Devanagari
यथा मत्स्यादिरूपाणि धत्ते जह्याद् यथा नट: ।
भूभार: क्षपितो येन जहौ तच्च कलेवरम् ॥ ३५ ॥
Verse text
yathā matsyādi-rūpāṇi
dhatte jahyād yathā naṭaḥ
bhū-bhāraḥ kṣapito yena
jahau tac ca kalevaram
Synonyms
yathā
—
as much as
;
matsya
—
ādi — incarnation as a fish, etc.
;
rūpāṇi
—
forms
;
dhatte
—
eternally accepts
;
jahyāt
—
apparently relinquishes
;
yathā
—
exactly like
;
naṭaḥ
—
magician
;
bhū
—
bhāraḥ — burden of the world
;
kṣapitaḥ
—
relieved
;
yena
—
by which
;
jahau
—
let go
;
tat
—
that
;
ca
—
also
;
kalevaram
—
body .
Translation
The Supreme Lord relinquished the body which He manifested to diminish the burden of the earth. Just like a magician, He relinquishes one body to accept different ones, like the fish incarnation and others.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Just as the Lord maintains forms such as Matsya and gives them up, and just as a magician makes a show of giving up his body, the Lord made a show of giving up his body by which he relieved the burden of the earth.
Purport
The Supreme Lord Personality of Godhead is neither impersonal nor formless, but His body is nondifferent from Him, and therefore He is known as the embodiment of eternity, knowledge and bliss. In the
Bṛhad-vaiṣṇava Tantra
it is clearly mentioned that anyone who considers the form of Lord Kṛṣṇa to be made of material energy must be ostracized by all means. And if by chance the face of such an infidel is seen, one must clean himself by jumping in the river with his clothing. The Lord is described as
amṛta,
or deathless, because He has no material body. Under the circumstances, the Lord’s dying or quitting His body is like the jugglery of a magician. The magician shows by his tricks that he is cut to pieces, burnt to ashes or made unconscious by hypnotic influences, but all are false shows only. Factually the magician himself is neither burnt to ashes nor cut to pieces, nor is he dead or unconscious at any stage of his magical demonstration. Similarly, the Lord has His eternal forms of unlimited variety, of which the fish incarnation, as was exhibited within this universe, is also one. Because there are innumerable universes, somewhere or other the fish incarnation must be manifesting His pastimes without cessation. In this verse, the particular word
dhatte
(“eternally accepted,” and not the word
dhitvā,
“accepted for the occasion”) is used. The idea is that the Lord does not create the fish incarnation; He eternally has such a form, and the appearance and disappearance of such an incarnation serves particular purposes. In the
Bhagavad-gītā
(7.24-25) the Lord says, “The impersonalists think that I have no form, that I am formless, but that at present I have accepted a form to serve a purpose, and now I am manifested. But such speculators are factually without sharp intelligence. Though they may be good scholars in the Vedic literatures, they are practically ignorant of My inconceivable energies and My eternal forms of personality. The reason is that I reserve the power of not being exposed to the nondevotees by My mystic curtain. The less intelligent fools are therefore unaware of My eternal form, which is never to be vanquished and is unborn.” In the
Padma Purāṇa
it is said that those who are envious and always angry at the Lord are unfit to know the actual and eternal form of the Lord. In the
Bhāgavatam
also it is said that the Lord appeared like a thunderbolt to those who were wrestlers. Śiśupāla, at the time of being killed by the Lord, could not see Him as Kṛṣṇa, being dazzled by the glare of the
brahmajyoti.
Therefore, the temporary manifestation of the Lord as a thunderbolt to the wrestlers appointed by Kaṁsa, or the glaring appearance of the Lord before Śiśupāla, was relinquished by the Lord, but the Lord as a magician is eternally existent and is never vanquished in any circumstance. Such forms are temporarily shown to the
asuras
only, and when such exhibitions are withdrawn, the
asuras
think that the Lord is no more existent, just as the foolish audience thinks the magician to be burnt to ashes or cut to pieces. The conclusion is that the Lord has no material body, and therefore He is never to be killed or changed by His transcendental body.
Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Like a magician, Kṛṣṇa displayed a false show of giving up of his own body. The Lord maintains (datte) various forms and gives them up. He does not assume forms and then give them up. Even when he gives up these forms, he still has these forms. That is the meaning. How can one understand this? Just as a magician (naṭaḥ) gives up his body by cutting it, burning it or losing consciousness, and shows this to all people and makes them believe it, and still maintains his body and does not die, the Lord maintains his forms such as Matsya, and while maintaining gives them up also. Just as the magician still has his body and the giving up of the body is illusion, so Lord has real forms such as Matsya and giving them up is illusory. And just as the Lord maintains various forms and produces the illusion of giving them up, in giving up that body by which he removed the burden of the earth, Kṛṣṇa did not give up his body. That is an illusion. The Lord does not take on a form of a human like an actor, though he is brahman in human form, since his body is not material. In Mahābhārata it is said na bhūta-saṅgha-saṁsthāno deho ’sya paramātmanaḥ: the body of the Lord is not associated with material elements. Viṣṇu Purāṇa says:
yo vetti bhautikaṁ dehaṁ kṛṣṇasya paramātmanaḥ |
sa sarvasmād bahiḥ kāryaḥ śrauta-smārta-vidhānataḥ |
mukhaṁ tasyāvalokyāpi sa-cailaḥ snānam ācared ||
He who thinks that Kṛṣṇa’s body is material should be excluded from all actions of śruti and smṛti. If one sees him one should bathe with one’s clothes on.
In Vaiśampāyana-sahasra-nāma-stotra the Lord is called amṛtāṁśo ’mṛta-vapur: he has a body which is immortal; he has limbs which are immortal. In his commentary Śaṅkarācārya says amṛtaṁ maraṇa-rahitaṁ vapur: amṛta means that his body is without death. There is another meaning of jahyāt. Jahyāt means “he gives up” and but it also implies (by giving up) “he gives or bestows.” The Lord bestows forms like Nārāyaṇa who had entered his body when he appeared on earth to the devotees situated in Vaikuṇṭha and other spiritual abodes for nourishing them. This is explained at the end of the Eleventh Canto.