Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 1 by His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Krsna Is the Source of All Incarnations (Canto 1 Ch. 3)

Text 23

ekonavimse vimsatime
Vrsnisu prapya janmani
rama-krsnav iti bhuvo
bhagavan aharad bharam

ekonavimse-in the nineteenth; vimsatime-in the twentieth also;
vrsnisu-in the Vrsni dynasty; prapya-having obtained; janmani-births;
rama-Balarama; krsnau-Sri Krsna; iti-thus; bhuvah-of the world;
bhagavān-the Personality of Godhead; aharat-removed; bharam-burden.

TRANSLATION

In the nineteenth and twentieth incarnations, the Lord advented
Himself as Lord Balarama and Lord Krsna in the family of Vrsni [the
Yadu dynasty, and by so doing He removed the burden of the world.

PURPORT

The specific mention of the word bhagavān in this text indicates that
Balarama and Krsna are original forms of the Lord. This will be further explained later. Lord Krsna is not an incarnation of the purusa as we
learned from the beginning of this chapter. He is directly the original
Personality of Godhead, and Balarama is the first plenary manifestation
of the Lord. From Baladeva the first phalanx of plenary expansions,
Vāsudeva, Sankarsana, Aniruddha and Pradyumna, expands. Lord Sri
Krsna is Vāsudeva, and Baladeva is Sankarsana.

TEXT 24

tatah kalau sampravrtte
sammohāya sura-dvisām
buddho nāmnāñjana-sutah
kikatesu bhavisyati

tatah-thereafter; kalau-the age of Kali; sampravrtte-having ensued;
sammohāya-for the purpose of deluding; sura-the theists; dvisām-those who are envious; buddhah-Lord Buddha; nāmnā-of the name; añjana
sutah-the son of Añjana (Lord Buddha); kikatesu-in the province of
Gaya (Behar); bhavisyati-will take place.

TRANSLATION

Then, in the beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord
Buddha, the son of Añjana, in the province of Gayā, just for the purpose of deluding those who are envious of the faithful theist.

PURPORT

Lord Buddha, a powerful incarnation of the Personality of Godhead,
appeared in the province of Gayā (Bihar) as the son of Añjana, and he
preached his own conception of nonviolence and deprecated even the animal sacrifices sanctioned in the Vedas. At the time when Lord Buddha appeared, the people in general were atheistic and preferred animal flesh
to anything else. On the plea of Vedic sacrifice, every place was practically
turned into a slaughterhouse, and animal killing was indulged in unrestrict-edly. Lord Buddha preached nonviolence, taking pity on the poor animals. He preached that he did not believe in the tenets of the Vedas and stressed the adverse psychological effects incurred by animal killing. Less intelligent men of the age of Kali, who had no faith in God, followed his principle, and for the time being they were trained in moral discipline and nonvio-lence, the preliminary steps for proceeding further on the path of God realization. He deluded the atheists because such atheists who followed his principles did not believe in God, but they kept their absolute faith in Lord Buddha who himself was the incarnation of God. Thus the faithless people were made to believe in God in the form of Lord Buddha. That was the mercy of Lord Buddha: He made the faithless faithful to him.

Killing of animals before the advent of Lord Buddha was the most prominent feature of the society. They claimed that these were Vedic sacrifices. When the Vedas are not accepted through the authoritative disciplic succession, the casual readers of the Vedas are misled by the flowery language of that system of knowledge. In the Bhagavad-gitā comment has been made on such foolish scholars. The foolish scholars of Vedic literature who do not care to receive the transcendental message through the transcendental realized sources of disciplic succession are sure
to be bewildered. To them, the ritualistic ceremonies are considered to be all in all. They have no depth of knowledge, according to the Bhagavad-gitā. The whole system of the Vedas is to lead one gradually to the path of the Supreme Lord. The whole theme of Vedic literature is to know the Supreme Lord, the individual soul, the cosmic situation and the relations between all these items. When the relation is known, the relative function begins, and as a result of such a function the ultimate goal of life or going back to Godhead takes place in the easiest manner. Unfortunately, un-authorized scholars of the Vedas become captivated by the purificatory ceremonies only, and natural progress is checked thereby.