Text 34
ṛṣaya ūcuḥ
ananvitaṁ te bhagavan viceṣṭitaṁ
yad ātmanā carasi hi karma nājyase
vibhūtaye yata upasedur īśvarīṁ
na manyate svayam anuvartatīṁ bhavān
ṛṣayaḥ — the sages; ūcuḥ — prayed; ananvitam — wonderful; te — Your; bhagavan — O possessor of all opulences; viceṣṭitam — activities; yat — which; ātmanā — by Your potencies; carasi — You execute; hi — certainly; karma — to such activities; na ajyase — You are not attached; vibhūtaye — for her mercy; yataḥ — from whom; upaseduḥ — worshiped; īśvarīm — Lakṣmī, the goddess of fortune; na manyate — are not attached; svayam — Yourself; anuvartatīm — to Your obedient servant (Lakṣmī); bhavān — Your Lordship.
The sages prayed: Dear Lord, Your activities are most wonderful, and although You do everything by Your different potencies, You are not at all attached to such activities. You are not even attached to the goddess of fortune, who is worshiped by the great demigods like Brahmā, who pray to achieve her mercy.
In Bhagavad-gītā it is said that the Lord has no desire to achieve any result from His wonderful activities, nor has He any need to perform them. But still, in order to give an example to people in general, He sometimes acts, and those activities are very wonderful. He is not attached to anything. Na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti: although He acts very wonderfully, He is not at all attached to anything (Bg. 4.14). He is self-sufficient. The example is given here that the goddess of fortune, Lakṣmī, is always engaged in the service of the Lord, but still He is not attached to her. Even great demigods like Brahmā worship the goddess of fortune in order to win her favor, but although the Lord is worshiped by many hundreds and thousands of goddesses of fortune, He is not at all attached to any one of them. This distinction concerning the exalted transcendental position of the Lord is specifically mentioned by the great sages: He is not like the ordinary living entity, who is attached to the results of pious activities.