Text 19
dvaipāyano bhagavān aprabodhād
buddhas tu pāṣaṇḍa-gaṇa-pramādāt
kalkiḥ kaleḥ kāla-malāt prapātu
dharmāvanāyoru-kṛtāvatāraḥ
dvaipāyanaḥ — Śrīla Vyāsadeva, the giver of all Vedic knowledge; bhagavān — the most powerful incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; aprabodhāt — from ignorance of the śāstra; buddhaḥ tu — also Lord Buddha; pāṣaṇḍa-gaṇa — of atheists creating disillusionment for innocent persons; pramādāt — from the madness; kalkiḥ — Lord Kalki, the incarnation of Keśava; kaleḥ — of this Kali-yuga; kāla-malāt — from the darkness of the age; prapātu — may He protect; dharma-avanāya — for the protection of religious principles; uru — very great; kṛta-avatāraḥ — who took an incarnation.
May the Personality of Godhead in His incarnation as Vyāsadeva protect me from all kinds of ignorance resulting from the absence of Vedic knowledge. May Lord Buddhadeva protect me from activities opposed to Vedic principles and from laziness that causes one to madly forget the Vedic principles of knowledge and ritualistic action. May Kalkideva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who appeared as an incarnation to protect religious principles, protect me from the dirt of the Age of Kali.
This verse mentions various incarnations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead who appear for various purposes. Śrīla Vyāsadeva, Mahāmuni, compiled the Vedic literature for the benefit of all human society. If one wants to be protected from the reactions of ignorance even in this Age of Kali, one may consult the books left by Śrīla Vyāsadeva, namely the four Vedas (Sāma, Yajur, Ṛg and Atharva), the 108 Upaniṣads, Vedānta-sūtra (Brahma-sūtra), Mahābhārata, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Mahā-Purāṇa (Vyāsadeva’s commentary on the Brahma-sūtra) and the other seventeen Purāṇas. Only by the mercy of Śrīla Vyāsadeva do we have so many volumes of transcendental knowledge to save us from the clutches of ignorance.
As described by Śrīla Jayadeva Gosvāmī in his Daśāvatāra-stotra, Lord Buddha apparently decried the Vedic knowledge:
nindasi yajña-vidher ahaha śruti-jātaṁ
sadaya-hṛdaya-darśita-paśu-ghātam
keśava dhṛta-buddha-śarīra jaya jagad-īśa hare
The mission of Lord Buddha was to save people from the abominable activity of animal killing and to save the poor animals from being unnecessarily killed. When pāṣaṇḍīs were cheating by killing animals on the plea of sacrificing them in Vedic yajñas, the Lord said, “If the Vedic injunctions allow animal killing, I do not accept the Vedic principles.” Thus he actually saved people who acted according to Vedic principles. One should therefore surrender to Lord Buddha so that he can help one avoid misusing the injunctions of the Vedas.
The Kalki avatāra is the fierce incarnation who vanquishes the class of the atheists born in this Age of Kali. Now, in the beginning of Kali-yuga, many irreligious principles are in effect, and as Kali-yuga advances, many pseudo religious principles will certainly be introduced, and people will forget the real religious principles enunciated by Lord Kṛṣṇa before the beginning of Kali-yuga, namely principles of surrender unto the lotus feet of the Lord. Unfortunately, because of Kali-yuga, foolish people do not surrender to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Even most people who claim to belong to the Vedic system of religion are actually opposed to the Vedic principles. Every day they manufacture a new type of dharma on the plea that whatever one manufactures is also a path of liberation. Atheistic men generally say, yata mata tata patha. According to this view, there are hundreds and thousands of different opinions in human society, and each opinion is a valid religious principle. This philosophy of rascals has killed the religious principles mentioned in the Vedas, and such philosophies will become increasingly influential as Kali-yuga progresses. In the last stage of Kali-yuga, Kalkideva, the fierce incarnation of Keśava, will descend to kill all the atheists and will save only the devotees of the Lord.