Devanagari
को वेत्ति भूमन् भगवन् परात्मन्
योगेश्वरोतीर्भवतस्त्रिलोक्याम् ।
क्व वा कथं वा कति वा कदेति
विस्तारयन्क्रीडसि योगमायाम् ॥ २१ ॥
Verse text
ko vetti bhūman bhagavan parātman
yogeśvarotīr bhavatas tri-lokyām
kva vā kathaṁ vā kati vā kadeti
vistārayan krīḍasi yoga-māyām
Synonyms
kaḥ
—
who
;
vetti
—
knows
;
bhūman
—
O supreme great one
;
bhagavan
—
O Supreme Personality of Godhead
;
para
—
ātman — O Supreme Soul
;
yoga
—
īśvara — O master of mystic power
;
ūtīḥ
—
the pastimes
;
bhavataḥ
—
of Your Lordship
;
tri
—
lokyām — in the three worlds
;
kva
—
where
;
vā
—
or
;
katham
—
how
;
vā
—
or
;
kati
—
how many
;
vā
—
or
;
kadā
—
when
;
iti
—
thus
;
vistārayan
—
expanding
;
krīḍasi
—
You play
;
yoga
—
māyām — Your spiritual energy .
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.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
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.
KB 10.14.21
“O my Lord, O all-pervading Supreme Personality of Godhead, O Supersoul, controller of all mystic powers, no one can appreciate Your transcendental pastimes as they are exhibited within these three worlds. No one can estimate how You have expanded Your yogamāyā and Your incarnations and how You act by Your transcendental energy.
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.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
You were born as Krsna to relieve the burden of the universe, and you appeared as Rama to kill Ravana. As the white, red, black and syama avataras you institute religion. The purpose is not to defeat the false jnanis. Actually no one can fully understand where you will appear, the purpose, the time, and the number of appearances that you will make. Unlimited Lord, cause of all causes, if Your transcendental body were not beyond the modes of material nature, one could not understand the difference between matter and transcendence. Only by Your presence can one understand the transcendental nature of Your Lordship, the controller of material nature. Your transcendental nature is very difficult to understand unless one is influenced by the presence of Your transcendental form. O form spread throughout the universe (bhuman)! O bhagavan! though you spread throughout matter, you are still full of your six opulences. Though you are full of all opulence you also expand to witness everything as Paramatma. O yogesvara, because of your yogamaya, you display such powers. Who can understand Your pastimes (uti) performed throughout the three worlds (trailokyam)? Why? Where? How? When? Your form is unlimited, spread throughout the universe, full of all opulences. It is not material but everywhere in the three worlds. But how is it possible to satisfy simultaneously all your devotee at all times with pastimes? This can happen because of yogamaya. By your inconceivable energy , yogamaya carries out the work of presenting various pastimes to various worshipers at the suitable time.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
After describing everything, Brahmā speaks with respect. O unlimited Lord (bhūman)! O supreme person endowed with all powers (bhagavān)! O soul with all beings, or the cause of all beings (parātman)! O Lord, spreading yourself over all time by your innate power of yoga (yogeśvara)! Who knows how or when your pastimes (utīḥ) will occur? You alone know the location of all the unrestricted pastimes since you are unrestricted (bhūman). You alone know how these pastimes take place since you are endowed with all powers (bhagavān). You alone know the quantity of these pastimes since you are Paramātmā. You know when they will occur since you spread over all time (yogeśvara). The cause of all this is yogamāyā, your great svarūpa-śakti.
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
“Among your avatāras is there not one that performs actions like a normal person of this world?” Who knows you? You are unlimited (bhuman). You are endowed with all powers (bhagavān). You reside within all beings (paramātman). You can do the impossible (yogeśvara). In the sequence of names of the Lord, they are gradually more difficult to comprehend and show the greater excellence of the Lord.
You spread yoga-māyā. This is a special śakti of the Lord, which is endowed with eternity, knowledge and bliss. Thus his pastimes (ūtīḥ) are real. This is explained in Bhāgavatāmṛta.
Or yoga-māyā can mean mercy (māyā) endowed with power (yoga) shown to devotees. Your activities cannot be understood because they are unlimited and filled with your powers.
Or why are so many materialists seen even today? Who can know your activities? They are generally bewildered since your pastimes are difficult to understand, being spread with yogamāyā. That is suitable because you are bhūman, bhagavan, parātman and yogeśvara.
Since the lord is inconceivable, his pastimes are inconceivable. That is the conclusion. The ignorant must surrender to your devotees for gaining knowledge of your pastimes. By this they are delivered and by nothing else.