Text 31
kva śoka-mohau sneho vā
bhayaṁ vā ye ’jña-sambhavāḥ
kva cākhaṇḍita-vijñāna-
jñānaiśvaryas tv akhaṇḍitaḥ
kva — where; śoka — lamentation; mohau — and bewilderment; snehaḥ — material affection; vā — or; bhayam — fear; vā — or; ye — those which; ajñā — out of ignorance; sambhavāḥ — born; kva ca — and where, on the other hand; akhaṇḍita — infinite; vijñāna — whose perception; jñāna — knowledge; aiśvaryaḥ — and power; tu — but; akhaṇḍitaḥ — the infinite Supreme Lord.
How can lamentation, bewilderment, material affection or fear, all born out of ignorance, be ascribed to the infinite Supreme Lord, whose perception, knowledge and power are all similarly infinite?
Śrīla Prabhupāda writes: “Lamentation, aggrievement and bewilderment are characteristics of conditioned souls, but how can such things affect the person of the Supreme, who is full of knowledge, power and all opulence? Actually, it is not at all possible that Lord Kṛṣṇa was misled by the mystic jugglery of Śālva. He was displaying His pastime of playing the role of a human being.”
All the great Bhāgavatam commentators conclude that grief, illusion, attachment and fear, which arise out of ignorance of the soul, can never be present in the transcendental dramatic pastimes enacted by the Lord. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī gives many examples from Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes to illustrate this point. For instance, when the cowherd boys entered the mouth of Aghāsura, Lord Kṛṣṇa was apparently astonished. Similarly, when Brahmā took away Lord Kṛṣṇa’s cowherd boyfriends and calves, the Lord at first began to look for them as if He did not know where they were. Thus the Lord plays the part of an ordinary human being so as to relish transcendental pastimes with His devotees. One should never think the Personality of Godhead is an ordinary person, as Śukadeva Gosvāmī explains in this and the following verse.