Just like if you say that "I create," that means you exist before creation. Is it not? If I say, "I have created this glass case, spectacle case," that means before creation of this case, I was existing. You cannot deny it. So how this is possible, that if this case says that "I have created this case?" No, that is not... One cannot say, "I have created myself." It is impossible. Similarly, when Kṛṣṇa says that "I...," tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham... This ātmānam means body, ātmānam means the mind, or ātmānam means the soul. But He is the supreme soul, so how He creates His soul. And He is nondifferent, absolute. Therefore the interpretation given by Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, that "I create" means "I appear..." "I create my appearance." Just like sun creates its appearance. The sun is there already, but when sun appears, it means that you can say like that, that "Sun creates its appearance."
And why does He create or appear? That is explained in the next verse,
- paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ
- vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām
- dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya
- sambhavāmi yuge yuge
- (BG 4.8)
"In every millennium, every yuga..." There are different periods, just like in the whole year there are different periods in your country called summer, winter, fall, spring. They are coming by rotation. Similarly, there is rotation of time which is divided into four millenniums called Satya-yuga, Tretā-yuga, Dvāpara-yuga, and Kali-yuga. So Kṛṣṇa says that dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge. Now, one may inquire that "Kṛṣṇa appeared in the Tretā-yuga. And when He is going to appear in the Kali-yuga?" That is also mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that in the Kali-yuga there are three different incarnations mentioned in the Bhāgavatam or any other authentic Vedic literature. One incarnation is Lord Buddha, and another incarnation is Lord Caitanya, and another incarnation, in the last stage of this age, is Kalki, so far we get from the authority of Bhāgavatam.