Turye dharma-kala-sarge,
nara-naryanav rsi.
Bhutvattmopasamopetam,
akarot dusacaram tapah.

TRANSLATION
In the fourth incarnation, the Lord became Nara and Narayan, the twin sons of the wife of King Dharma. Thus He undertook severe and exemplary penances to control the senses.

PURPORT
As King Rsabha advised His sons, tapasya, or voluntary acceptance of penance for realization of the Transcendence, is the only duty of the human being; it was so done by the Lord Himself in an exemplary manner to teach us. The Lord is very kind to the forgetful souls. He therefore comes Himself and leaves behind necessary instructions and also sends His good sons as representatives to call all the conditioned souls back to Godhead. Recently, within the memory of everyone, Lord Chaitanya also appeared for the same purpose; to show special favor to fallen souls of this age of iron industry. The incarnation of Narayan is worshiped still at Badri-narayan, on the range of the Himalayas.

In this chapter of first canto of Shrimad-Bhagvatam
Srila Suta goswami, explaining the various principle incarnations of SRI KRSNA. How they appeared why they appeared, Krsna tells us in Gita
Paritranaya sadhunam
vinashana duskritam,
dharma-sansthapnarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge.
That he appears to protect the pious to annihilate the demoniac and to reestablish the principle of religion and in each and every incarnation of the Lord, we find the wonderful lessons to be learned, we find the sublime truth which uncover the treasures of precious jewel of divine love which is within our own hearts. This evening we are reading about this most glorious and an inconceivable avatar of the name Nar-narayan. It is described that they came and they manifested one of the great opulence of the God Aishvaryasya.
It is described by Parashar muni that the Supreme lord possesses six opulence’s in full eternally, each of these opulence’s is all attractive in fact even in this world that we are living, the grosses materialistic people they are all aspiring and working so hard to acquire any one or more of these six opulence’s, knowing that if they have these opulence’s they would be attractive and through this attraction there is the promise that they will enjoy.
The opulence of beauty,
What people go through these days to try to make themselves the most beautiful and even if you are beautiful the pain and the money spent to kind of keep you beautiful is really a loosing cause because all days the force of time gradually takes away all beauty but some how or other we are trying to cling to whatever beauty we have because we are so much frightened we are petrified of the thought that people would not be attracted to me any more. And then there is
The opulence of knowledge
People go to elementary school and then they go to grade school then they go to high school then they go to college then they work on the master’s degree then they work on their PhD’s they just labor for years and years and years just beating their brains against these books simply to acquire a little piece of opulence of knowledge thinking if I am very learned, highly educated, I will be very attractive. People will be very much impressed by me. ( ah) Then,
The next opulence is wealth
You all know what people go thru to make money, good wealth (ah.!) what they (ah ) to have a nice house, to have a nice new car, to have good bank balance, to be giving nice charity, to read nice tips, to have all nice ( amm..) facilities ah..! People would think yes, very great, he is very attractive.
 
The next opulence is strength
Some people they work on hours and hours and hours in a day lifting weights and running miles and miles and miles and spending exuberant amount of money on health clubs, in just training in all sorts of athletics, ah…! Just so that, they will be very attractive, by their opulence of strength. There is another opulence,
 
The opulence of fame,
Some people go to any thing for fame. Some musicians have set and for years and years and years and years out of practice 10,15 and 20 hours a day just for they become famous as great musicians, or famous authors or famous business man. (ah)
People struggle, strive, the valuable energy the Godhead given us knowing that any one who is famous is very very attractive. People love to meet famous people, even if you hate them still you want to meet them, even if you think them as terrible crazy people (ah..!) just like the president of the united states… even in united states no body likes him but to have your picture taken with him (Ah) you would put it in a very prominent place in your office, your house, your car every where just see… I have met some one famous. But he is a rascal nobody likes him, that doesn’t matter… he is famous (Ah…! ) so you become very attractive if you are famous, whatever you may be. And
The next opulence is renunciation,
Some people they…they give up their homes, they give up all the luxuries of the life, they sleep under the ground, they…they just wear one little piece of cloth, they beg for food, just so that people would be attracted to them to be very, very renounced. Just see I am so detached I am so wonderful I am so great (Ah ). So these are the six kinds of opulence’s. That everyone in this world aspires for and every one in this world is attracted to these six kinds of opulence’s. But Krsna, Bhagwan is even possesses these six kinds of opulence’s in full unlimitedly and simultaneously, if you have all knowledge, if you know everything past, present and future, know the part of every living being’s heart, and know everything that ever been has said by anyone in the history of the world, and everything that is going to be said in the history of creation, if you have that type of knowledge, then you are God. If you do not have that type of knowledge, forget this idea that you can ever become God, if you have all wealth, if you are the proprietor of everything that exists, if you have all strength, if you have all fame, and all beauty then you are God. This is Krishna. Krishna is the proprietor, and the only proprietor of all these opulence’s in full. And Krsna explains in the Gita, that if anything in this world has even one tiny bit of fragment of the part of my opulence they become very great. But all that opulence is coming from me; it is mine;
mame vanso jiv loke jive bhut sanatana.
We are all part of Krsna, therefore, we all have to be very infinite decimal portion we can manifest the opulence of God. But an intelligent person, rather then trying to imitate Krsna, or compete with Krsna, simply wants to love Krsna, that Krsna already possesses all opulence’s in full then why not just glorify Him, than glorifying my infinite decimal little abilities. Instead of being attracted to all little partials of attractive features of this world, why not just surrender our consciousness to love and appreciate the supreme opulence of Krsna. It is only when our consciousness learns to revive our original nature which is to be utterly attracted by Krsna, can we find the real peace, and real … moment, because the fact is all Krsna’s opulence’s are unlimited and eternal and our love and attraction would be eternal and unlimited only when we learn how to love Krsna. This is the goal of life. To simply know how to be attracted to Krsna. And that is the real reason krsna consciousness in this world to teach us how to be attracted to His supreme opulence, and to reveal His supreme opulence in such a way that makes all others simply insignificant that we can not do anything but surrender our life and love to the Supreme Lord. So in this wonderful incarnation Nar-Narayan rishi is displaying His Supreme opulence of renunciation. ( Vairagya,). He appeared at Badrikashram or often called Badrinath. Many of you had been there. It is one of the four Dhams in the Himalayas. Kedarnath, Yamunotri, Gangotri, and Badrinath. And many wonderful incidents took place here at Badrinath. It is a very austere place you know, seven months in a year human beings cannot even go there, because it is covered by so much snow that all the roads are blocked, and it is so very cold. This is the place that the Supreme Lord Shri Krsna decided to incarnate. And He performed tapasya, it is said by Lord RishabDev
Nayam deho deha-bhajam nrloke,
kastan Kaman arhate vid-bhujam ye
Tapo divyam putrakaa yen satvam,
shuddhyed yasmad brahma-saukhyam tv anantam
That now that you have attained this valuable human form of life, please krsna says “Do not waste looking for the objects of the senses and sense gratification, whatever form of sense gratification you have will never satisfy you because sense gratification is available for the dogs and the hogs that eat stool. (Ah!) Hari bol. Human form of life is meant for tapasya,to voluntarily give up this sense gratification for higher purpose of self realization, because only through divine consciousness can we experience real joy and real peace. So Nar-Narayan rishi were performing such a type of austerity, such a type of tapasya and thru tapasya we attain power, even in the material sense we read in the scriptures, of all these great, great demons, the greatest materialist in the history of this planet, who were they? Hiranyakasipu, hiranyaksa, Ravana, Kansa (Ah!).They had so much wealth, they had so much power, they had so much everything …control. From where did they get it off from …Tapasya. Hiranyakasipu performed so much tapasya. Ravana so much tapasya…kamsa and in this way they became very, very, very great. So even in the material sense without tapasya, you can not achieve anything great The most wealthiest, the most famous, the most strong the most attractive people in this world are the people, who work very, very, very hard and are willing to give up so much to attain that. That also in spiritual life, there is no possibility of any real spiritual advancement without tapasya, without forsaking certain comforts and luxuries of the life for the purpose of higher realization, a higher attainment. human form of life is meant for only one purpose, tapasya…to become Krsna conscious. Just like in our Krsna consciousness movement, our guru maharaj shrila Prabhupada his divine grace tell us the minimum tapasya is to follow these four regulative principles; no illicit sex, no intoxication, no gambling , no meat eating. These are the basic austerities of no meat eating, no gambling, no intoxication, no illicit sex, if you follow these principles Prabhupada told us, than you attain a position of being a human being, until you follow these principles, you are essentially an animal. (Ah!).Human life is meant for tapasya, when you perform these tapasya, you are human and if you want to attain divine consciousness, than you every day you hear the Shrimad Bhagwatam and every day chant the holy names of the Lord. HARE KRSNA HARE KRSNA KRSNA KRSNA HARE HARE, HARE RAM HARE RAM RAM RAM HARE HARE. This chanting of the Holy name becomes the tapasya, when we do it on every single day……no matter what, even if we have to give up our eating or our sleeping, even if we have to give up talking over the telephone with our friends, even if we have to give up watching television, even if we have to give up..(Ah..!)…whatever else you do, some how or other you must chant regulated with discipline and attentively the holy names of Krsna. And you must hear the Bhagawatam, and you must associate with sadhus regularly, even if it is difficult, even if you have to drive long distances even if you rather sit at home and relax,(Ah..!) there are so many things you could be doing but simply accept this principles of chanting the Holy names, associating with sadhus, hearing the Bhagawatam, giving the portion of our wealth for the betterment of mankind as a tapasya. charity, without performing these activities there is no real spiritual advancement and the more we do it in such way that it gives us a little pain, the more we advanced, that is Krsna. Consciousness. So the Lord came and He performed such tapasya that no one had ever seen and by His tapasya He was getting tremendous power tremendous spiritual and material trance. Austerity creates character in devotee’s life. He said a devotee without character couldn’t do any thing substantially. Sense gratification ruins our character, sense gratification dwindles the dignity of our spirituality in every respect but when we are willing to execute the order of our guru and do the will of God even when it hurts, even when it’s a great difficulty, it creates substance, dignity, and character in our life, it is that character which impresses other human being and attracts the heart of God. Nar-narayan rishi, the austerity they performed and explained in the 11th canto of Shrimad-Bhagawatam. How they were fasting, how they were standing in one place through the winters of Badrinath and the type of concentration that they were exerting in their meditation, within comparison, no human being could possibly do it for millions and millions and millions of births. So Indra the king of the demigods, he became very much frightened because you know, the more you have the more you fear, why, because the more you have to loose, and more people want what you have. What do I have to loose (laughs) I mean if anyone wants to steal this cloth, someone give me another one, no problems, that is what really I have. So if you don’t have much you have not much to loose, therefore you don’t have much to worry about, and be afraid of, and to protect, but the more you have the more you always suspicious, if this person likes me or likes what I have. Ah..!. If this person saying this because he wants something out of me, or he is saying because he really means it. (Ah…!).When people say some thing, what is that academe, if they don’t like me, they tell me “ you are a rascal, they like me they say Hari bol. (Laughs), everything simple the more you have, the more complicated your life becomes. Not only are you suspicious with everybody, even your family members some times, you be into doubt about their motives, but you also just have so much to protect, so much to maintain, becomes the great burden, all types of security devices, all types of sophisticated locking systems, in so many places, guards …(Ah ..! ) all sorts of work to be maintain that you have. Of course, if you are Krsna consciousness then you accept that all of these things belong to Krsna and you are protecting them on behalf of Krsna and you are preserving them on behalf of Krsna, then you actually become joyful, becomes your expression of love every time you lock a door you are thinking oh..! Krsna is doing it for you, Hari bol. And you do it without fear solace, this is Krsna consciousness. You can have all these things but if you are not using them for your own sense enjoyments but you are using it for the service of the Lord, then you can have them but not be entangled by the bondage, and that is the real art of living, detachment.Whether you are a multimillionaire or whether you are a sanyasi living under a tree, if you are detached, whatever you have, you don’t have, you would be joyful in your life, and if you are attached then you must suffer, you must be fearful, suspicious, and life becomes unbearable. So usually the more you have in material consciousness, the more you fear because the more you think someone is trying to get what you have. And Indra had so much and any time anyone getting great power he is thinking, he must be getting those power because he wants to steal away whatever I have, my wealth ,my fortune, me wife(Ah…!) just like if a man has an ugly wife, he doesn’t really care if anyone looks at her or not but if a man has a beautiful wife, any man, if looks at her he is thinking why is he looking at my wife. (laughs ) I don’t have any personal experiences, but this is what I have heard, (someone in the audience- “ you have rightly heard”)Ah…!, I have rightly heard….! Just because that is in the scriptures (laughs ) we are only repeating God’s words. So in this way the better you have the more you become very fearful. So Indra has all these Apsaras dancing around him. He has all these wonderful, wonderful palaces, and so many services. So Nar-Narayan rishis, when they were doing their tapasya, Indra was convinced that they want my wife, they want my apsara ladies, they want my wealth, they want my position, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing this tapasya, not like this. So he decided that I am going to destroy his tapasya. I am going to make him immoral, and once he becomes immoral, he is going to loose all his spiritual strength. Because saintly people, you know, spiritual people when they engaged in immoral activities, they loose all the credit of their spirituality, of all their discipline and tapasya of the many years, its lost. At least, its on pause,(laughs), its on hold, until we revive that consciousness. So indra sent for kamdev, you all know who the kamdev is, you all know, whether you know it or not, because he is controlling this whole world. And he is controlling all our lives, Kamdev is in the English language is known as cupid and he is the god of material attachment, any sexual attraction that we have within our hearts, it is by the influence of this demigod by the name as Kamdev. So he is the supreme master in this world of material desires(han..) Kamdev, he never fails, so he went to Nar-Narayan rishi on the order of Indra “ I want you to make this man falls from his discipline”. So kames invited with Indra’s help, the most beautiful, beautiful possible ladies, heavenly damsels, not that females creatures of this world, heavenly dams, you may think that our women are beautiful but compare to the heavenly damsels, they are like rats and cockroaches, they are nothing. To us they are beautiful but heavenly damsels, of course, the devotees; their heads are beautiful but physically its all relative very insignificant. So there, these most beautiful, magnificent heavenly damsels, when they perspire its like the sweetest perfume, when they breath they completely intoxicate your consciousness. You become intoxicated like drugs just by smelling their breath, and they don’t even brush their teeth or use mouth wash or anything like that natural.. ha (laughs). Don’t have to speak; even if they lift one of their eyebrows, people fell unconscious. This is the power of their beauty. Anyways, we don’t have to meditate on this too much…(ha…)(laughs). So any way they do all these things but when they are dancing you can imagine how they dance, their ankle bells their bangle, when they are dancing in so many amorous gestures, and they were singing, it is explained, the sound of their voice was like ambrosial necter. And meanwhile, while all this was going on, they were all circled around Nar-Narayan rishi, doing all this dancing and singing, and just breathing and everything Ha..! And meanwhile Kamdev he created a most beautiful, beautiful surroundings, he turn this terribly cold snow atmosphere into a paradise. … Where there was lotus flowers and jasmine flowers just blooming and gentle cool breezes carrying the fragrance, and sweet auspicious Birds .chip…chip…chip singing on wonderful auspicious trees, and lakes and gardens and water falls. He created such. Heavenly environment that it would be impossible for anyone to resist, from being sensually attracted. The Nar-Narayan rishi just continued his tapasya, cupid was helpless, what to do, what am I to do, even shot the arrow of lust of kama into the heart of Nar-Narayan rishi. So Nar-Narayan rishi, opened his eyes and He looked around and He saw this heavenly paradise surroundings and He saw these most beautiful, beautiful heavenly damsels, and He laughed, ha..ha..ha. What is this? He then…. From his body came heavenly damsels, that made heavenly damsels looked like rats and cockroach’s…. Ah.. and all the heavenly damsels were thinking, my ..ooooh.. We compare to them. And Kamdev saw, my god! this is the Supreme Personality of Godhead . How can we attract Him, within Him is all opulence, we are trying to attract Him with the opulence’s of this world, this material world, but within Him are all opulence’s are in full. He is just revealing a little tiny particle of His opulence, and which is billions and trillions time greater than any thing in this world. So cupid became very much afraid that because I have done this just to make Him fall down, He might try to destroy me, so he was very much afraid and all the apsaras, were all bowing down… please forgive us. Nar-Narayan rishi looked at them, just laughed, he did not take all this nonsense seriously …this childishness, I know indra has sent you. in fact, you can take one of these nice ladies, her name is Urvahi, and you can give her to Indra, tell him this is the donation, tell him I don’t care for anything for his heavenly opulence and wealth, its all is a source of bondage, entanglement, and sufferings, so let him keep it. In this way he demonstrated how much He was not only detached but even detached from anger which is one of the hardest thing to control. So why did nar-narayan rish performed this wonderful pastime, Shrila Prabhupada explains in this purport, simply to show special favors to the fallen souls of this world and the two most important instructions, is one by this examples we should know that the tapasya must be performed and two, that we should know that if we have Krsna, then we have everything, everything is contained within Krsna ……
Rupa goswami said “ if you can purchase Krsna in the market place, give everything you have. You will not be the looser you will gain millions and billions and trillions time over.” There is nothing so precious, there is nothing so strifness as realization of Krsna. Love for Krsna , the beautiful darshan of Krsna. Who is seen within our heart, Krsna is within heart of every living being, He is also be seen within every atom, and greatest poverty is to not see Him, to not feel Him, to not know Him, to not love Him. And the only real wealth, and the only real fortune in whole of this creation is realization of Krsna, love for Krsna. Experience of Krsna in our lives. Every thing that we are looking for, in every thing we are pursuing in life, the fulfillment of that desire can only be had in Krsna. We are searching after a man, we are searching after woman, we are searching after money, we are searching after fame, we are searching after strength, we are searching after security. We are searching after so many things in this world; we are searching after nice food. But the fulfillment of all of our searching will only be had when we learn to search for all of those things in Krsna and Krsna alone. There is no other way, therefore whatever activities we have and whatever duties and occupation we have in life in whatever our direction, we must perform our work for the pleasure and service of Krsna. That is the perfection of our life. And how merciful Krsna is, that He has manifested all of His glory and opulence’s within the sound of his holy name, simply by chanting Krsna’s name, we can experience all the power, the glory, the beauty, all the sweetness of the Absolute Truth. Therefore Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has said that the chanting of the Holy name of Krsna is the prime, the supreme benediction for all humanity. Because it awaken, our original natural consciousness, anandam, budhi vardhanam pratipadam purnamrta swadanam. It gives that bliss the pleasure, the joy that we are searching for through out our life. Therefore all of the great acharyas and in all of the great scriptures claim unanimously that the wealthiest, the most fortunate of all beings, is that person who relishes the Holy name of Krsna, who knows the importance of the chanting the name of Krsna. Who, every day take the shelter of the name of Krsna. That person is most fortunate, he is the wealthiest, the greatest of all persons. Because everything, everything that exist in all its glory is contained within the name of Krsna. If you have Krsna, you have everything, if you do not have Krsna…all you have is in illusion of bondage. So therefore, Krsna must be our first priority in life, Krsna must be the goal of everything we do ….. And the purpose of whatever we dedicated our life to whether it be our jobs, whether it be our families, whether it be our puja, it is all for Krsna. So therefore, the greatest of all the tapasya is to regularly chant the Holy name of Krsna with attention. What Nar-Narayan rishi demonstrated by living in Himalayas, what great jogis attempt to attain by fasting, by living in the mountains in the winter, living in the caves, by sitting without sleep without food in full concentration, restraining their senses following strict celibacy rules, what those persons can not attain after a life time of such practices, you can attain living in your own home if you simply learn how to properly chant the Holy names of Krsna. Vishvamitra muni performed such tapasya and he could create a great power but he fell victim to Maya because he didn’t fix-up his consciousness on the name of God. But Haridas thakur, his only tapasya was to simply chant the holy names every day regulated, and even Maya herself became his disciple. This is the power and glory of the Holy names of Krsna. Is there anything more worthy anything more valuable, anything greater to dedicate our lives to than this? So therefore every day we must put a certain time aside to attentively with great feeling in devotion chant the holy names HARE KRSNA HARE KRSNA KRSNA KRSNA HARE HARE, HARE RAM HARE RAM RAM RAM HARE HARE. And it is so simple, even these beautiful little children, they can perfect their lives by chanting the names of Krsna. So let us follow in the footsteps of these young children and with great enthusiasm and devotion