Bhagavad Gita 7.24
अव्यक्तं व्यक्तिमापन्नं मन्यन्ते मामबुद्धयः | परं भावमजानन्तो ममाव्ययमनुत्तमम् ||
avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ manyante mām abuddhayaḥ | paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto mamāvyayam anuttamam ||
Translation
Not knowing my supreme nature, inexhaustible and unsurpassed, the unwise think me, who am unperceived, to have become perceptible.
Reflection
Where have you mistaken a window for the full view?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Seven
The unintelligent think the unmanifest has become manifest. They do not know His supreme nature, inexhaustible and unsurpassed. The error is precise. They look at the visible form and think that is what He is. Or, more subtly, they think that He started out hidden and at some point came into view, like a swimmer surfacing. The truth, the verse insists, is otherwise. The visible never exhausts Him. The visible is a tiny window onto a presence that never came into view and never will. Treating the window as the whole is the mistake the chapter has been quietly correcting since the very first verse.