Bhagavad Gita · Chapter 7: Knowledge and Realization

Bhagavad Gita 7.24

avyaktaṃ vyaktimāpannaṃ manyante māmabuddhayaḥ | paraṃ bhāvamajānanto mamāvyayamanuttamam ||

The unintelligent think of me, the unmanifest, as having become manifest. They do not know my higher nature, which is imperishable and unsurpassed.

Modern context

People see Krishna as a man born at a certain time and place and think that is all he is. They mistake the form for the whole. The same mistake happens with people we know well. We see someone's job, their habits, their age, and think we know them, missing the depth underneath. The verse asks us to remember that what appears is never the whole of what is. Behind every visible form there is more than we see.