Consider a river. Everyone living downstream can describe the river — its width, its current, its colour. But nobody downstream can tell you where the spring is. The source is always upstream, always beyond reach. Krishna is that upstream source. The gods and the great sages — the highest beings in wisdom and power — cannot fully know His origin. The reason is direct: He is their origin.
The word sarvashah is worth noting. It means in every way. Krishna is not just the beginning of the gods in the sense of time. He is their source in power, in knowledge, in existence — from every direction. The rest of this chapter will illustrate that vastness through example after example.