SB 10.24.14
Devanāgarī
अस्ति चेदीश्वर: कश्चित्फलरूप्यन्यकर्मणाम् । कर्तारं भजते सोऽपि न ह्यकर्तु: प्रभुर्हि स: ॥ १४ ॥
Text
asti ced īśvaraḥ kaścit phala-rūpy anya-karmaṇām kartāraṁ bhajate so ’pi na hy akartuḥ prabhur hi saḥ
Synonyms
asti—there is;cet—if hypothetically;īśvaraḥ—a supreme controller;kaścit—someone;phala-rūpī—serving to award fruitive results;anya-karmaṇām—of the activities of other persons;kartāram—the performer of activity;bhajate—depends upon;saḥ—He;api—even;na—not;hi—after all;akartuḥ—of one who performs no activity;prabhuḥ—the master;hi—certainly;saḥ—He.
Translation
Even if there is some supreme controller who awards all others the results of their activities, He must also depend upon a performer’s engaging in activity. After all, there is no question of being the bestower of fruitive results unless fruitive activities have actually been performed.
Purport
This superficial argument neglects the obvious point that the laws of nature that prescribe the good and bad results of pious and impious acts are themselves creations of the all-good Supreme Lord. Being the creator and sustainer of these laws, the Lord is not subject to them. Furthermore, the Lord is not dependent on the work of the conditioned souls, since He is satisfied and complete within Himself. Out of His all-merciful nature He awards the results appropriate to our activities. That which we call destiny, fate or karma is an elaborate and subtle system of rewards and punishments meant for gradually encouraging conditioned souls to evolve to the stage of perfect consciousness, which is their original, constitutional nature.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead has so dexterously formulated and applied the laws of material nature governing punishment and reward for human behavior that the living being is discouraged from sin and encouraged toward goodness without suffering any significant interference with his free will as an eternal soul.
In contrast to the material nature, the Lord exhibits His essential nature in the spiritual world, where He reciprocates the eternal love of His pure devotees. Such loving affairs are based completely on the mutual freedom of the Lord and His devotees, not on a mechanical reciprocation of coinciding selfish interests. The Supreme Lord, assisted by His pure devotees, repeatedly offers the conditioned souls of this world the opportunity to give up their bizarre attempt at exploiting the material universe and go back home, back to Godhead, for an eternal life of bliss and knowledge. Considering all these points, the atheistic arguments given here by Lord Kṛṣṇa in a playful mood are not to be taken seriously.