12. Bewildering Pastimes

na veda kascid bhagavams cikirsitam
tavehamanasya nrnadm vidambanam

na yasya kascid dayito ’sti karhicid
dvesyas ca yasmin visama matir nrnam

O Lord, no one can understand Your
transcendental pastimes, which appear
to be human and so are misleading. You
have no specific object of favor, nor do
You have any object of envy. People
only imagine that You are partial.

—Srimad-Bhdgavatam 1.8.29

The Lord’s mercy upon the fallen souls is equally distributed. He has
no one as the specific object of hostility. The very conception of the Per-
sonality of Godhead as a human being is misleading. His pastimes appear
to be exactly like a human being’s, but actually they are transcendental
and without any tinge of material contamination. He is undoubtedly
known.as partial to His pure devotees, but in fact He is never partial, as
much as the sun is never partial to anyone. By utilizing the sunrays,
sometimes even the stones become valuable, whereas a blind man

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