sthity-udbhavantam bhuvana-trayasya yah

 samihite ’nanta-gunah sva-lilaya

na tasya citram para-paksa-nigrahas

 tathapi martyanuvidhasya varnyate

 

Translation: 

 

For Him who orchestrates the creation, maintenance and destruction of the three worlds and who possesses unlimited spiritual qualities, it is hardly amazing that He subdues an opposing party. Still, when the Lord does so, imitating human behavior, sages glorify His acts.

 

Purport: 

 

The philosopher Aristotle once argued that the Supreme God would hardly take part in human activities, since all ordinary activities are unworthy of such a divine being. Similarly, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti, who almost certainly never read the works of Aristotle, raises a similar point. Since Sri Krsna creates, maintains and annihilates the entire universe, isn’t it an uninteresting mismatch when He fights against Jarasandha?

 

The answer is as follows: The Lord plays the part of a human being and, expanding His pleasure potency, creates thrilling transcendental pastimes full of suspense and dynamic action. By the Lord’s Yogamaya potency, He appears exactly like a human being, and thus we may enjoy the spectacle of the Supreme Person acting on the earthly stage. Undoubtedly, stubborn agnostics will argue that since Krsna is God, there is no real suspense involved. Such skeptics simply do not understand Krsna’s attractive potency. Beauty and drama, even on the material stage, possess their own fascinating logic, and similarly we love Krsna for His own sake, we appreciate His beauty for its own sake, and we enjoy Krsna’s pastimes because they are in fact wonderful in and of themselves. In fact, Krsna executes His pastimes not for a mundane egotistical purpose but for our pleasure. Thus the presentation of spiritual pastimes is itself an act of love that Krsna performs for the infinite spiritual happiness of pure-hearted souls who have transcended material envy of the Godhead.

 

In this regard, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti quotes an important verse from the Gopala-tapani Upanisad: narakrti para-brahma karana-manusah. “The Supreme Absolute Truth, for His own purpose, appears in a humanlike form, although He is the source of everything.” Similarly, in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.14.32) we find, yan-mitram paramanandam purnam brahma sanatanam: “The source of transcendental bliss, the eternal Supreme Brahman, has become their friend.”