Text 21
sṛjasy atho lumpasi pāsi viśvaṁ
rajas-tamaḥ-sattva-guṇaiḥ sva-śaktibhiḥ
na badhyase tad-guṇa-karmabhir vā
jñānātmanas te kva ca bandha-hetuḥ
sṛjasi — You create; atha u — and then; lumpasi — You destroy; pāsi — You protect; viśvam — the universe; rajaḥ — known as passion; tamaḥ — ignorance; sattva — and goodness; guṇaiḥ — by the modes; sva-śaktibhiḥ — Your personal potencies; na badhyase — You are not bound; tat — of this world; guṇa — by the modes; karmabhiḥ — by the material activities; vā — or; jñāna-ātmanaḥ — who are knowledge itself; te — for You; kva ca — where at all; bandha — of bondage; hetuḥ — cause.
You create, destroy and also maintain this universe with Your personal energies — the modes of passion, ignorance and goodness — yet You are never entangled by these modes or the activities they generate. Since You are the original source of all knowledge, what could ever cause You to be bound by illusion?
The phrase jñānātmanas te kva ca bandha-hetuḥ, “Since You are constituted of knowledge, what could be a cause of bondage for You?” definitely indicates the obvious, that the omniscient Supreme God is never in illusion. Therefore the impersonalistic theory that we are all God but have forgotten and are now in illusion is refuted here in the pages of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.