True knowledge of God comes through hearing from Krishna's own explanation, not through material speculation or sensory perception.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Bhagavad-gītā 7.4 — October 31, 1975, Nairobi 751031BG-NAIROBI [50:27 Minutes] BG-07.04_751031BG-NAIROBI Harikeśa: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Chapter Seven, text number four.
[leads chanting of verse, etc.] bhūmir āpo 'nalo vayuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā [Bg. 7.4] [02:40] Translation: "Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego—altogether these eight comprise My separated material energies." Prabhupāda: bhūmir āpo 'nalo vayuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā [Bg. 7.4] Kṛṣṇa is explaining Himself. God is explaining what is God. That is real knowledge. If you speculate on God, it is not possible.
You cannot understand. The God, Kṛṣṇa, in the beginning said, asaṁśayaṁ samagraṁ māṁ yathā jñāsyasi tac chṛṇu [Bg. 7.1]. Samagram. Samagra means whatever...
Or samagra means complete. So whatever subject for study and knowledge there is, God is the sum total of everything, one. God is the sum total of everything. Therefore He begins to explain Himself that... First of all, because we have no information of God but practically we see the vast land, the vast water, ocean, the vast sky, then fire, so many things, material things, material things, also mind...
Mind is also material. And then ego. Everyone is thinking that "I am something. I am..." Kartāham iti manyate.
Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. This false ego. This ego means false ego. And there is pure ego.
That pure ego is ahaṁ brahmāsmi(1), and the false ego: "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am African," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am kṣatriya," "I am this," "I am that." This is false ego, ahaṅkāra. So at the present moment... Not at the present; always we are surrounded by all these things. That is our beginning of philosophy: Wherefrom this land came?