गोविन्द भाष्य (श्रील बलदेव विद्याभूषण - अचिन्त्यभेदाभेद वेदान्त ब्रह्मसूत्र भाष्य सटीक)

Others, however, speak in the following way: The one Supreme Personality of
Godhead assumes different forms as an actor assumes different roles on the stage.
In this way the Lord has many different names and abodes. For this reason all the
qualities and pastimes of the different forms of the Lord, as described in the
scriptures, may be ascribed to any one of the Lord's forms.
Here someone may object: Is it not so that many of the qualities of many of the
Lord's forms, qualities described in the scriptures, cannot be properly ascribed to
all of the Lord's forms? Is it not so that sweetness, opulence, peacefulness,
austerity, ferociousness, and other qualities may be mutually contradictory, and it
may also be contradictory to ascribe the features of having a horn, tail, mane, tusk,
or other features appropriate to the Lord's forms like Varāha and others to the
Lord's humanlike forms, which carry a flute, conchshell, bow, arrows, and other
paraphernalia? Therefore in the Mahābhārata it is said:
yo 'nyathā santam ātmānam
anyathā pratipadyate
kiṁ tena na kṛtaṁ pāpaṁ
caureṇātmāpahāriṇā
"A person who ascribes to the Supreme Lord qualities that the Lord does not
actually possess is a thief who robs himself. Does he not sin with his words?"
Therefore, because of both the injunction of Smṛti-śāstra and the experience of
the wise sages, one should not ascribe the qualities of one of Lord's forms to
another of the Lord's forms.
If this is said, then the following reply may be given: The qualities of one of
Lord's forms may be ascribed to another of the Lord's forms only when the
qualities are appropriate to that particular form. Ascribing the qualities of one of
Lord's forms to another of the Lord's forms is of two kinds: 1. cintana, and 2. dhī-
mātra. They who perform this first kind of meditation are called sva-niṣṭha, and
they who perform the second kind of meditation are called ekāntī. In the next
pada three kinds of wise devotees, headed by the sva-niṣṭha devotees, will be
described. The sva-niṣṭha devotees have equal love for all the Lord's forms. They
see all the qualities of all the Lord's forms present equally in each of the Lord's
forms. They do not see anything improper in ascribing many contradictory
qualities to each of the Lord's forms. They consider that the Lord by His great
potency may possess many mutually contradictory qualities, just as a vaidūrya
jewel may display many different colors.
The ekāntī devotees, who are divided into two groups: pariniṣṭhita and
nirapekṣa, do not have equal love for all the Lord's forms. They meditate only on
the qualities of one form the Lord, the form they have chosen. They see the
qualities of this form alone. Even though they are well aware of the Lord's other
forms, they do not meditate or gaze upon them. On His part, the Lord generally
does not reveal His other forms to these devotees. This will be reveled in another
adhikaraṇa. As for the passage quoted from the Mahābhārata, its true meaning is