Verse 2.7.22

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 2.7.22:

বিষযীর প্রায তাঙ্র পরিচ্ছদ-সব চিনিতে না পারে কেহ, তিঙ্হো যে বৈষ্ণব ॥ ২২ ॥

विषयीर प्राय ताङ्र परिच्छद-सब चिनिते ना पारे केह, तिङ्हो ये वैष्णव ॥ २२ ॥

viṣayīra prāya tāṅra paricchada-saba cinite nā pāre keha, tiṅho ye vaiṣṇava || 22 ||

visayira praya tanra paricchada-saba cinite na pare keha, tinho ye vaisnava (22)

English translation:

(22) “His external appearance is just like a materialist. No one can recognize him as a Vaiṣṇava.

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

The pastimes of Kṛṣṇa are incomprehensible to the materialists. Sometimes the devotees of Kṛṣṇa also remain incognito and deceive the living entities of this world by covering themselves with material opulences. Ordinary foolish people who are endowed with material vision consider Lord Kṛṣṇa a temporary hero and thus lose all faith in Him.

Some of them consider Lord Kṛṣṇa a historical mortal human being who is subjected to birth and death; thus they fail to know Him. The devotees of Kṛṣṇa also often display the pastimes of gross materialists on account of their reluctance to reveal their actual identity before the eyes of unqualified persons. In order to bewilder those who were eligible to be illusioned by seeing one’s external dress, Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi presented himself in the dress of a gross materialist in the pastimes of Gaura, the covered incarnation.