Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.14.17
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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kukṣau
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in (Your) belly
Locative of kukṣi. The same belly that held universes for Yaśodā (verse 16). The Bhāgavatam's poetic geometry: aiśvarya internalized, mādhurya externalized — both Kṛṣṇa.
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sa-ātmam
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along with (Your) own Self
Compound: sa (with) + ātman. Brahmā stipulates that even You are inside Your kukṣi — the Vaiṣṇava paradox of immanence. Kṛṣṇa is the only entity who can be inside Himself without contradiction.
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māyayā vinā
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without (Your) inconceivable energy
Phrase: māyā (energy/illusion) + vinā (without). Brahmā concedes the impossibility and assigns it to acintya-śakti. The Gauḍīya category: what reason cannot fit, śakti accomplishes.
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iha
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here, externally
Adverb — 'here in this world'. The external manifestation. Paired with kukṣau (inside) to set up the inside/outside identity that only acintya-śakti can resolve.
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tvayi
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in You
Locative of tvam. The whole universe rests 'in You' — locative not of physical containment but of ontological dependence. The verse is grammar-as-tattva.
Śrīla Prabhupāda comments on this verse as follows in Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead: “Lord Brahmā stressed herein that without accepting the inconceivable energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one cannot explain things as they are.”
Since the external universe and that within the Lord’s belly are exactly the same, the one within his belly must be one created by the illusion of the Lord. Just as the universe (idam) within your belly which became visible, the external universe also remained visible when you showed the universal form to your mother. Was the universe exhibited within your belly a reflection of the external universe? --How can that be? The universe was there along with you. Can a reflection of a mirror be seen in a mirror? An illusory external universe was visible within your belly. As the universe visible within your belly contained you, so the external universe also contained you. Because there was not even a trace of difference between the two universes, the universe within your belly (idam) could not exist without the work of maya. Taking your mother’s realization and mine as proof, I conclude that I exist within you by your yogamaya potency. And therefore I pray, please forgive me for offense, as a mother forgives her child who kicks her while he is in the womb.
This is further explained. The whole universe with its coverings (yasya), which appeared within your abdomen along with you, exists within you in this form (iha). Since this is incomprehensible, without māyā how is this possible? It is not possible without having some relationship to you. Therefore this universe is not spiritual like you.
“That can be his manifestation of maya, as a shadow. But this world is always directly experienced as true.” The whole universe appeared along with you inside you. Or “The world manifested in side is real. The world manifested outside is real. Cannot both be true?” If the two forms are actually one like an object and its reflection, then it amounts to an illusion. Or the one form is also false, since the variety in the universe cannot be proved by experience or scripture. Though many varieties were said to exist in SB 10.14.11, by saying that everything is real, material things become equal to the lord and his spiritual objects. That is not proper. This will also be contrary to the words of śruti and smṛti, and contrary to the devotees’s experiences of falsity in dreams and fantasies. Everything should be false. This verse replies.
- Where in my spiritual life am I refusing to accept acintya and demanding mechanical explanation?
- What part of my faith would deepen if I let some things just remain incomprehensibly His?
A jeweller takes a single ruby and shows it lying on a velvet cloth; then he points to the same ruby's reflection multiplied in a thousand mirrors. Both are the same gem — one inside, one outside. Kṛṣṇa's body is the ruby; the universe is both the inner light and the outer reflection. The continuity is acintya-śakti.
My note
Source: vedabase.io