"The above verse takes a bird's-eye view of the whole subject. Similarly every verse of the _Bhágabat_ is like a rik. In the 'four verses' the _Bhágabat_ has unfolded the characteristics of Connection, Means (_abhidheya_), and Need. Connection with 'I' is the truth; perception of 'I' is the highest knowledge, the devotion and faith necessary to attain to 'I' is called the Means. The fruit of devotion is love, which is the radical Need. That love enables a man to enjoy 'I'. _Vide_ the _Bhágabat_, II. ix. 30, God's words to Brahmá: _'The knowledge of me is deeply mysterious. Accept as spoken by me whatever is united to supreme knowledge (bijnán), attended by mystery, and a part of tat.' Or in other words, God says here, 'These three truths have I explained to you, because being a creature you could not have understood them, viz., my nature, my dwelling (sthiti), and my attributes, works, and six powers. My grace will inspire you with all these.'_ So saying God imparted the three truths to Brahmá: (i) _Bhágabat_ II. ix. 31,-- _'May you, through my grace, at once attain to true knowledge about the nature of my form (swarup), my component element (sattwa), and my attributes and acts.'_ (God's speech to Brahma). "Or in other words, God says 'Before creation, being myself endowed with the six divine powers, and drawing into myself _Prapancha_-Nature, I create while dwelling within it. The _Prapancha_ that men beholds is no other than me. In destruction my remaining attributes manifest themselves, completing me and so _Prapancha_-nature finds absorption in me.' "(2) Again, _Bhágabat_, II. ix. 32, God speaks to Brahmá:-- _'This I alone existed before creation, and none else. Nature, the cause of the gross and subtle universes, did not then exist. This I alone exist even after creation; this universe is indeed myself. Whatever will survive the destruction (pralaya) of the world will also be this I.'_ "In this verse the phrase 'This I' occurs thrice and determines the dwelling of the full-power divine incarnation (_vigraha_). He has (clearly) pronounced on this point in order to rebuke those (philosophers) who do not admit incarnations (_vigraha_). The term '_this_' indicates _jnán_, _vijnán_, and _vivek_. Illusion is God's work, therefore God's self ('_I_') is different from illusion, just as a faint glow shines in the sky where the Sun was, but it cannot appear of itself without aid of the Sun. It is only by going beyond illusion that we can perceive. Here the truth of Connection [with God] has been unfolded. "(3) Next in _Bhágabat_, II. ix. 33, God tells Brahmá,-- _'Know that to be my illusion which being unreal appears to the (human) mind as real, or being real is not recognized by the mind; just as the reflection in the water of the moon of the sky, though unreal, seems to be a second moon indeed; or as the Rahu of darkness, though real, escapes man's perception.'_