SB 2.7.37

Srimad-Bhagavatam - Second Canto - Chapter 7: Scheduled Incarnations with Specific Functions

SB 2.7.36 - SB 2.7.38

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

TEXT 37

deva-dviṣāṁ nigama-vartmani niṣṭhitānāṁ

pūrbhir mayena vihitābhir adṛśya-tūrbhiḥ

lokān ghnatāṁ mati-vimoham atipralobhaṁ

veṣaṁ vidhāya bahu bhāṣyata aupadharmyam

SYNONYMS

deva-dviṣām — of those who were envious of the devotees of the Lord; nigama — the Vedas; vartmani — on the path of; niṣṭhitānām — of the well situated; pūrbhiḥ — by rockets; mayena — made by the great scientist Maya; vihitābhiḥ — made by; adṛśya-tūrbhiḥ — unseen in the sky; lokān — the different planets; ghnatām — of the killers; mati-vimoham — bewilderment of the mind; atipralobham — very attractive; veṣam — dress; vidhāya — having done so; bahu bhāṣyate — will talk very much; aupadharmyam — subreligious principles.

TRANSLATION

When the atheists, after being well versed in the Vedic scientific knowledge, annihilate inhabitants of different planets, flying unseen in the sky on well-built rockets prepared by the great scientist Maya, the Lord will bewilder their minds by dressing Himself attractively as Buddha and will preach on subreligious principles.

PURPORT

This incarnation of Lord Buddha is not the same Buddha incarnation we have in the present history of mankind. According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, the Buddha incarnation mentioned in this verse appeared in a different Kali age. In the duration of life of one Manu there are more than seventy-two Kali-yugas, and in one of them the particular type of Buddha mentioned here would appear. Lord Buddha incarnates at a time when the people are most materialistic and preaches common-sense religious principles. Such ahiṁsā is not a religious principle itself, but it is an important quality for persons who are actually religious. It is a common-sense religion because one is advised to do no harm to any other animal or living being because such harmful actions are equally harmful to he who does the harm. But before learning these principles of nonviolence one has to learn two other principles, namely to be humble and to be prideless. Unless one is humble and prideless, one cannot be harmless and nonviolent. And after being nonviolent one has to learn tolerance and simplicity of living. One must offer respects to the great religious preachers and spiritual leaders and also train the senses for controlled action, learning to be unattached to family and home, and enacting devotional service to the Lord, etc. At the ultimate stage one has to accept the Lord and become His devotee; otherwise there is no religion. In religious principles there must be God in the center; otherwise simple moral instructions are merely subreligious principles, generally known as upadharma, or nearness to religious principles.

SB 2.7.36 - SB 2.7.38