Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 6.9.35

atha tatra bhavān kiḿ devadattavad iha guṇa-visarga-patitaḥ pāratantryeṇa sva-kṛta-kuśalākuśalaḿ phalam upādadāty āhosvid ātmārāma upaśama-śīlaḥ samañjasa-darśana udāsta iti ha vāva na vidāmaḥ

SYNONYMS

atha — therefore; tatra — in that; bhavān — Your Lordship; kim — whether; deva-datta-vat — like an ordinary human being, forced by the fruits of his activities; iha — in this material world; guṇa-visarga-patitaḥ — fallen in a material body impelled by the modes of material nature; pāratantryeṇa — by dependence on the conditions of time, space, activity and nature; sva-kṛta — executed by oneself; kuśala — auspicious; akuśalam — inauspicious; phalam — results of action; upādadāti — accepts; āhosvit — or; ātmārāmaḥ — completely self-satisfied; upaśama-śīlaḥ — self-controlled in nature; samañjasa-darśanaḥ — not deprived of full spiritual potencies; udāste — remains neutral as the witness; iti — thus; ha vāva — certainly; na vidāmaḥ — we do not understand.

TRANSLATION

These are our inquiries. The ordinary conditioned soul is subject to the material laws, and he thus receives the fruits of his actions. Does Your Lordship, like an ordinary human being, exist within this material world in a body produced by the material modes? Do You enjoy or suffer the good or bad results of actions under the influence of time, past work and so forth? Or, on the contrary, are You present here only as a neutral witness who is self-sufficient, free from all material desires, and always full of spiritual potency? We certainly cannot understand Your actual position.

PURPORT

In Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says that He descends to this material world for two purposes, namely paritrāṇāya sādhūnāḿ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām [Bg. 4.8] — to relieve the devotees and kill demons or nondevotees. These two kinds of action are the same for the Absolute Truth. When the Lord comes to punish the demons, He bestows His favor upon them, and similarly when He delivers His devotees and gives them relief, He also bestows His favor. Thus the Lord bestows His favor equally upon the conditioned souls. When a conditioned soul gives relief to others he acts piously, and when he gives trouble to others he acts impiously, but the Lord is neither pious nor impious; He is always full in His spiritual potency, by which He shows equal mercy to the punishable and the protectable. The Lord is apāpa-viddham; He is never contaminated by the reactions of so-called sinful activities. When Kṛṣṇa was present on this earth, He killed many inimical nondevotees, but they all received sārūpya; in other words, they returned to their original spiritual bodies. One who does not know the Lord's position says that God is unkind to him but merciful to others. Actually the Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā (9.29), samo 'haḿ sarva-bhūteṣu na me dveṣyo 'sti na priyaḥ: "I am equal to everyone. No one is My enemy, and no one is My friend." But He also says, ye bhajanti tu māḿ bhaktyā mayi te teṣu cāpy aham: "If one becomes My devotee and fully surrenders unto Me, I give him special attention."

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness