Srimad-Bhagavatam: Canto 10 - Chapter 1 - Verse 21


Sanskrit:

को वेत्ति भूमन् भगवन् परात्मन्योगेश्वरोतीर्भवतस्त्रिलोक्याम् ।क्‍व वा कथं वा कति वा कदेतिविस्तारयन्क्रीडसि योगमायाम् ॥ २१ ॥

ITRANS:

ko vetti bhūman bhagavan parātmanyogeśvarotīr bhavatas tri-lokyāmkva vā kathaṁ vā kati vā kadetivistārayan krīḍasi yoga-māyām

Translation:

O supreme great one! O Supreme Personality of Godhead! O Supersoul, master of all mystic power! Your pastimes are taking place continuously in these three worlds, but who can estimate where, how and when You are employing Your spiritual energy and performing these innumerable pastimes? No one can understand the mystery of how Your spiritual energy acts.

Purport:

Brahmā previously stated that Lord Kṛṣṇa incarnates among the demigods, human beings, animals, fish and so on. This does not mean, however, that the Lord is degraded by His incarnations. As Brahmā clarifies here, no conditioned soul can understand the transcendental nature of the Lord’s activities, which He enacts through His spiritual potency. Although the Lord is bhūman, the supremely great one, He is still Bhagavān, the supremely beautiful personality exhibiting pastimes of love in His own abode. At the same time He is Paramātmā, the all-pervading Supersoul, who witnesses and sanctions all the activities of conditioned souls. The Lord’s multiple identity is explained by the term yogeśvara. The Absolute Truth is the master of all mystic potencies, and although He is one and supreme, He manifests His greatness and opulence in many different ways. Such elevated spiritual matters can hardly be understood by foolish persons primitively identifying themselves with the insignificant material body. These conditioned souls, such as atheistic scientists, consider their own puffed-up intelligence supreme. Gullibly placing their firm faith in material illusion, they are captured by the modes of nature and driven far away from knowledge of God.