Sanskrit
वेदाहं समतीतानि वर्तमानानि चार्जुन । भविष्याणि च भूतानि मां तु वेद न कश्चन ॥ २६ ॥
vedāhaṃ samatītāni vartamānāni cārjuna bhaviṣyāṇi ca bhūtāni māṃ tu veda na kaścana
Translation
I know the beings that are past, that are present, that are to come, O Arjuna, but no one knoweth Me.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
A striking asymmetry stated in one line: Krishna knows all beings across past, present, and future, but “no one knoweth Me.” It reframes verses 14 and 25’s talk of maya and concealment as not incidental but total — the knowledge gap runs one direction only, and nothing earlier in the chapter has claimed otherwise, since even verse 19’s rare mahatma arrives at realization “at the close of many births,” not at will. Māṃ tu veda na kaścana — “but Me, none knows” — is the plainest statement of the one-way gap that māyā enforces. The rare exception (BG 7.19) proves the rule by how long it takes.
Study deeper
Word by word
- vedāhaṃ samatītāniवेदाहं समतीतानि
- I know the beings that are past (veda + aham + samatītāni)
- vartamānāni cārjunaवर्तमानानि चार्जुन
- the present, O Arjuna (vartamānāni + ca + arjuna)
- bhaviṣyāṇi ca bhūtāniभविष्याणि च भूतानि
- and those yet to come (bhaviṣyāṇi + ca + bhūtāni)
- māṃ tu veda na kaścanaमां तु वेद न कश्चन
- but Me no one knows (mām + tu + veda + na + kaścana)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The first half of this verse works hard to be thorough — past, present, and future beings, three separate terms for three separate tenses. The second half doesn’t bother: “no one knoweth Me,” stated flatly, without any tense markers of its own. The asymmetry in effort mirrors the asymmetry in content — one side of the claim gets elaborated because it can be broken into cases, the other doesn’t need elaborating because it simply holds, always.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Notice when you're putting far more effort into explaining one side of a situation than the other — sometimes that imbalance is honest, because one side really is more complex, and sometimes it's a sign you're avoiding the harder, simpler truth on the other side by burying it under detail.
Professional
- When a status update elaborates extensively on what's going well and dispatches what's failing in one flat sentence, notice the asymmetry itself as information — effort spent explaining often tracks what's genuinely complex, and a flat, unelaborated line can be hiding something that needs more scrutiny, not less.
Family & Social
- If you find yourself giving someone close to you a detailed, elaborate explanation on one topic and a flat one-line dismissal on another, notice what that imbalance in effort is actually telling you — and them — about which topic you'd rather not examine closely.
Ask yourself
A few ways to take this verse past reading. Ticks and the note stay in this browser.