Commentary

Commentary

After declaring that neither gods nor sages can fully know Him, Krishna now reveals what happens to those who do come to know His true nature — even partially, through devotion. Such a person becomes asammoodha (free from delusion) and is released from the bondage of all sins.

The three qualities Krishna attributes to Himself here are foundational: He is aja (unborn), anaadi (without beginning), and loka-maheswara (the supreme Lord of all worlds). Unlike conditioned souls who take birth due to karma, Krishna’s appearance in the world is entirely by His own will. He has no origin, no cause — He is the uncaused cause of everything.

Among the thousands who strive for spiritual advancement, very few arrive at this understanding. As Krishna stated in Chapter 7, out of many thousands of persons, hardly one strives for perfection, and among those who achieve perfection, hardly one truly knows Him. But for that rare soul who does, the reward is total — freedom from all sinful reactions.

This freedom is not merely the cancellation of past bad deeds. It is a fundamental shift in consciousness. When you truly understand that God is the unborn, beginningless, supreme master of all creation, and when this understanding is not intellectual but lived — then delusion drops away. You no longer misidentify yourself with the temporary body. You no longer chase the shadows of material pleasure. The root of sin, which is forgetfulness of God, is destroyed.

The Rarest Achievement

Krishna says this knowledge frees one among mortals — emphasizing that even while living in a mortal body, one can be liberated through understanding the Supreme Lord’s true nature.