Text 19
श्रीभगवानुवाच
हन्त ते कथयिष्यामि दिव्या ह्यात्मविभूतयः ।
प्राधान्यतः कुरुश्रेष्ठ नास्त्यन्तो विस्तरस्य मे ॥१९॥
śrī-bhagavān uvāca
hanta te kathayiṣyāmi
divyā hy ātma-vibhūtayaḥ
prādhānyataḥ kuru-śreṣṭha
nāsty anto vistarasya me
Translation:
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Yes, I will tell you of My splendorous manifestations, but only of those which are prominent, O Arjuna, for My opulence is limitless.
Purport:
It is not possible to comprehend the greatness of Krishna and His opulences. The senses of the individual soul are limited and do not permit him to understand the totality of Krishna's affairs. Still the devotees try to understand Krishna, but not on the principle that they will be able to understand Krishna fully at any specific time or in any state of life. Rather, the very topics of Krishna are so relishable that they appear to the devotees as nectar. Thus the devotees enjoy them. In discussing Krishna's opulences and His diverse energies, the pure devotees take transcendental pleasure. Therefore they want to hear and discuss them. Krishna knows that living entities do not understand the extent of His opulences; He therefore agrees to state only the principal manifestations of His different energies. The word pradhanyatah ("principal") is very important because we can understand only a few of the principal details of the Supreme Lord, for His features are unlimited. It is not possible to understand them all. And vibhuti, as used in this verse, refers to the opulences by which He controls the whole manifestation. In the Amara-kosa dictionary it is stated that vibhuti indicates an exceptional opulence.
The impersonalist or pantheist cannot understand the exceptional opulences of the Supreme Lord nor the manifestations of His divine energies. Both in the material world and in the spiritual world His energies are distributed in every variety of manifestation. Now Krishna is describing what can be directly perceived by the common man; thus part of His variegated energy is described in this way.