Like a magician, Krsna displayed a false show of giving up of his own body. The Lord maintains (datte) various forms and gives them up. He does not assume forms and then give them up. Even when he gives up these forms, he still has these forms. That is the meaning. How can one understand this? Just as a magician (natah) gives up his body by cutting it, burning it or losing consciousness, and shows this to all people and makes them believe it, and still maintains his body and does not die, the Lord maintains his forms such as Matsya, and while maintaining gives them up also. Just as the magician still has his body and the giving up of the body is illusion, so Lord has real forms such as Matsya and giving them up is illusory. And just as the Lord maintains various forms and produces the illusion of giving them up, in giving up that body by which he removed the burden of the earth, Krsna did not give up his body. That is an illusion. The Lord does not take on a form of a human like an actor, though he is brahman in human form, since his body is not material. In Mahabharata it is said na bhuta-sangha-samsthano deho ’sya paramatmanah: the body of the Lord is not associated with material elements. Visnu Purana says:

yo vetti bhautikam deham krsnasya paramatmanah |
sa sarvasmad bahih karyah srauta-smarta-vidhanatah |
mukham tasyavalokyapi sa-cailah snanam acared ||

He who thinks that Krsna’s body is material should be excluded from all actions of sruti and smrti. If one sees him one should bathe with one’s clothes on.

In Vaisampayana-sahasra-nama-stotra the Lord is called amrtamso ’mrta-vapur: he has a body which is immortal; he has limbs which are immortal. In his commentary Sankaracarya says amrtam marana-rahitam vapur: amrta means that his body is without death. There is another meaning of jahyat. Jahyat means “he gives up” and but it also implies (by giving up) “he gives or bestows.” The Lord bestows forms like Narayana who had entered his body when he appeared on earth to the devotees situated in Vaikuntha and other spiritual abodes for nourishing them. This is explained at the end of the Eleventh Canto.