Matsya-avatāra - the Lord accepted the form of a fish to protect Vaivasvata-Manu (Satyavrata)
PRALAYA, KALIYUGA AND TREES
S.B. Eight Chapter, Twenty-four
Matsya, the Lord’s Fish Incarnation
Once, at the end of the previous kalpa, a demon named Hayagrīva wanted to take the Vedic knowledge away from Lord Brahmā at the time of annihilation. Therefore the Supreme Personality of Godhead took the incarnation of a fish at the beginning of the period of Svāyambhuva Manu and saved the Vedas. During the reign of Cākṣuṣa Manu there was a king named Satyavrata, who was a great pious ruler. To save him, the Lord appeared as the fish incarnation for a second time. King Satyavrata later became the son of the sun-god and was known as Śrāddhadeva. He was established as Manu (VAIVASVATA MANU) by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
To receive the favour of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, King Satyavrata engaged in the austerity of subsisting only by drinking water. Once, while performing this austerity on the bank of the Kṛtamālā River and offering oblations of water with the palm of his hand, he found a small fish.
Compassion for a small fish
The fish appealed to the King for protection, asking the King to keep Him in a safe place. Although the King did not know that the small fish was the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, as a king he gave shelter to the fish and kept Him in a water jug. The fish, being the Supreme Personality of Godhead, wanted to show His potency to King Satyavrata, and thus He immediately expanded His body in such a way that He could no longer be kept in the jug of water. The King then put the fish in a big well, but the well was also too small. Then the King put the fish in a lake, but the lake was also unsuitable. Finally the King put the fish in the sea, but even the sea could not accommodate Him. Thus the King understood that the fish was no one else but the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and he requested the Lord to describe His incarnation as a fish. The Personality of Godhead, being pleased with the King, informed him that within a week there would be an inundation (pralaya) throughout the universe and that the fish incarnation would protect the King, along with the ṛṣis, herbs, seeds and other living entities, in a boat, which would be attached to the fish’s horn. After saying this, the Lord disappeared. King Satyavrata offered respectful obeisance's to the Supreme Lord and continued to meditate upon Him.
In due course of time, annihilation took place, and the King saw a boat coming near. After getting aboard with learned brāhmaṇas and saintly persons, he offered prayers to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, and thus he taught Mahārāja Satyavrata and the saintly persons about Vedic knowledge from the core of the heart.
THIS PARTICULAR DEVASTATION actually took place NOT DURING THE NIGHT of Lord Brahmā BUT DURING HIS DAY, for it was during the time of Cākṣuṣa Manu. Brahmā’s night takes place when Brahmā goes to sleep, but in the daytime there are fourteen Manus, one of whom is Cākṣuṣa Manu. Therefore, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura comments that although it was daytime for Lord Brahmā, Brahmā FELT SLEEPY FOR A SHORT TIME by the supreme will of the Lord. This short period is regarded as Lord Brahmā’s night. This has been elaborately discussed by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in his Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta. The following is a summary of his analysis. Because Agastya Muni cursed Svāyambhuva Manu, during the time of Svāyambhuva Manu a devastation took place. This devastation is mentioned in the Matsya Purāṇa. During the time of Cākṣuṣa Manu, by the supreme will of the Lord, there was suddenly another pralaya, or devastation. This is mentioned by Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi in the Viṣṇu-dharmottara. At the end of Manu’s time there is NOT necessarily a devastation, BUT at the end of the Cākṣuṣa-manvantara, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by His illusory energy, wanted to show Satyavrata the effects of devastation. Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī also agrees with this opinion. (S.B. 8.24.37 )
BG4.1 The Blessed Lord said: I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun-god, Vivasvān, and Vivasvān instructed it to Manu, the father of mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to Ikṣvāku."
S.B.4.30.49
As stated in Bhagavad-gita(8.17):
“By human calculation, a thousand ages taken together is the duration of Brahmā’s one day. And such also is the duration of his night.” Brahmā’s one day consists of one thousand cycles of the four yugas—Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali. In that one day there are fourteen manvantaras. The various Manus existing in one day of Lord Brahmā are as follows: (1) Svāyambhuva, (2) Svārociṣa, (3) Uttama, (4) Tāmasa, (5) Raivata, (6) Cākṣuṣa, (7) VAIVASVATA (8) Sāvarṇi, (9) Dakṣasāvarṇi, (10) Brahma-sāvarṇi, (11) Dharma-sāvarṇi, (12) Rudra-sāvarṇi, (13) Deva-sāvarṇi and (14) Indra-sāvarṇi.
The word jagad-aṇḍa-nātha means Lord Brahmā. There are innumerable jagad-aṇḍa-nātha Brahmās, and thus we can calculate the many Manus. The present age is under the control of Vaivasvata Manu ( King Satyavrata in his past life at the end of the Caksusa manvantara ). Each Manu lives 4,320,000 years multiplied by 71. The present Manu has already lived for 4,320,000 years multiplied by 28.
4,320,000 x 27= 116,640,000 ( one hundred sixteen million) years ago the LAST TOTAL UNIVERSAL INUNDATION took place according to the Srimad Bhagavatam. THIS WAS THE MOST RECENT UNIVERSAL DEVASTATION.
KALIYUGA
KRSNA BOOK , Deliverance of Mucukunda , CH. 51
Chapter Fifty-one, which contains sixty-three verses, describes how Mucukunda killed the untouchable king Kālayavana simply by glancing upon him.
Mucukunda had received a benediction from Lord Śiva to the effect that when he awoke from his sleep, whomever he might see would at once be burnt to ashes. Therefore Kṛṣṇa thought it wise to lead the untouchable king to that cave so that the king's presence would awaken Mucukunda, and he would at once be burnt to ashes.
When Mucukunda, the celebrated descendant of the Ikṣvāku dynasty, was favoured by Lord Kṛṣṇa, he circumambulated the Lord within the cave and then came out. On coming out of the cave Mucukunda saw that the stature of the human species had surprisingly been reduced to PYGMY SIZE. Similarly, the trees had also far reduced in size (the trees reached only UP TO HIS KNEES) and Mucukunda could immediately understand that the current age was Kali-yuga (he had slept through the yugas).
Since Mucukunda was fighting on behalf of the demigods (for Lord Kartikeya, the son of Lord Siva, the commander in chief of the demigods), he must HAVE a body of a demigod or semi-demigod. The trees must have looked like BUSHES and humans in Kaliyuga the size of a mouse to him.
Standing like flagstaffs on the summits of these four mountains are a mango tree, a rose apple tree, a kadamba tree and a banyan tree. Those trees are calculated to have a width of 100 yojanas [800 miles] and a height of 1,100 yojanas [8,800 miles]. Their branches also spread to a radius of 1,100 yojanas. (sb/5/16/12)
S.B.10.10.20-22 Deliverance of the Yamala-Arjuna Trees
Narada says "...Moreover, by my special favor, after the expiry of ONE HUNDRED YEARS BY THE MEASUREMENT OF THE DEMIGODS, they will be able to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva, face to face, and thus revive their real position as devotees."
....Each day of the demigods in the upper planetary system equals six month of our measurement..(purport)
6 earth month = 1 demigod day
12 month/1 year= 2 demigod days
10 e. years = 20 demigod days
100 e.years = 200 demigod days
1000 e.years = 2000 demigod days
10,000 e.years = 20,000 demigod days : 365 days ( 1 year ) = 54,7 demigod years
20,000 e.years = 40,000 demigod days = 109.5 demigod years
minus 10 percent makes 18,000 Earth years
So Narada Muni cursed the two sons of Kuvera, Nalakuvara and Manigriva, about 18,000 earth years ago in Dvapara yuga. Just imagine how TALL and HUGE (DIAMETER) those two Arjuna trees must have been.
The link below gives an unusual SIGHT at PRALAYA, KALIYUGA and TREES.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A5t9QeWfhk German
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EUI7sA7F4eg English
Notes: the last one, TREES, gives another way we can LOOK at the first two, DEVASTATION and KALIYUGA, with our MATERIAL EYES. In the aspect of eternity, a human life in Kaliyuga is just a flash in time.
The Srimad Bhagavatam is filled to the brim with amazing FACTS AND FIGURES about the STRUCTURE of this universe, the 8,400,000 species of life, the Lords devotees and the HAPPENINGS that have, are and will occur in the future. The Srimad Bhagavatam is spiritual knowledge transcending all human speculation. It's language Sanskrit is so perfect in grammar, composition, poetry and meter that a (Kaliyuga) scholar needs twelve years to master the grammar alone. Among many subjects it's author Srila Vyasadeva 5000 years ago described the divisions of time (in digits and numbers) beginning with one ten-thousandth of a second up to the complete duration of universal time.
His portrayal of the dimensions and measurements (in digits and numbers) with regards to length, width, height or depth of the fourteen worlds seem fabulous, fantastic and incredible. 5000 years ago he explained (in digits and numbers) the orbits of the planets and the constellations of the stars in the upper strata of the universe, some of which the scientists have only recently discovered, their size and their eclipses. The mathematical precision with which he explains (in digits and numbers) the structure of the universe are incomprehensible, impossible to grasp, for our mediocre, few grey cells, no matter how much we churn them. Considering that our eyes cannot even see the nearest thing to them: the eyelids, how can one disclaim things which are far, far away.
Since everything out there is obviously most of the time not the way what we think/see it is (since after all we are entrapped in matter) let us simply offer our obeisance's to Srila Prabhupada for giving us the REALITY, translated into English language, in this beautiful, transcendental Srimad Bhagavatam. All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!!!
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PHOTOS OF MATYA-AVATĀRA
the Lord's incarnation in the form of a fish
