Bhagavad Gita 9.11

avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam

paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto mama bhūta-maheśvaram

 

Fools mock me, seeing but a human-like manifestation,

Not knowing that unaffected is my supreme position .

I remain the Lord of all that lives and breathes,

The supreme soul from whom all life proceeds.

 

My dear Lord, when you take on a human-like form, you don’t lose your divine attributes of omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. You lovingly subordinate your divinity to make your lovability more accessible and relishable.

O Supreme Lover, love is best inspired and sustained when directed toward a person with a tangible form and a distinct personality. If you revealed only your divine effulgence, you would be like the sky—vast and all-pervading, yet hard to love personally. You reveal yourself as a living, loving person—disarmingly human-like—to show that you are eminently accessible to a heart longing for a lasting object of love.

O Reservoir of all rasa, O Rasaraja, you desire that those who love you taste the full richness of a real, reciprocal relationship. Though you are perfect and complete, needing nothing from anyone, you manifest your human-like form so that we may love you and serve you. Within the sweet illusion of your yoga-maya, it seems that you need care—just as Mother Yashoda worries that you may fall ill if you’re not fed on time. You tenderly fulfill your devotees’ need to feel needed, even though you depend on no one.

Help me, O supreme guru, to recognize your seeming humanity as your mercy—turning my relationship with you from static veneration to ecstatic reciprocation.

***

09.11 Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of all that be.