Text 57] Brahma Stealing the Boys and Calves 67
is the lubrication,” and so on. Similarly, as explained in the Vedas,

parasya saktir vividhaiva Srityate

svdbhaviki jnana-bala-kriya ca

Krsna’s power is variegated, and thus the same Sakti, or potency, works
in variegated ways. Vividha means “‘varieties.” There is unity in variety.
Thus yogamdayd and mahamdya are among the varied individual parts
of the same one potency, and all of these individual potencies work in
their own varied ways. The samvit, sandhini and ahlddini potencies—
Krsna’s potency for existence, His potency for knowledge and His po-
tency for pleasure—are distinct from yogamdyd. Each is an individual
potency. The dhladini potency is Radharani. As Svaripa Damodara
Gosvami has explained, rddhad krsna-pranaya-vikrtir hladini saktir
asmat (Ce. Adi 1.5). The ahladini-sakti is manifested as Radharani, but
Krsna and Radharani are the same, although one is potent and the other
is potency.

Brahma was mystified about Krsna’s opulence (nija-mahimani) be-
cause this opulence was atarkya, or inconceivable. With one’s limited
senses, one cannot argue about that which is inconceivable. Therefore
the inconceivable is called acintya, that which is beyond cintya, our
thoughts and arguments. Acintya refers to that which we cannot con-
template but have to accept. Srila Jiva Gosvami has said that unless we
accept acintya in the Supreme, we cannot accommodate the conception of
God. This must be understood. Therefore we say that the words of sastra
should be taken as they are, without change, since they are beyond our
arguments. Acintyah khalu ye bhava na tams tarkena yojayet: ‘That
which is acintya cannot be ascertained by argument.” People generally
argue, but our process is not to argue but to accept the Vedic knowledge
as it is. When Krsna says, “This is superior, and this is inferior,” we ac-
cept what He says. It is not that we argue, ““Why is this superior and that
inferior?” If one argues, for him the knowledge is lost.

This path of acceptance is called avaroha-pantha. The word avaroha
is related to the word avatara, which means “‘that which descends.”’ The
materialist wants to understand everything by the droha-pantha—by
argument and reason— but transcendental matters cannot be understood
in this way. Rather, one must follow the avaroha-pantha, the process of
