tvam eka Ädyaḥ puruá¹£o 'dvitÄ«yas
turyaḥ sva-dṛg dhetur ahetur īśaḥ
pratÄ«yase 'thÄpi yathÄ-vikÄraá¹
sva-mÄyayÄ sarva-guṇa-prasiddhyai
tvam - You; ekaḥ - one; Ädyaḥ - original; puruá¹£aḥ - Supreme Person; advitÄ«yaḥ - without a second; turyaḥ - transcendental; sva-dá¹›k - self-manifesting; hetuḥ - the cause; ahetuḥ - having no cause; Ä«Å›aḥ - the supreme controller; pratÄ«yase - You are perceived; atha api - nonetheless; yathÄ - according to; vikÄram - various transformations; sva - by Your own; mÄyayÄ - illusory potency; sarva - of all; guṇa - material qualities; prasiddhyai - for the complete manifestation.
You are the original person, one without a second, transcendental and self-manifesting. Uncaused, you are the cause of all, and You are the ultimate controller. You are nonetheless perceived in terms of the transformations of matter effected by Your illusory energy — transformations You sanction so that the various material qualities can fully manifest.
The ÄcÄryas comment as follows on this verse: ÅšrÄ«la ÅšrÄ«dhara SvÄmÄ« explains that the term Ädyaḥ puruá¹£aḥ, “the original puruá¹£a,†indicates that Lord Kṛṣṇa expands Himself as MahÄ-Viṣṇu, the first of the three puruá¹£as who take charge of cosmic manifestation. The Lord is eka advitÄ«yaḥ, “one without a second,†because there is no one equal to the Lord or different from Him. No one is completely equal to the Supreme Godhead, and yet because all the living beings are expansions of the potency of the Godhead, no one is qualitatively different from Him. ÅšrÄ« Caitanya MahÄprabhu nicely explains this inconceivable situation by stating that the Absolute Truth and the living beings are qualitatively one but quantitatively different. The Absolute possesses infinite spiritual consciousness, whereas the living beings possess infinitesimal consciousness, which is subject to being covered by illusion.
ÅšrÄ«la JÄ«va GosvÄmÄ«, commenting on the term Ädyaḥ puruá¹£aḥ, quotes from the SÄtvata-tantra: viṣṇos tu trīṇi rÅ«pÄṇi. “There are three forms of Viṣṇu [for cosmic manifestation, etc.].†ŚrÄ«la JÄ«va GosvÄmÄ« also quotes a statement of the Lord’s from Å›ruti: pÅ«rvam evÄham ihÄsam. “In the beginning I alone existed in this world.†This statement describes the form of the Lord called the puruá¹£a-avatÄra, who exists before the cosmic manifestation. ÅšrÄ«la JÄ«va GosvÄmÄ« also quotes the following Å›ruti-mantra: tat-puruá¹£asya puruá¹£atvam, which means “Such constitutes the Lord’s status as puruá¹£a.†Actually, Lord Kṛṣṇa is the essence of the puruá¹£a incarnation because He is turÄ«ya, as described in the present verse. JÄ«va GosvÄmÄ« explains the term turÄ«ya (literally “the fourthâ€) by quoting ÅšrÄ«dhara SvÄmī’s commentary to the BhÄgavatam verse 11.15.16:
virÄá¹ hiraṇyagarbhaÅ› ca
kÄraṇaá¹ cety upÄdhayaḥ
Ä«Å›asya yat tribhir hÄ«naá¹
turÄ«yaá¹ tad vidur budhÄḥ
“The Lord’s universal form, His Hiraṇyagarbha form and the primeval causal manifestation of material nature are all relative conceptions, but because the Lord Himself is not covered by these three, intelligent authorities call Him ‘the fourth.’â€
According to ÅšrÄ«la ViÅ›vanÄtha CakravartÄ«, the word turÄ«ya indicates that the Lord is the fourth member of the quadruple expansion of Godhead called the Catur-vyÅ«ha. In other words, Lord Kṛṣṇa is VÄsudeva.
Lord Kṛṣṇa is sva-dṛk — that is, He alone can perceive Himself perfectly — because He is infinite spiritual existence, infinitely pure. He is hetu, the cause of everything, and yet He is ahetu, without cause. Therefore He is īśa, the supreme controller.
The last two lines of this verse are of special philosophical significance. Why is the Lord perceived differently by different persons, although He is one? A partial explanation is given here. By the agency of MÄyÄ, the Lord’s external potency, material nature is in a constant state of transformation, vikÄra. In one sense, then, material nature is “unreal,†asat. But because God is the supreme reality, and because He is present within all things and all things are His potency, material objects and energies possess a degree of reality. Therefore some people see one aspect of material energy and think, “This is reality,†while other people see a different aspect of material energy and think, “No, that is reality.†Being conditioned souls, we are covered by different configurations of material nature, and thus we describe the Supreme Truth or the Supreme Lord in terms of our corrupted vision. Yet even the covering qualities of material nature, such as our conditioned intelligence, mind and senses, are real (being the potency of the Supreme Lord), and therefore through all things we can perceive, in a more or less subjective way, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is why the present verse states, pratÄ«yase: “You are perceived.†Furthermore, without the manifestation of material nature’s covering qualities, the creation could not fulfill its purpose — namely, to allow the conditioned souls to make their best attempt to enjoy without God so that they will finally understand the futility of such an illusory notion.
