Verse 6

In plain words

Then how is there birth for you, the eternal Lord, when neither dharma nor adharma is present in you at all? To this it is said —

Though I am unborn, free of birth, and though my nature never diminishes — my power of knowing never wanes — and though I am the ruler of every being from Brahmā down to a blade of grass by my very nature, I take hold of my own nature, my māyā, woven of the three guṇas, in whose grip the entire world lives, deluded, unable to know its own self as Vāsudeva. Taking hold of that māyā, I come into being — as if I had a body, as if I were born — through my own māyā, and not, as the world imagines, in ultimate reality.

Close to the Sanskrit

How then, in your case — you the eternal Lord — even in the absence of dharma and adharma, is there birth? Thus. It is said —

Although unborn, though devoid of birth, and likewise though of imperishable nature, whose nature is undiminished power of knowledge, and likewise though the ruler of beings from Brahmā down to a blade of grass, by nature one who rules — presiding over, bringing under my control my own nature, which is Viṣṇu's own māyā, whose nature consists of the three guṇas, in whose hold the entire world abides, deluded by which it does not know its own self as Vāsudeva — I come into being, as if embodied, as if born, by my own māyā, by the māyā of myself — not in ultimate reality, as the world imagines. || 6 ||

In plain words

Then Muvva Gopāla, smiling softly and glad that the moment He had waited for had come near, said: “Brother-in-law! Listen. When people speak of sunrise and sunset, what does it mean? It is only so in people's sight, not in the sight of the Sun. The Sun neither rises nor sets. Is that so or not? I am just the same. For Me there is no birth at all. To the sight of ordinary men it seems that I have taken on many bodies and taken many births. Whenever the uplifting of the world requires it, I take on a body and appear to the world with form and name; yet however many births there may be, I remember them all. I am all-knowing and all-powerful. And not only I: you too know everything. But because your power of Jñāna is covered by Ajñāna, you cannot know it. Because I am full of Jñāna, everything is clear to Me at all times. Brother-in-law! Merely because the Sun appears in a mirror, does he lose his place or his authority? He stays just as he is, and is reflected in the mirror. In the same way, merely because I too am reflected in the mirror called Prakṛti, no breach comes to My omniscience and omnipotence; none at all. I am without birth. For a human birth, the meritorious and sinful karmas done before are the causes. Do you think, perhaps, that the same things cause the births of an Avatāra too? No, no. A human birth is a ‘karma birth’; My birth is a ‘līlā birth’. Prayers and good deeds are the cause of My birth; the evil deeds of the wicked and the good deeds of the virtuous are the cause of My birth.”