Bhashya
कर्मविपाकजन्मानुभवरूपाणां केवलतिर्यग्रूपाणां मत्स्यकूर्मा-दीनां केवलतिर्यग्रूपाणां वामनादीनां , लीलारूपत्वेनैवदृष्टत्वात् अस्य च तद्विलक्षणत्वात् ' न स्वमायालीला-विग्रहता ,स्यादिति इमामाशङ्कां मन्त्रवर्णादपनेतुं मन्त्रमाह-
In plain words
Fish, tortoise, and the rest -- these forms are purely animal, the ripened fruit of past action lived out as a birth. Vāmana and forms like him are different again. But all of them, we take simply as play, forms the divine puts on for sport. Nṛkesarin stands apart from all of them -- so a doubt could creep in: is he, too, just another playful mask of māyā, or is something else going on? The very wording of the verse could raise that doubt. To put it to rest, the mantra now speaks:
Close to the Sanskrit
Of the forms that are purely animal, having a birth as their experience through the ripening of action -- [as with] Matsya, Kūrma, and the rest; and of the forms that are purely animal, or [purely human, as with] Vāmana and the rest -- because they are seen only as forms taken on in play, and because this [Nṛkesarin] is distinguished from them, the doubt might arise: 'might there not fail to be, [in his case], the status of an embodiment of one's own playful māyā?' -- in order to remove this doubt, arising from the wording of the mantra, [the author] states the [following] mantra: