Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 10.14.21
Īśānukathā· The Lord and His devoteesOne Supreme Lord, Many Spiritual Manifestations
“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.”
What the purport teaches
- The Lord’s incarnations do not degrade Him. His activities take place through His spiritual potency, whose workings no conditioned soul can fully understand.
- He is Bhagavān, the supremely beautiful personality enjoying loving pastimes in His abode. He is also Paramātmā, the all-pervading Supersoul who witnesses and sanctions the activities of conditioned souls.
- As the master of all mystic potencies, the one Supreme Lord manifests His greatness in many ways. Pride in bodily identity and material intelligence carries one away from knowledge of Him.
Try this today
Read the translation slowly once, acknowledging that Kṛṣṇa’s spiritual potency exceeds your ability to fully explain it.
Ask yourself
Where might pride in your own understanding make it harder to learn about Kṛṣṇa?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
From Canto 10, chapter 14 onward, the translation and purports were completed by Śrīla Prabhupāda's disciples after his departure, and published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.