सृष्ट्यादिकं हरिर्नैव प्रयोजनमपेक्ष्य तु ।
कुरुते केवलानन्दाद्यथा मर्त्यस्य नर्तनम् ॥
पूर्णानन्दस्य तस्येह प्रयोजनमतिः कुतः ।
मुक्ता अप्याप्तकामाः स्युः किमु तस्याखिलात्मनः ॥
sṛṣṭy-ādikaṁ harir naiva prayojanam apekṣya tu |
kurute kevalānandād yathā martyasya nartanam ||
pūrṇānandasya tasyeha prayojana-matiḥ kutaḥ |
muktā apy āpta-kāmāḥ syuḥ kim u tasyākhilātmanaḥ ||
(Nārāyaṇa-saṁhitā; cited in Bhagavat Sandarbha: 47; Paramātma Sandarbha: 93; Govinda-bhāṣya on Vedānta-sūtra: 2.1.32)
“Without reference to a motive whatsoever, Hari performs the emanation and so forth [of the universe] out of bliss alone like an inebriated person’s dancing [which occurs as a result of bliss and not for the sake of attaining bliss]. Where is the notion of a motive in this regard for he who is possessed of complete bliss? Even the liberated shall be possessed of fulfilled desires. So how much more so shall this be so for he who is the Self of all?”
Commentary
In Vatsyānana’s Nyāya-bhāṣya on Nyāya-sūtra (1.1.1), a motive (prayojana) is defined as “that motivated by which one acts” (yena prayuktaḥ pravartate tat prayojanam) and is said to pervade every action performed by every living being (sarve prāṇinaḥ sarvāṇi karmāṇi … vyāptāḥ). A motive (prayojana) is further explained to be the cause of an endeavor (pravṛtti), which is defined in the bhāṣya on Nyāya-sūtra (1.1.24) as “the striving of one motivated by desire to attain [an object] or desire to avoid [an object]” (tasyepsā-jihāsā-prayuktasya samīhā pravṛttir ity ucyate). An “object” (artha), moreover, is defined in the bhāṣya on Nyāya-sūtra (1.1.1) as “either happiness, a cause of happiness, suffering, or a cause of suffering” (arthas tu sukhaṁ sukha-hetuś ca, duḥkhaṁ duḥkha-hetuś ca).
If every action of every living being thus has a motive, fundamentally, of either attaining happiness or avoiding suffering, one might assume that Śrī Bhagavān too must have such a motive for emanating, sustaining, and dissolving the universe, as well as for every other action he performs. This verse from Nārāyaṇa-saṁhitā thus clarifies that this is not the case. Śrī Bhagavān has no motive in his actions because he has no object he needs to attain since by virtue of his own essential nature (svarūpa) he is constituted of complete bliss and an absence of suffering and thus has no desires that ever remain unfulfilled. When he is of such nature, thus possesses complete happiness and an absence of suffering inherently and effortless, and thus has no motive for his actions since he has no desires that need to be fulfilled, any action he performs is an expression of his complete bliss—of his own complete essential nature—and not an endeavor to attain bliss from a state of lack thereof. This verse from Nārāyaṇa-saṁhitā thus states that he emanates the universe solely as act that is an expression of his complete bliss and therefore he has no motive this act. The example of the act of dancing performed out of bliss by an inebriated person is given to illustrate this.
See Anuccheda 47 in Śrī Jīva Gosvāmīpāda’s Bhagavat Sandarbha and the Govinda-bhāṣya of Śrī Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇapāda on Vedānta-sūtra 2.1.32–33 for further discussion of this subject.