Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.84.17
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
-
anīhaḥ
—
exerting no endeavor
a- (not) + īhā (effort). Bhagavān creates without straining. Gauḍīyas read this as a marker of His aiśvarya: His will is enacted directly, without the labor that conditioned beings require to produce anything.
-
ekaḥ
—
alone, one
Bhagavān creates alone — without a second agent. Personalist reading: not impersonal oneness, but one Person acting from His own Self. Gauḍīyas insist that the One here is Kṛṣṇa as svayaṁ-bhagavān, not a featureless Brahman.
-
bhaumaiḥ
—
by the transformations of earth
From bhūmi (earth). The pots, pillars, idols. The famous Upaniṣadic analogy compressed into one ablative. Gauḍīyas use it to show that the world's variety is not an illusion — it is a transformation of the substrate, distinguishable from but not separable from the substrate.
-
viḍambanam
—
a pretense, mimicry
From vi + √ḍamb (to mock, mimic). Bhagavān's humanlike activity is viḍambana — He plays at being conditioned. Gauḍīyas treat this as the doctrinal description of nara-līlā: the form is imitative; the Person within is unaffected.
The one Supreme expands Himself as many without diminishing His completeness. He does this effortlessly, without depending on anyone or anything else. This mystic process of the Lord’s self-expansion is incomprehensible to all but Himself, but the example of the substance earth and its manifold products bears enough resemblance to provide some idea. The same example is also presented in an often-cited passage of the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (6.1), vācārambhaṇaṁ vikāro nāmadheyaṁ mṛttikety eva satyam: “Earth’s transformations are merely verbal creations of the process of naming; the substance earth itself is alone real.” Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī suggests that this verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam answers a possible objection on the part of Lord Kṛṣṇa: “How can I create, maintain and destroy the universe if I am Vasudeva’s son?” The answer is given by the words aho vibhūmnaś caritaṁ viḍambanam: “You are the perfectly complete whole, and Your birth and pastimes are only an imitation of ordinary persons’ activities in the material world. You simply pretend to be under higher control.”
Both show of power and hiding your powers are beyond comprehension. The Lord creates this universe (etat) by himself (atmana) with many forms, but is not bound. Though the lord is one (ekah) he becomes the universe with many names and forms, just as earth is one, but becomes many as a pot or cloth. Amazing (aho) are the actions of the completely perfect lord (vibhumnah), appearing to be a controlled jiva by worshipping the sages. But it is only a pretense of being a controlled jiva (vidambanam).
This happens all the time, not just now. You are one, without assistance. By yourself, without the assistance of another cause, by your svarūpa, you create and destroy even the whole universe, but you are without change (anīhaḥ) by action or by transformation. There is great variety (bahudhā) by manifestation of many different universes and various times. You are complete in yourself (vibhumnaḥ). Therefore your actions mock our intelligence (viḍambanam), since you possess acintya-śakti. Śrutes tu śabda-mūlatvāt: contradictions in the Lord are explained by scripture alone. (Brahma-sūtra 2.1.27)
The Lord is without action (anīhaḥ), unlike the potter in making the pot. Just by his desire things are accomplished. Or he has not purpose in creating the variegated universe (anīhaḥ). Alone you create by yourself (ātmanā). You are not dependent on anyone else. But you are not bound up by karma. It is just like (yathā) earth manifesting many names and forms with transformations. Aho indicates joy. The actions of the complete Lord (vibhūmnaḥ) are a pretense. “If he is complete why does he flee from Jarāsandha?” That is the pretense. By such activities he deceives the demons. Or the Lord is not at all bound up (yathā) because (hi) even earth with its names and forms is not bound by its products (bhaumaiḥ). It is not transformed. “What is the purpose in my creating the universe?” It is for the benefit of the jīvas. The activities of creation and destruction (caritam) are for supporting (vilambanam) all the jīvas. The letter L can be substituted for Ḍ.
- Do I receive God's intimacy as a casual grace or as His staggering choice?
- How does the bigness of God deepen rather than diminish the sweetness of His closeness?
The element earth, going about its single business of being earth, becomes a pot, a pillar, a wall, a road, a Deity, a corpse, without ceasing to be earth. So Bhagavān, in His ekatva, sends forth the variegated worlds and reabsorbs them without being snagged by any of it. The pot does not entangle the clay.
The Chāndogya (6.1.4) uses the same image — yathā saumya ekena mṛt-piṇḍena sarvaṁ mṛn-mayaṁ vijñātaṁ syāt — by knowing one lump of clay, all earthen things are known.
Gauḍīyas read the Upaniṣad's image through acintya-bhedābheda: the names and forms are real (not māyā in the Advaitin sense), and yet the substratum is one Person. The verse here applies that image to Bhagavān's līlā.
My note
Source: vedabase.io