Bhagavatgita- a detailed study-chapter 7-knowledge and experience

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24. avyaktham vyakthim aapannam manyanthe maam

abudDhayaH

param bhaavam ajaananthaH mama avyayam anutthamam

Those who do not have the intellect to see Me as the supreme reality, immutable and unparalleled, consider me as a manifest entity while I am unmanifest.

Brahman is the substratum of all,the cause of all, which are its effects. The upanishad says that as all the mud pots are nothing but mud and as all the gold ornaments are nothing but gold, the whole universe is nothing but Brahman. But to those who see the pots or the ornaments do not consider them as mud or gold but as separate entities. Similarly the ignorant think that everything is a separate entity and fails to see the unity in diversity. This idea is well expressed in the tamil verse quoted under sloka 13 of this chapter, marathhil maraindhadhu maamdhayaanai.

25. naaham prakaasaH sarvasya yogamaayaasamaavrtahH

mooDo ayam na abhijaanaathi loko maam ajam avyayam

I am not perceptible to all, concealed by My yogamaya and the ignorant folks do not know Me as unborn and immutable.

In chapter 9 Krishna reiterates this idea in the sloka avajaananthi maam mooDaaH maanusheem thanum aSrihaam(BG.9.11.)

In all the incarnations those without devotion and faith failed to recognise the supreme self in the manifestations as a human or other entities. In Ramavathara the divinity was concealed by the will of the Lord. But those who had the insight like vasishta, sabari, Vibheeshana and Hanuman, to take a cross section of all beings, understood the real identity of Rama. In Krishnavathara His divinity was manifest through out but still some like Durypdhana, Kamsa and Sisupala didi not understand and treated Him with enmity and tried to harm him. This is because He is not perceptible in His real nature to all and the ignorant whose intellect is clouded by yoga maya of the Lord did not know Him as one who is unborn and immutable reality.

26. vedha aham samatheethaani varthamaanaani cha arjuna

bhavishyaaNi cha bhoothaani maam thu vedha na

kaSchana

I know all the beings, past present and future but no one knows Me.

Brahman is the inner self of all beings, that existed in the past exist at present and that are going to exist in future. Hence Krishna speaking as the Supreme self says that He knows all beings, past, present and future. It is because as Upanishad declares, yatho vaa imaani bhoothaani jaayanthe, yena jathaani jeevanthi yasmina abhisamvisanthi thath vijijnaasasva thath brahma know that to be Brahman from whom all beings are born, by whom the born are sustained and into whom all merge. Hence the Lord knows all beings at all times.

"But no one knows Me in reality" , says Krishna. Te Upanishad says that one who says "I know" does not know and one who says "I do not know" knows. The perception of a thing could be only through senses, mind or intellect. We cognize certain things though senses, other things we do not know by sense contact but understand through our mind, such as joy and sorrow. There are yet other things cognized only by intellect such as ideas and concepts. But the Supreme realty, Brahman is beyond sense, mind and intellect because the senses , mind and intellect function only by its power. Hence it is not possible to know Brahman by senses , mind and intellect, the only means of cognition of a common man. He could be known only by those who transcend mind and intellect and have the direct experience of the reality. Only the devotees who are jnanis are able to understand Him as such. as said in chapter 4, sloka 9, janmakarma cha me dhivyam etc., where the Lord said that those who know Me in reality attain salvation. The same idea is expressed also in the sloka 3 of this chapter that out of thousands one tries to know Him and even among them a are one knows HIm in reality.