अजोऽपि सन्नव्ययात्मा भूतानामीश्वरोऽपि सन् |
प्रकृतिं स्वामधिष्ठाय सम्भवाम्यात्ममायया || 6||
ajo ’pi sannavyayātmā bhūtānām īśhvaro ’pi san
prakṛitiṁ svām adhiṣhṭhāya sambhavāmyātma-māyayā
ajaḥ—unborn; api—although; san—being so; avyaya ātmā—Imperishable nature; bhūtānām—of (all) beings; īśhvaraḥ—the Lord; api—although; san—being; prakṛitim—nature; svām—of myself; adhiṣhṭhāya—situated; sambhavāmi—I manifest; ātma-māyayā—by my Yogmaya power
Translation:
Though unborn and eternal in My being, the Lord and controller of all beings, controlling My own nature, I come into being by the power of My Maya-Sakti.
Commentary:
In the previous verse, the Lord said that He too had passed through several births. And now, in order to clear any misconception concerning the nature of this birth, the Lord explained the mystery and significance of his incarnation.
The common man takes birth as an effect of his own Karma. But the Lord has no such Karma to work out, and nothing has power over him. He is himself the Supreme Lord and master of the whole universe and rules over it by His mysterious power of Maya. Why then should he take birth? It is for the purpose of doing good to the world. He takes a form by His own will, using the power of Maya as His instrument. Three attributes of the Lord are mentioned here. He has no birth (Ajah). He is eternal (Avyayatma). He is the Supreme Lord of all beings (Bhutanam isvarah). From this, we understand that Lord Krishna is apparently the son of Devaki and Vasudeva, but really the Eternal Being, the Lord of the Universe.
Swami Vivekananda Says —
Then Krishna says, “O Arjuna, you and I have run the cycle of births and deaths many times, but you are not conscious of them all. I am without beginning, birthless, the absolute Lord of all creation. I through my own nature take form … .”[Source]
Devotee: “What is an Incarnation? Is he always conscious of his real nature ?”
Swami Saradananda: “Yes, he is always established in perfect knowledge. But according to his sweet will, he occasionally puts on the veil of Mâyâ.”
Devotee: “What is then the significance of his Sâdhana (spiritual exercises)?”
Swami Saradananda: “Putting on the veil of his own choice he feels wants like ordinary mortals. This explains Sâdhanâ etc. Do you know what others are like? They are like salt dolls which go to sound the depths of the sea. They get dissolved in the sea-water and never return.”
Devotee: “Maharaj, is it due to the difference in power or knowledge ?”
Swami Saradananda: “It is due to the difference in power (Shakti). You know what the Master said about it. Three men were taking a walk in a lawn. Suddenly they heard sweet sounds, music, etc. inside a big enclosure near the lawn. Finding no door to go into the enclosure, one of them fetched a ladder and got upon the wall with great difficulty. He saw to his amazement that there was a wonderful performance of dance, music, and the like. Overwhelmed with delight, he at once leapt inside without saying anything about this to his companions. The second man also went up and leapt in like the first. But the third behaved differently. Standing on the wall he also saw what was going on inside. But he considered, ‘Should I be so selfish as to enjoy this alone? No. Let me call others. Let them come and see and enjoy. So thinking, he descended, called many people together and told them of what he saw inside the walls. Incarnations are like this. It is due to difference in the manifestation of Shakti. It is a great heart alone that can share with others what it acquires after hard struggle. What a renunciation! What a patience! All these show the degrees of manifestation of power.” (Source: Spiritual Talks by the First Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna)
Swami Turiyananda: (To others) R. sometimes says very nice things. The other day he told me a dream of his. It seemed almost real and deeply impressed me.”
R., who was persuaded to recount it, said, “I dreamt that Shri Ramakrishna was very ill, and that the dissolution of his body was imminent. The disciples were very much cast down, and the Holy Mother was crying in an inner apartment. I had an idea in those days when I had this dream that a Divine Incarnation and man differed only in the degree of power. And as I stood before Shri Ramakrishna I thought within myself whether the love of his disciples could not induce him to preserve his body a little longer. No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than he said, ‘Look here, there is a great difference between God and men. Do you know what men are like? They are like persons walking a short distance into the waters of the ocean, reaching at most to the breakers with extreme difficulty and then coming back.’ And as he said this, I actually saw an infinite ocean spread before me, with men moving on the water, most of whom were very close to the sands, and only one or two had gone as far as the first breakers. Shri Ramakrishna continued, ‘But God can cross it and return in a moment’. And at once I saw him cross the sea and come back! He then said to me, ‘The mind of an Incarnation of God always tends towards the Infinite. Only a particle of His mind attends to the universe of which the devotees form a very minute portion indeed. How can they hold down my mind?’
“The Holy Mother also used to say the same thing. She once said, ‘My mind always wants to soar into the Infinite. I have to forcibly keep it down on a lower plane by various devices. They talk of my attachments! They do not know that I can in a moment sever all ties!'” (Source: Spiritual Talks by the First Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna)
Question: What is the nature of the Lord?
Answer: He is birthless, eternal, the controller of all beings, and the Lord of Maya.
Question: How then does He take birth as a personal being?
Answer: By controlling His nature, God incarnates Himself as a personal being by the power of His own Maya.
Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 4 🔻 (42 Verses)
