Without forsaking any of the My special qualities, as supreme rulership, birthlessness, imperishability etc., I am born by My free will. Prakrti means one’s own nature. The meaning is that by employment of My own Nature and taking a form of My choice, I incarnate by My own will (Maya). The character of My own Nature becomes evident from the following Shrutis: ‘Him who is of sun-like colour, beyond darkness (Tamas)’ (Sve.U., 3.8), ‘Him who abides beyond Rajas (active matter)’ (Sama 17.1.4.2); ‘This Golden Person who is within the sun’ (Cha.U. 1.6.6); ‘Within the heart, there is the Person consisting of mind, immortal and golden’ (Tai.U. 1.6.1); ‘All mortal creatures have come from the self-luminous Person’ (Yaj., 32.2); ‘Whose form is light, whose will is truth, who is the self of ethereal space, who contains all actions, contains all desires, contains all odours, contains all tastes’ (Cha.U., 3.14.2); ‘Like a raiment of golden colour’ (Br.U., 4.3.6). ‘Atma-mayaya’ means through the Maya which belongs to Myself. Here the term Maya is identical with knowledge as stated in the lexicon of Yaska: ‘Maya is wisdom, knowledge.’ Further there is the usage of competent people: ‘By Maya, He knows the good and bad of his creatures.’ Hence by My own knowledge means ‘by My will.’ Hence, without abandoning My essential attributes which belong to Me the Lord of all, such as being free of sins, having auspicious attributes etc., and creating My own form similar to the configuration of gods, men etc., I incarnate in the form of gods etc. The Shruti teaches the same thing: ‘Being unborn, He is born in various forms’ (Tai.A., 3.12.7). The purport is that His birth is quite unlike that of ordinary beings. The dissimilarity consists in that He is born out of His own will unlike ordinary beings whose birth is necessitated by their Karma. Thus construed, there is no contradiction also between what was taught earlier and what is taught later as in the statements: ‘Many births of Mine have passed, O Arjuna, and similarly yours also. I know them all’ (4.5); ‘I incarnate Myself (4.7); and ‘He who thus knows in truth My birth and work’ (4.9). [All this elaboration is meant to refute the doctrine of mere apparency of incarnations as taught by the Advaitins. Ramanuja, as stated in his Introduction to the Bhashya, upholds the absolute reality of incarnations.]

Shri Krishna now specifies the times of His incarnations.