Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 7, Verse 26

वेदाहं समतीतानि वर्तमानानि चार्जुन |
भविष्याणि च भूतानि मां तु वेद न कश्चन || 26||

vedāhaṁ samatītāni vartamānāni chārjuna
bhaviṣhyāṇi cha bhūtāni māṁ tu veda na kaśhchana

veda—know; aham—I; samatītāni—the past; vartamānāni—the present; cha—and; arjuna—Arjun; bhaviṣhyāṇi—the future; cha—also; bhūtāni—all living beings; mām—me; tu—but; veda—knows; na kaśhchana—no one

vedaham samatitani vartamanani charjuna
bhavishyani cha bhutani mam tu veda na kashchana

Translation

BG 7.26: O Arjun, I know of past, present, and future, and I also know all living beings; but Me no one knows.

Commentary

In this verse, God declares that He is trikāl-darśhī—knower of the past, present, and the future. Most of us are forgetful of even what we were thinking a few hours ago; whereas, God is omniscient. He remembers and keeps a record of the deeds, words, and even the thoughts of each individual soul of the universe throughout their life and since their infinite lifetimes. God maintains this record of the sañchit karma or the stockpile of karmas of every soul for endless lifetimes because, as the governor of the law of karma, He dispenses justice to the souls.

Shree Krishna says that He has the knowledge of everything, the past, present, and the future. However, with our finite intellect, we cannot know the Almighty God. His infinite glory, splendor, energies, qualities, and extent are beyond the comprehension of our inadequate intellect.

The Vedic scriptures state:

yaḥ sarvajñaḥ sarvavidyasya jñānamayaṁ tapaḥ  (Muṇḍakopaniṣhad 1.1.9) [v25]

“God is all-knowing and omniscient. His austerity consists of knowledge.”

naiṣhā tarkeṇa matirāpaneyā  (Kaṭhopaniṣhad 1.2.9) [v26]

“God is beyond the scope of our intellectual logic.”

yato vācho nivartante aprāpya manasā saha  (Taittirīya Upaniṣhad 2.9.1) [v27]

“God cannot be described in words, nor can our mind comprehend Him.”

rām atarkya buddhi mana bānī, mata hamāra asa sunahi sayānī  (Ramayan) [v28]

“God cannot be analyzed by arguments or formulated by words, mind, and intellect.”

Only God knows Himself. However, if He finds some eligible soul, He bestows His grace upon that fortunate soul, and then with God’s divine intellect, the soul gets to know God. Therefore, only by God’s grace one can know God. Our material intellect does not have the capacity to know Him otherwise. The concept of God’s grace is discussed again in detail in 10.11 and 18.56.