The Supreme, who is All-pervading (Vibhuh), contrary to all our Pauranic concepts of stock-taking gods and deities, is declared here as not taking any note of the merit or the demerit of the living creatures. It is such passages that shock the story-reading devotee-class, and therefore, they generally ignore the Geeta and read instead the glories of Krishna. The concept that God sits just over the clouds, peeping down and observing every sin and merit of all the people all over the world, and that He keeps a perfect account of all these so that on the Day of Judgement each one will approach the Father who will pass the judgement — is a concept which can appeal only to simple folk in whom the intellect is the least developed faculty!
The Eternal-Principle underlying life’s activities cannot be conceived of as taking any active note or interest in the created or in the finite. From the Infinite standpoint, the finite exists not. It is only when the Supreme functions through Self-forgetfulness that It comes to see Itself split up into the concepts of agent, action, fruit, etc. Sunlight passing through a plane glass, in spite of the medium through which it has passed, emerges in its pure nature, if the glass be clean, flawless and colourless. If, on the other hand, a pencil of light were to pass through a glass prism, we all know that it would emerge in its seven component colours, constituting the spectrum. Similarly, the Self passing through Knowledge (Jnana) emerges as Self, which is the One-without-a-second, All-pervading, All-perfect. But the same Self, when It passes through ignorance — meaning, the body, mind and intellect — It splits up into the endless world of plurality.
The relationship between Knowledge and Ignorance is very beautifully explained here. Ignorance cannot be Knowledge, nor can Knowledge be a part of Ignorance. Where Ignorance is, there Knowledge cannot be. Where Knowledge has come, Ignorance must depart. But here, we are told “KNOWLEDGE IS ENVELOPED BY IGNORANCE,” just as a solitary light in a dark jungle, seen from a distance can be described as a light encaged in darkness. This relationship and the method of stripping Knowledge naked, is more elaborately indicated in the following stanza.
THE UNVEILING OF TRUTH IS A PROCESS OF THE REMOVAL OF IGNORANCE AND NOT A CREATION OF KNOWLEDGE, AND THEREFORE, IT IS ONLY AN ACT OF RE-DISCOVERY AND NOT A CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENT. THIS IS AMPLY BROUGHT OUT BY VYASA’S WORDS IN THE FOLLOWING:
