Naham Prakashah Sarvasya

Krishna explains why the world cannot see Him for what He truly is. I am not visible to everyone, He says, because I am veiled by My own Yogamaya. This deluded world does not recognize Me as unborn and imperishable.

The sun behind clouds is still the sun. The clouds themselves are made possible by the sun's heat. Yet they hide it from view. Yogamaya works the same way — it is the Lord's own power, yet it conceals Him from ordinary perception.

There is a distinction between the 'daivi Maya' of 7.14 and the 'Yogamaya' here. Yogamaya is the Lord's own mysterious power that keeps His supreme nature concealed. It is not the same as the material Maya that binds living beings to the world.

Shlokas 7.24 and 7.25 together establish that the supreme nature of the Lord is hidden from ordinary vision. The term 'Yogamaya' appears prominently in the Bhagavata Purana as well — particularly in the narrative of Krishna's birth on Janmashtami.

The Mundaka Upanishad declares: 'na chakshusa grihyate napi vacha' — He cannot be grasped by the eyes or by speech. The Gita's 'yoga-maya-samavritah' conveys that same truth in accessible language.