📿 Shloka Collection

Avyaktam Vyaktim Apannam

Gita 7.24 Bhagavad Gita
📖 Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 7 — Gyana Vignyana Yoga
अव्यक्तं व्यक्तिमापन्नं मन्यन्ते मामबुद्धयः ।
परं भावमजानन्तो ममाव्ययमनुत्तमम् ॥
Avyaktam vyaktim apannam manyante mam abuddhayah
Param bhavam ajananto mamavyayam anuttamam
अव्यक्तम्
the unmanifest
व्यक्तिम् आपन्नम्
having assumed a manifest form
मन्यन्ते
think, consider
माम्
Me
अबुद्धयः
the unintelligent, those who lack understanding
परम्
supreme
भावम्
nature, being
अजानन्तः
not knowing
मम
My
अव्ययम्
imperishable
अनुत्तमम्
unsurpassed

Krishna addresses a common misunderstanding. Those without true understanding think I was once unmanifest and then became manifest — that I simply took on a human form, as if I had no existence before. They do not know My supreme, imperishable, unsurpassed nature.

The sky was always there. Clouds come and go, but the sky never changes. Krishna's human form is like a window through which the infinite can be glimpsed. But behind that form lies an eternal reality — beginningless, endless, and beyond decay.

This shloka invites humility. Do we see Krishna only as a historical person who walked the earth? Or do we recognize the timeless, boundless nature that the human form barely hints at?

Shlokas 7.24 and 7.25 together convey one idea: Krishna's supreme nature is not visible to everyone, because Yogamaya conceals it. This deepens the discussion of Maya's delusion from 7.13 and 7.14.

The Kena Upanishad states: 'yan manasa na manute' — that which the mind cannot conceive. Krishna's 'param bhavam anuttamam' describes that same inconceivable supreme reality.

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