vamana – Kedar
Parasurama – Patdip
Ramacandra – Bihag
Balarama – Hamir
Buddha – Puriya Dhanasri
Kalki – Tilang
Final verse - Bhairavi