Lord Krsna's multifarious energies

TEXT 34

anantāvyakta-rūpeṇa

yenedam akhilaṁ tatam

cid-acic-chakti-yuktāya

tasmai bhagavate namaḥ

SYNONYMS

ananta-avyakta-rūpeṇa—by the unlimited, unmanifested form; yena—by which; idam—this; akhilam—total aggregate; tatam—expanded; cit—with spiritual; acit—and material; śakti—potency; yuktāya—unto he who is endowed; tasmai—unto him; bhagavate—unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead; namaḥ—I offer my respectful obeisances.

TRANSLATION

Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme, who in his unlimited, unmanifested form has expanded the cosmic manifestation, the form of the totality of the universe. He possesses external and internal energies and the mixed energy called the marginal potency, which consists of all the living entities.

PURPORT

The Lord is endowed with unlimited potencies (parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate), which are summarized as three, namely external, internal and marginal. The external potency manifests this material world, the internal potency manifests the spiritual world, and the marginal potency manifests the living entities, who are mixtures of internal and external. The living entity, being part and parcel of Parabrahman, is actually internal potency, but because of being in contact with the material energy, he is an emanation of material and spiritual energies. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is above the material energy and is engaged in spiritual pastimes. The material energy is only an external manifestation of His pastimes.

Krishna's Energies

Complexity:

Easy

Although Krishna is invisible to us in our present state, we can perceive His presence through His energies, which are everywhere. Although innumerable, His energies fall into three primary categories.

Internal Energy

Krishna’s internal energy expands as the spiritual world in all its variety, including His ever-liberated associates there. The internal energy is eternal and full of knowledge and happiness. Presently beyond our perception, the spiritual world makes up most of reality.

External Energy

Krishna’s external energy consists of all that is matter: the material world, the laws of material nature, material bodies, and so on. The external energy is temporary and full of ignorance and suffering. It is inert by nature and must be moved by spirit. The material world is a tiny fraction of God's creation.

Marginal Energy

We finite spirit souls are expansions of Krishna’s marginal energy. We can choose to live in the spiritual world or the material world. Or, to put it another way, we can be deluded by matter or illuminated by spirit.
Both the external energy (matter) and the marginal energy (we souls) can become fully spiritualized by contact with the internal energy through acts of devotion to Krishna (Bhakti yoga).
"The Supreme Lord has nothing to do, and no one is found to be equal to or greater than Him, for everything is done naturally and systematically by His multifarious energies." –Svetashvatara Upanishad 6.8