A reading lens over the Bhagavatam, not a passage of it
The descents of the Lord
अवतार
Boar, man-lion, dwarf and fish: the Lord comes down in whatever form the age needs, and Krishna is the Lord himself (1.3.28).
Where the text shows it
The sages' questions at Naimisharanya — Skandha 1, adhyayas 1-3 — Gathered for a thousand-year sacrifice, the sages ask Suta one question: what is the single good that serves everyone?
The gatekeepers of Vaikuntha are cursed — Skandha 3, adhyayas 15-16 — Four child-sages are stopped at Vaikuntha's seventh gate, and the two guards who stopped them must be born three times as demons.
Varaha raises the earth — Skandha 3, adhyayas 13; 17-19 — A boar no bigger than a thumb leaps from Brahma's nostril, grows to fill the sky, and dives into the ocean for the sunken earth.
Prithu milks the earth — Skandha 4, adhyayas 15-23 — Born from a dead tyrant's arm, the first consecrated king chases the earth as a cow until she agrees to give her milk.
Narasimha appears from the pillar — Skandha 7, adhyayas 8-10 — 'Is he in this pillar?' The king strikes it, and the Lord comes out in a form the boon never thought to forbid.
The churning of the ocean — Skandha 8, adhyayas 5-12 — Gods and demons churn the milk ocean together, and the first thing that rises is a poison only Shiva will drink.
Vamana and Bali — Skandha 8, adhyayas 15-23 — A dwarf asks a generous king for three steps of land, and the king keeps his word after learning who the dwarf is.
The fish and the flood — Skandha 8, adhyaya 24 — A tiny fish begs a king for protection, outgrows every pot, pond and lake, and then carries him through the end of the world.
Rama's life in two chapters — Skandha 9, adhyayas 10-11 — The whole Ramayana told in two chapters — and what the Bhagavatam chooses to stress when it has room for so little.
Krishna is born in Kamsa's prison — Skandha 10, adhyayas 1-4 — A voice warns Kamsa that Devaki's eighth child will kill him; six die, and the eighth is carried across the Yamuna at midnight.
Akrura, Mathura and Kamsa — Skandha 10, adhyayas 38-44 — The man sent to bring Krishna to his death is a devotee, and the journey to Mathura ends with Kamsa's fall.
Who embodies it
Krishna — Not one avatar among many but 'the Lord himself' (1.3.28) — and the tenth book spends ninety chapters on his single life.
Kapila — An avatar born to teach his mother: Sankhya as the Bhagavatam gives it, ending in devotion rather than in analysis.
Prithu — A king drawn out of a tyrant's body who made the earth level and fruitful — and gave the earth her name, Prithvi.
Rama — The Bhagavatam tells his life in two chapters, in the solar line between Bhagiratha and the kings after him.
