Shloka 31
Varṣa-devatā Worship in Jambūdvīpa: Hayagrīva/Hayaśīrṣa, Nṛsiṁha, Kāmadeva (Pradyumna), Matsya, Kūrma, and Varāha
यद्रूपमेतन्निजमाययार्पित- मर्थस्वरूपं बहुरूपरूपितम् । सङ्ख्या न यस्यास्त्ययथोपलम्भनात्- तस्मै नमस्तेऽव्यपदेशरूपिणे ॥ ३१ ॥
yad-rūpam etan nija-māyayārpitam artha-svarūpaṁ bahu-rūpa-rūpitam saṅkhyā na yasyāsty ayathopalambhanāt tasmai namas te ’vyapadeśa-rūpiṇe
ഹേ പ്രഭോ! ഈ ദൃശ്യമായ വിശ്വപ്രകടനം നിങ്ങളുടെ സ്വന്തം മായയാൽ പ്രകടമായ സൃഷ്ടിശക്തിയുടെ പ്രകടനമാത്രമാണ്. ഇതിലെ അനന്തവിധ രൂപങ്ങൾ നിങ്ങളുടെ ബാഹ്യശക്തിയുടെ ലീല; അതുകൊണ്ട് ഈ വിരാട്-രൂപം നിങ്ങളുടെ യഥാർത്ഥ സ്വരൂപമല്ല. ഭക്തനെ ഒഴികെ ആരും നിങ്ങളുടെ സത്യസ്വരൂപം യഥാർത്ഥമായി ഗ്രഹിക്കുകയില്ല. അതിനാൽ, വാക്കുകൾക്കപ്പുറമായ സ്വരൂപനേ, നമസ്കാരം।
Māyāvādī philosophers think the universal form of the Lord to be real and His personal form illusory. We can understand their mistake by a simple example. A fire consists of three elements: heat and light, which are the energy of the fire, and the fire itself. Anyone can understand that the original fire is the reality and that the heat and light are simply the fire’s energy. Heat and light are the formless energies of fire, and in that sense they are unreal. Only the fire has form, and therefore it is the real form of the heat and light. As Kṛṣṇa states in Bhagavad-gītā (9.4) , mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā: “By Me, in My unmanifested form. this entire universe is pervaded.” Thus the impersonal conception of the Lord is like the expansion of heat and light from a fire. In Bhagavad-gītā the Lord also says, mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ: the entire material creation is resting on Kṛṣṇa’s energy, either material, spiritual or marginal, but because His form is absent from the expansion of His energy, He is not personally present. This inconceivable expansion of the Supreme Lord’s energy is called acintya-śakti. Therefore no one can understand the real form of the Lord without becoming His devotee.
FAQs
This verse teaches that the Lord, who is the essence of all reality, manifests innumerable forms by His own māyā, and His manifestations cannot be fully counted or confined by human estimation.
In this chapter the residents of Jambūdvīpa glorify the Supreme Lord through His protective Nṛsiṁha form, emphasizing that even when He appears in a specific form, His true nature remains unlimited and beyond complete verbal definition.
It encourages humility in knowledge—using names, forms, and practices to worship sincerely, while remembering that the Divine cannot be reduced to rigid labels, sectarian limits, or purely intellectual definitions.