ko vetti bhÅ«man bhagavan parÄtman
yogeÅ›varotÄ«r bhavatas tri-lokyÄm
kva vÄ kathaá¹ vÄ kati vÄ kadeti
vistÄrayan krÄ«á¸asi yoga-mÄyÄm
kaḥ - who; vetti - knows; bhÅ«man - O supreme great one; bhagavan - O Supreme Personality of Godhead; para-Ätman - O Supreme Soul; yoga-īśvara - O master of mystic power; Å«tīḥ - the pastimes; bhavataḥ - of Your Lordship; tri-lokyÄm - in the three worlds; kva - where; vÄ - or; katham - how; vÄ - or; kati - how many; vÄ - or; kadÄ - when; iti - thus; vistÄrayan - expanding; krÄ«á¸asi - You play; yoga-mÄyÄm - Your spiritual energy.
BrahmÄ previously stated that Lord Kṛṣṇa incarnates among the demigods, human beings, animals, fish and so on. This does not mean, however, that the Lord is degraded by His incarnations. As BrahmÄ clarifies here, no conditioned soul can understand the transcendental nature of the Lord’s activities, which He enacts through His spiritual potency. Although the Lord is bhÅ«man, the supremely great one, He is still BhagavÄn, the supremely beautiful personality exhibiting pastimes of love in His own abode. At the same time He is ParamÄtmÄ, the all-pervading Supersoul, who witnesses and sanctions all the activities of conditioned souls. The Lord’s multiple identity is explained by the term yogeÅ›vara. The Absolute Truth is the master of all mystic potencies, and although He is one and supreme, He manifests His greatness and opulence in many different ways.
Such elevated spiritual matters can hardly be understood by foolish persons primitively identifying themselves with the insignificant material body. These conditioned souls, such as atheistic scientists, consider their own puffed-up intelligence supreme. Gullibly placing their firm faith in material illusion, they are captured by the modes of nature and driven far away from knowledge of God.