Gita 07.26 – Krishnas omniscience harmonizes with his omnibenevolence
26 Vedaham samatitani vartamanancharyuna bhavishani chaluktani mam tuvedanakashchana so here vedaham samatitani I know vedaham, I know samatitani completely of the past vartamanancharyuna the present bhavishani chaluktani the future bhutani of all living beings mam tuvedanakashchana but about me no one knows so here krishna is acknowledging proclaiming proclaiming rather his omniscience omniscience is one of the defining attributes of god usually omniscience omnipotence and omnipresence these three are considered to be his defining attributes among these the omniscience is considered to be is taken up for consideration here and that is based on the context in the previous section krishna had talked about how people who are ritagyana or abuddhaya they surrender to someone other than him and then he said that this is because of the covering of maya when this question may come up ok does the covering of maya cover if it covers everyone does it cover krishna also krishna has said yogamaya samavrta completely covered so krishna makes it clear that he is not covered over here he is omniscient an earlier verse which is a pointer towards omniscience was 4.5 when krishna stated that krishna stated that both of us have gone through many lifetimes many lives we have gone through I know all of them arjuna but you don't know so there also the difference between the non-forgetting memory of krishna and forgetful memory of the soul arjuna is not a conditioned soul but even still he doesn't remember that is differentiated and that difference is further explicated and highlighted here in 7.26 when he states that I know everything past present and future so of course krishna has earlier also pointed this out when he has said that he is above the three modes sometimes he has said in 7.13 sometimes some skeptics some atheists they say that there is a inherent self-contradiction in the very definition of god or rather the defining attributes of god they say that if god is omniscient then he can't be omnipotent if he is omnipotent he can't be omniscient and the reasoning they give for this differentiation what differentiating does is that they say that god cannot both if he can do everything then if the future is to be known if he knows the future then that means he won't be able to change it that is how things are to go and if he can change it then he won't know it then he can be either omniscient or he can be omnipotent he cannot be both actually we need to understand that god's attributes are not like the static attributes of some material objects for example somebody is a super tall person now that person is very tall that being so tall might help that person to win an award as the tallest person in the world maybe an entry in the guinness book of world records but then that ultra tall height might also create a problem that person may have to stoop down more to enter ordinary doors and some doors may be very difficult to enter if a person goes into a movie theater and that person sits somewhere people behind can't see and people start complaining so the point is that in that case it's an attribute which may sometimes be a cause of celebration but sometimes it can also be a cause of consternation sometimes it may perplex one irritate one and that can happen if one is not careful one is not conscious when we have attributes or something similar to god then we are being we are operating under superficial understanding of god god is not both his attributes he is omnipotent, he is omniscient but over and above that he is omnibenevolent he is all loving person and his various attributes are used in the service of his omnibenevolence so when Krishna wants he can manifest his omnipotence when Krishna wants he can manifest his omniscience and when he doesn't want he may not manifest any of them it is not that Krishna is stuck with those attributes no he is not stuck with anything so for example when Krishna is playing hide and seek say he has stolen butter and then hiding from Yashoda now does he know that Yashoda is going to catch me or Yashoda is not going to catch me I am going to be punished or not going to be punished does Krishna know for example I am God but I am just doing a leela as a small naughty boy when Krishna does something he becomes completely absorbed in doing that thing and by being absorbed thus he relishes what he is doing so similarly when we understand that Krishna is leela dham he is the abode of unlimited pastimes and everything that he does is in the service of his pastimes is in the pursuance of his reciprocation of love then if for a particular pastime his omniscience will come in the way then he may temporarily choose to conceal his omniscience sometimes his omniscience his omnipotence comes in the way just like when Krishna wants to lift up his parents tell him to lift up a vessel and bring and that vessel is so big Krishna he initially just like some wrestlers they slap their thighs, they slap their arms to emphasize how much muscles they have it creates a loud sound and by that they say as if they are trying to intimidate their opponent by showing how much power they have but Krishna does that, now he is so tiny he is imitating others whom he has seen doing like that he does that and he tries to lift his lift the vessel and he shakes and shakes and shakes and when he can't lift it he becomes he becomes embarrassed, he blushes and he runs and hides in his mother's sari feeling shy at his lack of power now this actually intensifies Krishna's the love of devotees, Ishwara and Nandana Vajpayee Krishna, they all laugh and they feel he is a sweet boy and Krishna reciprocates that intensification of love so Krishna is not stuck with his attributes, he is he has whatever attributes are needed for the performance of his pastimes, he manifests them and other times he can unmanifest them of course in the context of this verse the emphatic point is that when we understand that Krishna is not an illusion that Krishna is not bound Krishna is enlightened and liberated then we can wholeheartedly put our faith in him we can have the confidence that he will enlighten and liberate us and therefore we should simply know and do what he wants us to do it's like a patient who has confidence, his doctor is healthy his doctor has healed other people and doctor knows how to heal me then the patient feels confident, yes let me just follow whatever the doctor tells me similarly by understanding that Krishna is beyond illusion we can get the confidence to surrender to Krishna.