Gita 07.25 – Yoga Maya is a profound oxymoron
Aham prakashya sarvasya i am not prakashya, i am not illumined i am not manifest to everyone when there is prakash, when there is light then we can see what is there in front of us if there is no light then we can't see so krishna is stating here aham prakashya sarvasya yogamaya samavrta ha yogamaya with the covering of maya samavrta ha completely covered samavrta is covered samavrta is completely covered yogamaya samavrta ha mudho yam na vijanati mudho the foolish, ayam na vijanati they do not know me loko mam ajam avyayam people who are ajam, i am born avyayam loko mam krishna is telling arjuna that he is explaining the reason why people don't know him in the previous verses previous 10 verses he has given he has explained how different people are differently disposed towards him some defy him openly some surrender to someone else instead of him either the deitas or the impersonal brahmins and some devote themselves to him krishna has talked about this rarity twice he said right in the start of this chapter 7.3 manushyanam sahasreshu kashchid yatati siddhaye tatam api siddhanam kashchin mam vetti tattvata so manushyanam sahasreshu among thousands of people kashchid yatati siddhaye few endeavour to know him tatam api siddhanam and even among those who endeavour and who became siddha, attain some level of spiritual perfection kashchin mam vetti tattvata very few actually come to know him at the same point he repeated in 7.20 the mahatmas who understand krishna to be everything who surrender to him they are they are extremely rare there is a double intensifier there labha is to gain durlabha is difficult to gain and sudarnabha is extremely difficult to gain extremely difficult to such people this position of enlightened awareness of krishna's supremacy is a very difficult thing to attain why is it that people are not able to know him in one sense krishna has already answered this earlier when he stated in 7.30 so there in krishna has stated that it is because of the three modes of material nature that people can't know him they are all deluded by the three modes so now the point was they are deluded now what is krishna talking here? krishna is talking that i am not manifest to everyone word by yoga maya krishna has used the same word earlier in 7.30 imperishable this is a describer which has already come thrice in this chapter itself and krishna is talking about himself so the point is that krishna is the all attractive supreme so krishna there is a technical categorization of krishna's energies into maha maya and yoga maya so that energy of his does not that energy which covers the conditioned soul that is called as maha maya and that energy of krishna which covers the liberated souls for example shudra maya does not think of krishna as god she thinks of krishna as her son think that he is dependent on me unless i provide for him he will starve, he will become weak he may even die this is illusion that is conducive for going closer to krishna it intensifies one's devotion towards krishna so that is yoga maya bhagavatam also uses the word yoga maya yoga maya it is in the rasa panchayat and it uses that word to convey the idea that by that illusion the gopis forgot that krishna is god and they went closer and closer to him thinking of him as their lover so normally yoga and maya are opposite yoga is that which connects us with krishna maya is that which disconnects us from krishna so how can yoga maya come together oxymoronic somebody is a courageous coward somebody is a brilliant idiot somebody is a chaste prostitute somebody is an honest thief all these are oxymorons the two contrary ideas are brought together so is yoga maya like that no because there is an illusion that takes us away from krishna and there is an illusion that takes us towards krishna so yoga maya is the illusion that makes us forget krishna's greatness so that we can focus on his sweetness and relish his sweetness and enable him to relish the sweetness of our uninhibited love love that is no longer inhibited by awareness of his greatness so of course the word yoga maya now sweetness is not krishna is a sweet or attractive or loving person he is not known in this way to everyone, it is only those who want to allow him that krishna reveals this vision to them so by yoga maya he is covered so of course in this context the word yoga maya does not necessarily have to refer to that technical gaudiya meaning, it can also mean that material energy cannot cover krishna, what can cover krishna is only spiritual energy yoga maya samagraha i am covered by my yoga maya from krishna's point of view, shloka prabhupada would explain that both the material energy and spiritual energy are similar, this is from the electricity from the person in charge of the powerhouse the same energy going out from the consumer's point of view some energy might be heating some energy might be cooling but from the energy dispenser's point of view, the same energy like that, from our point of view some energy takes us away from krishna, some energy takes us towards krishna, but from his point of view the same energy the mudhas, the fools they do not know, what do they not know? loko mam ajam avyayam that i am unborn and i am imperishable krishna is stating that he is beyond the time dimension ajam and avyayam so by stating that he is beyond the time dimension he is directly countering the idea that the conception that people had about him in the previous text, avyaktam daktim apannam he was unmanifest and he became manifest he, as he is present before arjuna he is ajam he is unborn, he is imperishable he exists beyond the time dimension and yet he manifests within the time dimension without being affected by the time dimension such is the wondrous potency of krishna now it is not krishna who wants to keep himself hidden from us it is rather he reciprocates with our desires and he keeps himself hidden when we do not want to know him krishna uses the word mudho yam naam janati that mudho is not a condemnation but it is an observation he is not condemning people as fools, he is just saying that they are foolish and for such foolish people he is approachable, even for them he is merciful even in their hearts he is present and even for them he strives for bringing about their spiritual elevation and liberation the fact that they are so captivated by worldly illusion because of which they are not able to perceive the higher spiritual reality of krishna's transcendental position that is their misfortune and that is their krishna explains that it is because he is covered that people cannot know him and they cannot understand his transcendental position now of course the clouds don't cover the sun, the clouds cover people who are looking at the sun similarly, no energy can cover krishna, it can cover those who are trying to observe krishna here of course krishna is talking from their perspective and so he says they cannot know me.