Devanagari
मायाजवनिकाच्छन्नमज्ञाधोक्षजमव्ययम् ।
न लक्ष्यसे मूढदृशा नटो नाट्यधरो यथा ॥ १९ ॥
Verse text
māyā-javanikācchannam
ajṣādhokṣajam avyayam
na lakṣyase mūḍha-dṛśā
naṭo nāṭyadharo yathā
Synonyms
māyā
—
deluding
;
javanikā
—
curtain
;
ācchannam
—
covered by
;
ajṣā
—
ignorant
;
adhokṣajam
—
beyond the range of material conception (transcendental)
;
avyayam
—
irreproachable
;
na
—
not
;
lakṣyase
—
observed
;
mūḍha
—
dṛśā — by the foolish observer
;
naṭaḥ
—
artist
;
nāṭya
—
dharaḥ — dressed as a player
;
yathā
—
as .
Translation
Being beyond the range of limited sense perception, You are the eternally irreproachable factor covered by the curtain of deluding energy. You are invisible to the foolish observer, exactly as an actor dressed as a player is not recognized.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
I do not know you, covered by the screen of māyā, beyond the knowledge of the material senses, and unaffected, just as the puppeteer behind the screen moving the puppets is not understood by the eyes of the ignorant.
Purport
In the
Bhagavad-gītā
Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa affirms that less intelligent persons mistake Him to be an ordinary man like us, and thus they deride Him. The same is confirmed herein by Queen Kuntī. The less intelligent persons are those who rebel against the authority of the Lord. Such persons are known as
asuras.
The
asuras
cannot recognize the Lord’s authority. When the Lord Himself appears amongst us, as Rāma, Nṛsiṁha, Varāha or in His original form as Kṛṣṇa, He performs many wonderful acts which are humanly impossible. As we shall find in the Tenth Canto of this great literature, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa exhibited His humanly impossible activities even from the days of His lying on the lap of His mother. He killed the Pūtanā witch, although she smeared her breast with poison just to kill the Lord. The Lord sucked her breast like a natural baby, and He sucked out her very life also. Similarly, He lifted the Govardhana Hill, just as a boy picks up a frog’s umbrella, and stood several days continuously just to give protection to the residents of Vṛndāvana. These are some of the superhuman activities of the Lord described in the authoritative Vedic literatures like the
Purāṇas, Itihāsas
(histories) and
Upaniṣads.
He has delivered wonderful instructions in the shape of the
Bhagavad-gītā.
He has shown marvelous capacities as a hero, as a householder, as a teacher and as a renouncer. He is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead by such authoritative personalities as Vyāsa, Devala, Asita, Nārada, Madhva, Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Jīva Gosvāmī, Viśvanātha Cakravartī, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī and all other authorities of the line. He Himself has declared as much in many places of the authentic literatures. And yet there is a class of men with demoniac mentality who are always reluctant to accept the Lord as the Supreme Absolute Truth. This is partially due to their poor fund of knowledge and partially due to their stubborn obstinacy, which results from various misdeeds in the past and present. Such persons could not recognize Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa even when He was present before them. Another difficulty is that those who depend more on their imperfect senses cannot realize Him as the Supreme Lord. Such persons are like the modern scientist. They want to know everything by their experimental knowledge. But it is not possible to know the Supreme Person by imperfect experimental knowledge. He is described herein as
adhokṣaja,
or beyond the range of experimental knowledge. All our senses are imperfect. We claim to observe everything and anything, but we must admit that we can observe things under certain material conditions only, which are also beyond our control. The Lord is beyond the observation of sense perception. Queen Kuntī accepts this deficiency of the conditioned soul, especially of the woman class, who are less intelligent. For less intelligent men there must be such things as temples, mosques or churches so that they may begin to recognize the authority of the Lord and hear about Him from authorities in such holy places. For less intelligent men, this beginning of spiritual life is essential, and only foolish men decry the establishment of such places of worship, which are required to raise the standard of spiritual attributes for the mass of people. For less intelligent persons, bowing down before the authority of the Lord, as generally done in the temples, mosques or churches, is as beneficial as it is for the advanced devotees to meditate upon Him by active service.
Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Since internally, you protected the child in the womb of Uttarā and externally you protect us by being near us, should I understand that you are all pervading? I do not know. That is expressed in this verse.
“You are covered by the curtain (javanikā) of māyā.”
“Then māyā covers me?”
“It is like the fool who thinks that the sun is covered by a cloud. I see you as covered because my vision is covered by māyā, because you are beyond sense knowledge (adhokṣajam). Sense knowledge (akṣajam jṣānam) is situated below you (adhaḥ). I do not have the power to contact you, since my knowledge arises from my senses, like the knowledge of a fool. But even if despicable people like me do not know you, there is no loss for you. You remain unaffected by this (avyayam).
“But you see me directly and praise me. You know that I am beyond prakṛti. Then why do you criticize yourself as being ignorant?”
Though the dancer is endowed with rhythms and dance steps suitable to the rasa, the ignorant spectator, ignorant of the scriptures delineating performance, sees only a dancer dancing. Though he sees, he does not really see. Similarly though I see you, I really do not see you. The word tathā (similarly) should be understood from the context. Though you protect the Pāṇḍavas, your devotees, since you are the soul within all of us constantly, you personally counteracted a weapon of Aśvatthāmā meant for killing the Pāṇḍavas. Though you promised not to use weapons, you took up a weapon. Though you protect the righteous, you had Bhīṣma and other righteous persons destroyed. Though you are most affectionate to Draupadī and Subhadrā, you let their sons be killed. I do not know the truth about your pastimes.