164
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 3, Ch. 5]
one and the same. Such miscalculation by the nondevotees makes them unfit to receive any direction from within, and therefore they are bereft of the direct cooperation of the Lord. After many, many births, when such a nondualist comes to sense that the Lord is worshipable and that the devotee is simultaneously one and different from the Lord, then only can he surrender unto the Lord, Vāsudeva. Pure devotional service begins from that point. The process of understanding the Absolute Truth adopted by the misguided nondualist is very difficult, whereas the devotee's way of understanding the Absolute Truth comes directly from the Lord, who is pleased by devotional service. On behalf of many neophyte devotees, Vidura, at the very first instance, inquired from Maitreya about the path of devotional service, by which the Lord, who is seated within the heart, can be pleased.
TEXT 5
करोति कर्माणि कृतावतारो
यान्यात्मतन्त्रो भगवांस्त्र्यधीशः ।
यथा ससर्जाग्र इदं निरीहः
संस्थाप्य वृत्तिं जगतो विधत्ते ॥ ५ ॥
karoti karmāṇi kṛtāvatāro
yāny ātma-tantro bhagavāns tryadhīśaḥ
yathā sasarjāgra idani nirīhaḥ
saṅsthāpya vṛttim jagato vidhatte
karoti —does them;  karmāṇi —transcendental activities;  kṛta —by accepting;  avatāraḥ —incarnations;  yāni —all those;  ātma-tantraḥ —Self-independent;  bhagavān —the Personality of Godhead;  tryadhīśaḥ —the Lord of the three worlds;  yathā —as much as;  sasarja —created;  agre —at first;  idam —this cosmic manifestation;  nirīhaḥ —although desireless;  saṅsthāpya —by establishing;  vṛttim —means of livelihood;  jagataḥ —of the universes;  vidhatte —as He regulates.
TRANSLATION
O great sage, kindly narrate how the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the independent desireless Lord of the three worlds and the controller of all energies, accepts incarnations and creates the cosmic manifestation with perfectly arranged regulative principles for its maintenance.