Text 23
na yaṁ vidanty amī bhū-pā
ekārāmāś ca vṛṣṇayaḥ
māyā-javanikācchannam
ātmānaṁ kālam īśvaram
na — not; yam — whom; vidanti — know; amī — these; bhū-pāḥ — kings; eka — together; ārāmāḥ — who enjoy; ca — and; vṛṣṇayaḥ — the Vṛṣṇis; māyā — of the divine power of illusion; javanikā — by the curtain; ācchannam — covered; ātmānam — the Supreme Soul; kālam — time; īśvaram — the supreme controller.
Neither these kings nor even the Vṛṣṇis, who enjoy Your intimate association, know You as the Soul of all existence, the force of time and the supreme controller. For them You are covered by the curtain of Māyā.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī explains that Lord Kṛṣṇa’s family, the Vṛṣṇis, were too familiar with Him to realize that He is the Supersoul residing in the heart of every created being. And those kings at Kurukṣetra who were not devotees of Kṛṣṇa could not recognize Him as time, the annihilator of everything. Devotees and nondevotees are both covered by Māyā, but in different ways. For the materialists Māyā is illusion, but for the Vaiṣṇavas she acts as Yoga-māyā, the internal potency who covers their awareness of the Supreme Lord’s majesty and engages them in His eternal pleasure pastimes.