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Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.10.36
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A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT 36
- sa vācya-vācakatayā
- bhagavān brahma-rūpa-dhṛk
- nāma-rūpa-kriyā dhatte
- sakarmākarmakaḥ paraḥ
saḥHe — He; vācyaby His forms and activities — by His forms and activities; vācakatayāby His transcendental qualities and entourage — by His transcendental qualities and entourage; bhagavānthe Personality of Godhead — the Personality of Godhead; brahmaabsolute — absolute; rūpaby accepting visible forms-dhṛkby accepting visible forms — by accepting visible forms; nāmaname — name; rūpaform — form; kriyāpastimes — pastimes; dhatteaccepts — accepts; saengaged in work-karmaengaged in work — engaged in work; akarmakaḥwithout being affected — without being affected; paraḥtranscendence — transcendence.
He, the Personality of Godhead, manifests Himself in a transcendental form, being the subject of His transcendental name, quality, pastimes, entourage and transcendental variegatedness. Although He is unaffected by all such activities, He appears to be so engaged.
Whenever there is a need of material creation, the transcendental Personality of Godhead accepts forms in the material world for creation, maintenance and destruction. One should be intelligent enough to know His activities in truth and not be biased to conclude that He descends to the material world by accepting a form created by material nature. Any form accepted from the material nature has its affection for everything done in the material world. A conditioned soul who accepts a material form for undergoing a certain term of material activities is subjected to the laws of matter. But here in this verse it is clearly stated that although the forms and activities of the Lord appear to be the same as those of a conditioned soul, they are supernatural and impossible for the conditioned soul. He, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is always unaffected by such activities. In the Bhagavad-gītā (BG 4.14, Not yet available in the library. Try the live source.) the Lord says:
- na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti
- na me karma-phale spṛhā
- iti māṁ yo 'bhijānāti
- karmabhir na sa badhyate
The Lord is never affected by the activities which He apparently performs by His different incarnations and personalities, nor does He have any desire to achieve success by fruitive activities. The Lord is full by His different potencies of wealth, strength, fame, beauty, knowledge and renunciation, and thus He has no reason for physical exertion like the conditioned soul. Therefore an intelligent person who can distinguish between the transcendental activities of the Lord and the activities of the conditioned souls is also not bound by the reactions of activities. The Lord as Viṣṇu, Brahmā and Śiva conducts the three modes of material nature. From Viṣṇu is born Brahmā, and from Brahmā is born Śiva. Sometimes Brahmā is a separated part of Viṣṇu, and sometimes Brahmā is Viṣṇu Himself. Thus Brahmā creates the different species of life all over the universe, which means that the Lord creates the whole manifestation either by Himself or through the agency of His authorized deputies.