kali-yuge lÄ«lÄvatÄra nÄ kare bhagavÄn
ataeva 'tri-yuga' kari' kahi tÄra nÄma

1 times this text was mentioned in purports to other texts: SB(1)

 kali-yuge - in this Age of Kali; lÄ«lÄ-avatÄra - a pastime incarnation;  - not; kare - does; bhagavÄn - the Supreme Personality of Godhead; ataeva - therefore; tri-yuga - Triyuga (manifested in three yugas); kari' - accepting; kahi - I say; tÄra nÄma - His holy name.


Text

“In this Age of Kali there is no lÄ«lÄ-avatÄra of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; therefore He is known as Triyuga. That is one of His holy names.â€

Purport

A lÄ«lÄ-avatÄra is an incarnation of the Lord who performs a variety of activities without making any special endeavor. He always has one pastime after another, all full of transcendental pleasure, and these pastimes are fully controlled by the Supreme Person. The Supreme Person is totally independent of all others in these pastimes. While teaching SanÄtana GosvÄmÄ« (Cc. Madhya 20.296-298), ÅšrÄ« Caitanya MahÄprabhu pointed out that one cannot count the number of lÄ«lÄ-avatÄras:

lÄ«lÄvatÄra kṛṣṇera nÄ yÄya gaṇana
pradhÄna kariyÄ kahi dig-daraÅ›ana

“However,†the Lord told SanÄtana, “I shall explain the chief lÄ«lÄ-avatÄras.â€

matsya, kÅ«rma, raghunÄtha, ná¹›siá¹ha, vÄmana
varÄhÄdi — lekhÄ yÄá¹…ra nÄ yÄya gaṇana

Thus the Lord’s incarnations were enumerated, including Matsya, the fish incarnation; KÅ«rma, the tortoise; Lord RÄmacandra; Ná¹›siá¹hadeva; VÄmanadeva; and VarÄha, the boar incarnation. Thus there are innumerable lÄ«lÄ-avatÄras, and all of these exhibit wonderful pastimes. Lord VarÄha, the boar incarnation, lifted the entire planet earth from the depths of the Garbhodaka Ocean. The tortoise incarnation, Lord KÅ«rma, became a pivot for the emulsification of the whole sea, and Lord Ná¹›siá¹hadeva appeared as half-man, half-lion. These are some of the wonderful and uncommon features of lÄ«lÄ-avatÄras.

In his book Laghu-bhÄgavatÄmá¹›ta, ÅšrÄ«la RÅ«pa GosvÄmÄ« has enumerated the following twenty-five lÄ«lÄ-avatÄras: Catuḥ-sana, NÄrada, VarÄha, Matsya, Yajña, Nara-NÄrÄyaṇa, Kapila, DattÄtreya, Hayaśīrá¹£a (HayagrÄ«va), Haá¹sa, Pṛśnigarbha, Ṛṣabha, Pá¹›thu, Ná¹›siá¹ha, KÅ«rma, Dhanvantari, MohinÄ«, VÄmana, ParaÅ›urÄma, RÄghavendra, VyÄsa, BalarÄma, Kṛṣṇa, Buddha and Kalki.

ÅšrÄ« Caitanya MahÄprabhu is not mentioned as a lÄ«lÄ-avatÄra because He is an incarnation in disguise (channa-avatÄra). In this Age of Kali there are no lÄ«lÄ-avatÄras, but there is an incarnation of the Lord manifested in the body of ÅšrÄ« Caitanya MahÄprabhu. This has been explained in ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam.