Devanagari
अतो भगवतो माया मायिनामपि मोहिनी ।
यत्स्वयं चात्मवर्त्मात्मा न वेद किमुतापरे ॥ ३९ ॥
Verse text
ato bhagavato māyā
māyinām api mohinī
yat svayaṁ cātma-vartmātmā
na veda kim utāpare
Synonyms
ataḥ
—
therefore
;
bhagavataḥ
—
godly
;
māyā
—
potencies
;
māyinām
—
of the jugglers
;
api
—
even
;
mohinī
—
enchanting
;
yat
—
that which
;
svayam
—
personally
;
ca
—
also
;
ātma
—
vartma — self-sufficient
;
ātmā
—
self
;
na
—
does not
;
veda
—
know
;
kim
—
what
;
uta
—
to speak of
;
apare
—
others .
Translation
The wonderful potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is bewildering even to the jugglers. That potency is unknown even to the self-sufficient Lord, so it is certainly unknown to others.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Thus, the Lord’s māyā bewilders all lower creatures, who are experts at enjoying māyā. Because the Lord himself does not know his own glories, what can be said of others?
“But one can see many persons who have seen the Lord, who can reveal it others.” For this reason (ataḥ), the Lord’s māyā bewilders those who have offered themselves completely to māyā (māyinām), becoming her students, and supposedly being able to give knowledge about her. Māyā certainly throws them constantly into the material realm. Because the Supreme Lord (svayam ātmā) does not know his own form (ātma-vartma), how can others then know him?
Purport
The froggish philosophers and mundane wranglers in science and mathematical calculation may not believe in the inconceivable potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they are sometimes puzzled by the wonderful jugglery of man and nature. Such jugglers and magicians of the mundane world are actually puzzled by the jugglery of the Lord in His transcendental activities, but they try to adjust their bewilderment by saying that it is all mythology. There is, however, nothing impossible or mythological in the Supreme Omnipotent Person. The most wonderful puzzle for the mundane wranglers is that while they remain calculating the length and breadth of the unlimited potency of the Supreme Person, His faithful devotees are set free from the bondage of material encagement simply by appreciating the wonderful jugglery of the Supreme in the practical field. The devotees of the Lord see the wonderful dexterity in everything with which they come in contact in all circumstances of eating, sleeping, working, etc. A small banyan fruit contains thousands of small seeds, and each seed holds the potency of another tree, which again holds the potency of many millions of such fruits as causes and effects. So the trees and seeds engage the devotees in meditation about the activities of the Lord, while the mundane wranglers waste time in dry speculation and mental concoction, which are fruitless in both this life and the next. In spite of their pride in speculation, they can never appreciate the simple activities of the banyan tree’s potency. Such speculators are poor souls destined to remain in matter perpetually.