sureṣv ṛṣiṣv īśa tathaiva nṛṣv api
tiryaká¹£u yÄdaḥsv api te 'janasya
janmÄsatÄá¹ durmada-nigrahÄya
prabho vidhÄtaḥ sad-anugrahÄya ca
sureá¹£u - among the demigods; ṛṣiá¹£u - among the great sages; Ä«Å›a - O Lord; tathÄ - as well as; eva - indeed; nṛṣu - among the human beings; api - and; tiryaká¹£u - among animals; yÄdaḥsu - among aquatics; api - also; te - of You; ajanasya - who never takes material birth; janma - the birth; asatÄm - of the nondevotees; durmada - the false pride; nigrahÄya - for the purpose of subduing; prabho - O master; vidhÄtaḥ - O creator; sat - to the faithful devotees; anugrahÄya - for the purpose of showing mercy; ca - and.
O Lord, O supreme creator and master, You have no material birth, yet to defeat the false pride of the faithless demons and show mercy to Your saintly devotees, You take birth among the demigods, sages, human beings, animals and even the aquatics.
Among the demigods Lord Kṛṣṇa appears in such forms as VÄmanadeva, among the sages as ParaÅ›urÄma, among human beings as Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself and as Lord RÄmacandra, and among animals as the boar incarnation. Lord Kṛṣṇa appears among the aquatics as Matsya, the gigantic fish. Indeed, the plenary expansions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are innumerable, as the Lord relentlessly comes down within the universes to smash the false pride of the atheists and show mercy to the saintly devotees.
In another sense, the Lord never appears, since He exists eternally. His appearance is like that of the sun, which is always present in the sky but which periodically appears to our vision.
