Only through devotion — Krishna states this with quiet certainty — can anyone truly know Him. Not through scholarship. Not through argument. Not through ascetic feats. Through bhakti alone does a person come to know who Krishna really is and how vast His reality extends.
And then comes the remarkable promise: once that true knowledge dawns, the devotee enters into Krishna immediately. Not after a waiting period. Not in some future life. The word 'tadanantaram' means 'right then.' The knowing and the merging happen in the same breath, like a drop of rain touching the ocean — one moment it is separate, the next it is not.
This shloka holds the Gita's answer to an ancient question: does knowledge lead to devotion, or does devotion lead to knowledge? Here, Krishna settles it. Devotion is the gateway. The knowledge that comes through devotion is not theoretical — it is direct, immediate experience.