Shloka 37
Avatāra-kathā — The Puruṣa, the Many Incarnations, and Kṛṣṇa as Svayam Bhagavān
न चास्य कश्चिन्निपुणेन धातु- रवैति जन्तु: कुमनीष ऊती: । नामानि रूपाणि मनोवचोभि: सन्तन्वतो नटचर्यामिवाज्ञ: ॥ ३७ ॥
na cāsya kaścin nipuṇena dhātur avaiti jantuḥ kumanīṣa ūtīḥ nāmāni rūpāṇi mano-vacobhiḥ santanvato naṭa-caryām ivājñaḥ
അल्पബുദ്ധിയുള്ള മൂഢർ സൂക്ഷ്മ വിവേചനത്താലും പ്രഭുവിന്റെ ദിവ്യസ്വഭാവം അറിയുകയില്ല. നാടകത്തിലെ നടനെപ്പോലെ അവൻ നാമരൂപലീലകൾ വ്യാപിപ്പിച്ചാലും, അവർ മനസ്സിലൂടെയോ വാക്കുകളിലൂടെയോ അതിനെ അറിയാനും പറയാനും കഴിയില്ല।
No one can properly describe the transcendental nature of the Absolute Truth. Therefore it is said that He is beyond the expression of mind and speech. And yet there are some men, with a poor fund of knowledge, who desire to understand the Absolute Truth by imperfect mental speculation and faulty description of His activities. To the layman His activities, appearance and disappearance, His names, His forms, His paraphernalia, His personalities and all things in relation with Him are mysterious. There are two classes of materialists, namely the fruitive workers and the empiric philosophers. The fruitive workers have practically no information of the Absolute Truth, and the mental speculators, after being frustrated in fruitive activities, turn their faces towards the Absolute Truth and try to know Him by mental speculation. And for all these men, the Absolute Truth is a mystery, as the jugglery of the magician is a mystery to children. Being deceived by the jugglery of the Supreme Being, the nondevotees, who may be very dexterous in fruitive work and mental speculation, are always in ignorance. With such limited knowledge, they are unable to penetrate into the mysterious region of transcendence. The mental speculators are a little more progressive than the gross materialists or the fruitive workers, but because they are also within the grip of illusion, they take it for granted that anything which has form, a name and activities is but a product of material energy. For them the Supreme Spirit is formless, nameless and inactive. And because such mental speculators equalize the transcendental name and form of the Lord with mundane names and form, they are in fact in ignorance. With such a poor fund of knowledge, there is no access to the real nature of the Supreme Being. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord is always in a transcendental position, even when He is within the material world. But ignorant men consider the Lord one of the great personalities of the world, and thus they are misled by the illusory energy.
FAQs
This verse says that even skilled analysis cannot fully grasp the Lord’s intentions; with limited intelligence we only construct mental and verbal descriptions that cannot capture His true purpose.
Because the Lord’s līlā can appear puzzling when judged materially—like an actor’s role—so an uninformed observer misreads it, while its deeper meaning remains beyond ordinary mind and speech.
Practice humility in interpretation: don’t assume you can fully judge divine arrangements; instead, cultivate bhakti, hear scripture, and focus on sincere service rather than overconfidence in speculation.