Though I am unborn, free of birth, and though My nature is imperishable, My power of knowledge undiminished, and though I am the Lord, the ruler, of beings from Brahmā down to a clump of grass, still, taking My stand on My own Nature, the māyā of Viṣṇu, made of the three qualities, under whose sway the whole world turns, and deluded by which the world does not know its own Self, Vāsudeva: bringing that Nature of Mine under control, I come to be, I become as though possessed of a body, as though born, by My own māyā, not in reality, as the world is born. When and for what purpose is that birth? He says.

Not giving up at all any part of My nature as the Lord, My unbornness, My imperishability, My being the Lord of all, and the rest, presiding over My own nature, by My own maya I come to be. 'Nature' (prakriti) is one's own essential nature; presiding over My own essential nature, by My own form, by My own will, I come to be. This is the meaning. My own form is that established by the revealed texts: 'sun-coloured, beyond darkness'; 'shining beyond this rajas'; 'that golden Person within the sun'; 'within him is this Person, made of mind, immortal, golden'; 'all the moments sprang from the lightning-Person'; 'of the nature of light, of true resolve, whose self is space, doing all, desiring all, of all scents, of all tastes'; 'his garment of the colour of turmeric'; and the rest. 'By My own maya' means by My own maya: here the word 'maya' is a synonym of knowledge, for 'maya' is glossed as insight, as knowledge, and so a skilled author uses it, 'by maya he ever knows the good and ill of creatures'. So it means by My own knowledge, by My own resolve. Therefore, not giving up at all My whole nature as the Lord, which consists in My being of the nature of all auspicious qualities, freedom from sin and the rest, but making My own form take a place of the same kind as that of gods, men, and the rest, by My own resolve I come to be in the form of a god and the like. This is what the revealed text says: 'unborn, He is born in many ways'. Not undergoing the birth common to other persons, He is born, in the form of a god and the like, by His own resolve, in the manner described. This is the meaning. And there is no conflict between the earlier and the later statements, 'many births of Mine and yours have passed, Arjuna; I know them all', 'I send Myself forth', and 'My birth and action are divine; he who knows this truly'. The Lord states the time of His birth.

Then surely you are not beginningless? To that Krishna says, 'though unborn'. 'Of imperishable nature' (avyayatma): the self is imperishable, and the body too, hence 'of imperishable nature'. Its being a special form is shown later, in 'endless, facing every way' (11.11), and in 'this is the imperishable seed and treasure-house of the many descents' (Bhagavata 1.3.5), while 'He took up a body' (Bhagavata 1.3.1) speaks of His becoming manifest. The reasonings have been given. The self's beginninglessness is common to all. How then does the beginningless-eternal have a birth? Governing His own prakriti, He is perceived as if born, just as those born of prakriti, Vasudeva and the rest, are born; that is the sense. It is not by governing some independent prakriti, and so He says 'His own'. For it has been said, 'substance, action and time' (Bhagavata 2.10.14); that prakriti was spoken of there, and from it is all creation. 'By His own maya' means by His own knowledge, since prakriti is named separately, as the lexicon has it, 'ketu, keta, the faculty of awareness, thought, judgment, will, insight, are all maya'. By the prakriti that is the cause of creation He fashions their bodies and the rest, and by the deluding one He is perceived, though unborn, as if born. So it is said, 'the mother of the great principle and the rest, conceived of as Shri, as the Earth, and the deluding one named Durga, by these the unborn Vishnu too is spread abroad as if born, by the power of His own awareness, for those of deluded mind'. 'Ishvara' means higher even than the ishas; so the Brahma-vaivarta says, 'since you are higher than the ishas, than Brahma, Rudra, Shri, Shesha and the rest, the name Ishvara belongs to you in the primary sense, and to no other at all', and 'the able one is called isha, and you, by being higher than them, are Ishvara'.