Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya

Now here after Sri Krishna explained very categorically how He is supreme being. He starts saying that these people are in illusion who are trying to catch Me so going backwards we know that Sri Krishna has already talked about His Supreme Position let us look at Him further:

 

Bg 7.26

vedāhaṁ samatītāni
vartamānāni cārjuna
bhaviṣyāṇi ca bhūtāni
māṁ tu veda na kaścana

Word for word: 

veda — know; aham — I; samatītāni — completely past; vartamānāni — present; ca — and; arjuna — O Arjuna;bhaviṣyāṇi — future; ca — also; bhūtāni — all living entities; mām — Me; tu — but; veda — knows; na — not;kaścana — anyone.

Translation: 

O Arjuna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, I know everything that has happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, and all things that are yet to come. I also know all living entities; but Me no one knows.

 

vedāhaṁ samatītāni

samatītāni means completely pastime samatīt is complete

vartamānāni cārjuna

vartamānāni is present, cārjuna, O Arjuna.

O Arjuna I know complete past and present

bhaviṣyāṇi ca bhūtāni

I know the future also, bhūtāni, I know all living beings

bhūtāni
māṁ tu veda

So all living beings I know but Me no one knows na kaścana

What is the meaning of No One Knows? Krishna is saying OK people may know me as historical person, Krishna may know me as some person whom some people know as Supreme God but they don’t understand who I actually am, and that can be understood only through devotion, that will be discussed in 18th chapter, of course it has been discussed at several places in other chapters also. In this context Sri Krishna is showing Arjuna, Arjuna don’t worry you are concerned about what happens to your relative. Don’t worry about that I assure you that they will be taken care of, they can get liberation and come back to Me, I have shown what even partial performance of devotional service can give, what result it can give, therefore how much greater the result one can get by whole heartedly engaging in devotional service, and that is why one should try to do and when one tries to do that one will get elevated and ultimately liberated. So how can Krishna know the future, and this is a complex question and no easy answer, first of all let us  analyse a little bit what do we mean by future. There are future analogist who try to look at world and try to think what will be future going to be like and they try to act accordingly so they try to prepare society also to act in that way so there are astrologers also who help people understand what will be the future some people have all types of mystical powers so all of their areas will be destroyed and ultimately all of them will be destroyed. We wanted to know future so that we can protect ourselves. Sri Krishna says I know the future also does it mean that Sri Krishna knows as our future is programmed? We have to understand that Sri Krishna’s knowledge of the future is like our knowledge of the past our knowledge of the past is like knowledge without control if I want to know yesterday I wanted to sleep for 7 hours but I slept for 10 hours, I know this but I cannot change that, knowledge without control, we can think about the past we observe the past but we can’t change it, so Krishna’s knowledge about the future and our knowledge about the past what it essentially means is the conceptions are similar although there may be some differences also so major difference is that Sri Krishna’s position is difference from ours, even time is His servant and since time is also His servant therefore actually speaking and as time destroys all living beings so ultimately all living beings are His servants, so in His pastime Sri Krishna goes home at that time does He act as if He knows what is going to happen? Although He knows His pastime and He knows everything that is going to happen but He didn’t act that way, His goal is not to prove His divinity, His goal is to reciprocate love with His devotees, so He is saying Mai I am getting very hungry so Yasoda Mai says come Krishna, please take bath and the food is ready for you, please come and take it, then she offers Sri Krishna and Balarama a big-big feast, so even when Krishna is in spiritual world He knows everything but when performing His pastimes He forgets that He knows anything that is how Sri Krishna do certain things to enhance the rasa, He increase the lila of His pastimes, How does He increase His rasa How does He increase lila of His pastimes by creating a sense of predictability which is resolved by His intervention alone, so how does He do this? For example somebody might be having some sort of issues, so just like a student is studying, a student is having a free will whether to study or not study, now when the teacher is observing the student it is a rough example Krishna will be all knowing the teacher may not be all knowing but the teacher can see, the student will study and he will develop educated mind and the culture of hard work and eventually let to success on the other if student doesn’t do that then what will happen? The student will fail so the path so the pathways are there and depending on the path way the inevitable result after that so what Sri Krishna reveals is something similar Sri Krishna is God He can know the future He can change the future Krishna doesn’t’ even have to give us free will He can make us act like a robot completely obeying His command but that is not what Sri Krishna does Sri Krishna gives freedom by which He allows us to be tested and also allows us to become purified by that by seeing how trivial it is to bother about these things better bother about developing your relationship with Me better focus on developing ourselves spiritually because that alone will lead to lasting benefit, māṁ tu veda na kaścana, So Sri Krishna is throwing challenge to Arjuna’s spirit trying to direct Him away from the fear which is paralysing Arjuna, He is saying actually why should I fight He is asking this question to Arjuna originally to which Sri Krishna is replying why you would not fight, now Sri Krishna knows the result in future which is going to happen. So Sri Krishna knows that Abhimanu is going to die Sri Krishna knows that Jaidrath is going to die but still Sri Krishna let the fight to go on because His goal is to perform a lila. And lila doesn’t mean that people will not use their free will but we have trajectories and depending upon the trajectories there are consequences. So as a devotees we should not worry unnecessarily about these sort of things, what happened to this person what will happen to me what will happen to that person we will keep doing devotional service steadily and eventually by Krishna’s mercy by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy, inner presence of Krishna, inner revelation of Krishna will happen within our hearts, it will happen we need to have patient and perseverant . Just keep going on and on and then that will happen.

Krishna is saying māṁ tu veda na kaścana, Me no one knows. Srila Prabhupada gave same cloud example here in Purport.

End of transcription.