Devanagari
जन्म कर्म च विश्वात्मन्नजस्याकर्तुरात्मन: ।
तिर्यङ्नृषिषु याद:सु तदत्यन्तविडम्बनम् ॥ ३० ॥
Verse text
janma karma ca viśvātmann
ajasyākartur ātmanaḥ
tiryaṅ-nṝṣiṣu yādaḥsu
tad atyanta-viḍambanam
Synonyms
janma
—
birth
;
karma
—
activity
;
ca
—
and
;
viśva
—
ātman — O soul of the universe
;
ajasya
—
of the unborn
;
akartuḥ
—
of the inactive
;
ātmanaḥ
—
of the vital energy
;
tiryak
—
animal
;
nṛ
—
human being
;
ṛṣiṣu
—
in the sages
;
yādaḥsu
—
in the water
;
tat
—
that
;
atyanta
—
veritable
;
viḍambanam
—
bewildering .
Translation
Of course it is bewildering, O soul of the universe, that You work, though You are inactive, and that You take birth, though You are the vital force and the unborn. You Yourself descend amongst animals, men, sages and aquatics. Verily, this is bewildering.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
O soul of the universe! You are unborn and perform no actions, but you take birth and perform activities in the forms of animals, men and aquatics. This is extremely deceptive.
Purport
The transcendental pastimes of the Lord are not only bewildering but also apparently contradictory. In other words, they are all inconceivable to the limited thinking power of the human being. The Lord is the all-prevailing Supersoul of all existence, and yet He appears in the form of a boar amongst the animals, in the form of a human being as Rāma, Kṛṣṇa, etc., in the form of a
ṛṣi
like Nārāyaṇa, and in the form of an aquatic like a fish. Yet it is said that He is unborn, and He has nothing to do. In the
śruti mantra
it is said that the Supreme Brahman has nothing to do. No one is equal to or greater than Him. He has manifold energies, and everything is performed by Him perfectly by automatic knowledge, strength and activity. All these statements prove without any question that the Lord’s activities, forms and deeds are all inconceivable to our limited thinking power, and because He is inconceivably powerful, everything is possible in Him. Therefore no one can calculate Him exactly; every action of the Lord is bewildering to the common man. He cannot be understood by the Vedic knowledge, but He can be easily understood by the pure devotees because they are intimately related with Him. The devotees therefore know that although He appears amongst the animals, He is not an animal, nor a man, nor a
ṛṣi,
nor a fish. He is eternally the Supreme Lord, in all circumstances.
Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Understanding the conclusions about your partiality or impartiality, your action or lack of action, your birth or lack of birth, one can relish your pastimes. You are born though you are unborn, and perform actions though you are not the doer. You manifest your attractive nature in various forms of animals, humans and aquatics. This is an extreme deception (atyanta-viḍambanam) since it appears that you lessen your stature by accepting inferior forms. When you accepted the boar incarnation you sniffed out the earth. Though you are omniscient and omnipotent, you became a real boar. But seeing that form, the knowers of the truth will not laugh and say that you are simply a mortal animal, thinking that you are a jīva under the control of karma. Since you are actually without birth and material action, your pastimes with birth and action must not actually be true. But this is incompatible with the fact that the pastimes were attractive to ātmārāmas like Śukadeva. However, from the statement of the Lord himself janma karma ca me divyam evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ: he who knows the truth nature of my birth and activities (BG 4.9), the Lord’s birth and activities are factual, not a fiction. This is incompatible with the statement that the Lord has no birth and no activities. Thus who can know the truth about the Lord possessing unlimited, inconceivable powers?