King Nimi asks Dhrumila, one of the nava yogiswaras, to tell him about Lord Narayana’s avataras, said P.T. Seshadri in a discourse. He wants to know about the Lord’s deeds in the past, present and future. Dhrumila answers that the Lord is limitless, and so are His gunas. None is capable of speaking of all His qualities. It is far easier to try to describe the specks of dust in the world than to try to describe His qualities. Even the Vedas tried to praise Him and failed, for His auspicious qualities are infinite. The Lord made the Universe and everything in it, and He is in everything as antaryami. He has the three lokas as His body. He creates, sustains and dissolves the world. His first avatara was the Nara Narayana avatara in Badrikasrama, where the Lord appeared as both Nara and Narayana and did tapas. Indra wanted to disturb the penance. He sent Manmatha, the god of love, to disrupt the tapas.
When Narayana opened His eyes and looked at Manmatha, he praised the Lord thus: “When yagas are performed, havis is offered to various devatas. Because they get havis, they do not disrupt the yagas. But Vishnu bhaktas seek no benefits. All they want is Paramapada. If everyone becomes a Vishnu bhakta and reaches Sri Vaikuntha, there will be none left on earth to give havis to the devas. Afraid that this might happen, they put hurdles in the path of Vishnu bhakthas. But because of Your mercy, Your devotees cross these hurdles. Those who do not worship You do not know how trivial worldly desires are. They drown in worldly pleasures. Even small joys of life are enough to keep them immersed in worldly life. They are like a man who can drown in even a small volume of water, for example, the water that can be contained in a cow’s hooves.”
