The Bhagavad-gita (07.26) states initially that no one can know Krishna, but eventually it (18.55) states that he can be known by devotion.
How do we make sense of these contradictory statements?
Gita wisdom indicates that these statements are not contradictory but paradoxical. Paradoxes are statements that seem contradictory at first glance, but convey a deeper reconciling truth that is best expressed through the apparent contradictions.
Scriptural traditions sometimes use paradoxes as conceptual tools to impel, even compel, us to break free from the shackles of logic. Logic is no doubt valuable, even essential, for discerning truth at many levels. But if we insist that only the logical deserves to be called true, we deprive ourselves access to truths that lie beyond the scope of logic. To appreciate how something can be not logical yet true, we need to differentiate between the illogical and the trans-logical. Illogical ideas are so silly that they cannot stand before the scrutiny of logic, whereas trans-logical truths are so lofty that the scrutiny of logic cannot stand before them.
Let’s now look at how paradoxical Gita verses point to trans-logical truths.
We as well as our powers of logic are finite, whereas Krishna is infinite. So in a sense, it’s only logical to expect that the finite cannot know the infinite. Thus, we logically infer that logic is inadequate for understanding Krishna. This is the trans-logical truth conveyed by the Gita (07.26).
The Gita (18.55) takes us beyond logic to love, or, more precisely, to the trans-logical logic of love. Attracted by our love, Krishna uses his omnipotence to make the impossible possible, to render the unknowable knowable, to grant the finite a vision of the infinite.
Thus, the paradoxical verses forcefully draw our attention to the trans-logical truth of the loving omnipotence of Krishna.
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 07 Text 26
“O Arjuna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, I know everything that has happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, and all things that are yet to come. I also know all living entities; but Me no one knows.”
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