Verse 1.4.22

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of verse 1.4.22:

स्वाभाविकं भवादृक् च मन्ये स्वप्नादिवत् त्व् अहम् ।
सत्यं भवतु वाथापि न तत् कारुण्य-लक्षणम् ॥ २२ ॥

svābhāvikaṃ bhavādṛk ca manye svapnādivat tv aham |
satyaṃ bhavatu vāthāpi na tat kāruṇya-lakṣaṇam || 22 ||

Magnanimous souls like you may consider His caressing and affection to be the natural parental mood of Śrī Bhagavān, but for me it seems no more than a dream. This being the fact, it cannot be the symptoms of mercy of Śrī Bhagavān.

Commentary: Dig-darśinī-ṭīkā with Bhāvānuvāda

(By Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī himself including a deep purport of that commentary)

Magnanimous souls like you, who understand the glories of Bhagavān and mention activities such as His affectionate caressing, consider them as His soft-hearted nature and spontaneous vātsalya. Just as the nature of fire removes the winter cold and ensuing stiffness, similarly, action done by the natural spontaneous vātsalya and soft-heartedness of Bhagavān, who looks upon all with equal composure, translates into mercy. (But is this truly mercy? No, it is not.) Even though you may call it the mercy of Bhagavān, I consider it to be like a phantasmagoria, like a dream, an illusion or fantasy created by the mind, because it took place only for such a tiny duration of time. Therefore, by my deliberation, it either did not happen, or rather changed into some surreal happenstance. According to the view of impersonalists the spontaneous vātsalya of Bhagavān is illusory and completely false. The only difference in my opinion is that it being manifest for such a short duration of time, it appears just like a dream to be unreal.

Since you may object that everywhere lofty truth is prominent, as well as directly observed by demigods and sages, and diversely experienced yourself, then how can you consider it to be like a dream? Further examine it, other than being the recipient of Bhagavān’s mercy in childhood, how can the appearance of spotless bhagavat-jñāna and pure behavior manifest? Is the wealth of these spiritual qualities the symptom of Bhagavān’s mercy? In reply Śrī Prahlāda Mahārāja said that if this is true, so be it, regardless, this pampering cannot be the proper symptoms of Bhagavān’s mercy.