Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

Bg 10.2

na me viduḥ sura-gaṇāḥ
prabhavaṁ na maharṣayaḥ
aham ādir hi devānāṁ
maharṣīṇāṁ ca sarvaśaḥ

Word for word: 

na — never; me — My; viduḥ — know; sura–gaṇāḥ — the demigods; prabhavam — origin, opulences; na — never; mahā–ṛṣayaḥ — great sages; aham — I am; ādiḥ — the origin; hi — certainly; devānām — of the demigods; mahā–ṛṣīṇām — of the great sages; ca — also; sarvaśaḥ — in all respects.

Translation: 

Neither the hosts of demigods nor the great sages know My origin or opulences, for, in every respect, I am the source of the demigods and sages.

na me viduḥ, I am not known

By whom? sura-gaṇāḥ, the various devatas, all the devatas,

prabhavaṁ, My origin, 

My origin are not known by devatas.

And what to speak of devatas even the maharṣayaḥ do not know Me.

Even deavats worship Rishis e.g. Vrihaspati

Why?

aham ādir hi devānāṁ, I come before them.

maharṣīṇāṁ ca sarvaśaḥ, even all the maharsis they come after Me.

So what He is going to speak others do not know about that because He is sarva Karan karanam, cause of all causes.

Demonstrate Krishna is the original person.

SB muhyanti yat sūrayaḥ. Even Devatas get bewildered.

In SB 10th canto, Brahma, Indra all get bewildered by Krishna

SP Purport: The conception of God as some ruling power or as the impersonal Brahman can be reached by persons who are in the inferior energy of the Lord, but the Personality of Godhead cannot be conceived unless one is in the transcendental position

We can correlate this with Parmatama and Brahman conception roughly. Conception of God as some ruling power, or as an impersonal Brahman, so the Parmatama is the controller of this world, and impersonal Brahman is all pervading effulgence these are two primary conception of God which are present in many theistic conception. 

So there are two broad conceptions God as controller and as all-pervading power. 

In most religion even if God is talked about person His personal attributes are not talked about much. And He is manifested more as a power than as a person. So generally if we speculate we can think of Him as some ruling power but by our own thinking and reasoning we cannot know Him as a person who is having specific complexion that is only through scriptures like SB, BG and other bhakti scriptures and process of Bhakti Yoga.

So Krishna said He cannot be known by all but He says if you come to know Me there are great benefits available.

End of transcription.