यद्रूपमेतन्निजमाययार्पित
मर्थस्वरूपं बहुरूपरूपितम् ।
सङ्ख्या न यस्यास्त्ययथोपलम्भनात्
तस्मै नमस्तेऽव्यपदेशरूपिणे ॥३१॥

yad-rÅ«pam etan nija-mÄyayÄrpitam
artha-svarūpaṠbahu-rūpa-rūpitam
saá¹…khyÄ na yasyÄsty ayathopalambhanÄt
tasmai namas te 'vyapadeśa-rūpiṇe

 yat - of whom; rÅ«pam - the form; etat - this; nija-mÄyayÄ arpitam - manifested by Your personal potency; artha-svarÅ«pam - this entire visible cosmic manifestation; bahu-rÅ«pa-rÅ«pitam - manifested in various forms; saá¹…khyÄ - the measurement; na - not; yasya - of which; asti - there is; ayathÄ - falsely; upalambhanÄt - from perceiving; tasmai - unto Him (the Supreme Lord); namaḥ - my respectful obeisances; te - unto You; avyapadeÅ›a - cannot be ascertained by mental speculation; rÅ«piṇe - whose real form.


Text

My dear Lord, this visible cosmic manifestation is a demonstration of Your own creative energy. Since the countless varieties of forms within this cosmic manifestation are simply a display of Your external energy, this virÄá¹­-rÅ«pa [universal body] is not Your real form. Except for a devotee in transcendental consciousness, no one can perceive Your actual form. Therefore I offer my respectful obeisances unto You.

Purport

MÄyÄvÄdÄ« philosophers think the universal form of the Lord to be real and His personal form illusory. We can understand their mistake by a simple example. A fire consists of three elements: heat and light, which are the energy of the fire, and the fire itself. Anyone can understand that the original fire is the reality and that the heat and light are simply the fire’s energy. Heat and light are the formless energies of fire, and in that sense they are unreal. Only the fire has form, and therefore it is the real form of the heat and light. As Kṛṣṇa states in Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ (9.4), mayÄ tatam idaá¹ sarvaá¹ jagad avyakta-mÅ«rtinÄ: “By Me, in My unmanifested form. this entire universe is pervaded.†Thus the impersonal conception of the Lord is like the expansion of heat and light from a fire. In Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ the Lord also says, mat-sthÄni sarva-bhÅ«tÄni na cÄhaá¹ teá¹£v avasthitaḥ: the entire material creation is resting on Kṛṣṇa’s energy, either material, spiritual or marginal, but because His form is absent from the expansion of His energy, He is not personally present. This inconceivable expansion of the Supreme Lord’s energy is called acintya-Å›akti. Therefore no one can understand the real form of the Lord without becoming His devotee.