Verse 7.23 contrasted the seeker of finite results with the devotee who seeks Bhagavān as the infinite. Verse 7.24 now explains a deeper reason why some devotees remain confined to the finite: they have not yet understood Bhagavān completely.

Kṛṣṇa says, avyaktaṃ vyaktimāpannaṃ manyante māmabuddhayaḥ — those without proper discrimination think of Me as something previously unmanifest that has now become manifest. A devotee sees Kṛṣṇa’s physical form appear through Devakī, grow from a child into a youth, live and act in the world, and eventually disappear from visible human experience. If that physical body is taken to be the entirety of Bhagavān, then Bhagavān seems to have a beginning and an end. Before the avatāra appears, one may say, “Bhagavān is not here.” When the form becomes visible, one says, “Bhagavān has come.” When the form is no longer visible, one says, “Bhagavān has gone.”

Kṛṣṇa says that this conclusion comes from knowing only His aparā prakṛti, His lower nature. The avatāra body belongs to the material order. A body has form, occupies space, and undergoes change. Baby Kṛṣṇa, young Kṛṣṇa, adult Kṛṣṇa—these changes belong to the bodily aspect. What changes cannot be the complete nature of the infinite Bhagavān.

That does not make the sacred form false or unworthy of worship. Saguṇa Bhagavān is a valid and important means of devotion. The mistake is not loving the form; the mistake is thinking that Bhagavān is exhausted by the form.

Kṛṣṇa therefore says, paraṃ bhāvam ajānantaḥ — such devotees do not know My higher nature. That higher nature is caitanya-svarūpam, consciousness. This is the parā prakṛti introduced earlier in Chapter 7. It is not the physical body, not the changing mind, and not another material object hidden somewhere inside the body. Consciousness is that because of which every experience is known.

When there is sound, the sound is known. When the sound stops, the silence is known. When a thought arises, the thought is known. When that thought disappears, its absence is known. Forms are known when present, and their absence is also known. Through all these changes, the consciousness because of which presence and absence are known does not itself come and go with each experience.

This is why Bhagavān’s higher nature cannot be described as arriving and departing. The physical form may appear and disappear, but the caitanya principle is ever present.

Kṛṣṇa describes this higher nature as avyayam — changeless and undecaying. A body changes. A mind changes. Emotions, thoughts, and experiences change. But consciousness does not become younger when the body is young or older when the body grows old. It does not become damaged because a thought is unpleasant or improved because a thought is pleasant. The changes belong to aparā prakṛti; the consciousness in whose presence those changes are known is nirvikāram, free from modification.

Kṛṣṇa then calls this nature anuttamam — unsurpassable, the highest. The visible form is sacred, but it belongs to the changing expression of Bhagavān. The higher nature is limitless caitanya, not restricted by one body, one place, one time, or one avatāra.

This produces a major change in one’s understanding of devotion. At an earlier stage, the devotee may say, “Bhagavān came in this avatāra,” “Bhagavān appeared before this devotee,” or “Bhagavān disappeared.” These statements refer to manifest forms of Bhagavān. The higher Bhagavān never arrives because the all-pervading cannot arrive somewhere it was previously absent, and the higher Bhagavān never departs because consciousness is ever evident.

Thus the wise devotee does not abandon Kṛṣṇa’s form. The devotee learns what the form ultimately reveals. The form becomes a doorway to the formless. Saguṇa-bhakti matures toward nirguṇa-jñānam, and worship of Bhagavān through aparā prakṛti becomes the means for discovering parā prakṛti.

7.24 therefore warns us not to reduce Bhagavān to what the eyes can see. The visible sacred form may appear and disappear, but Bhagavān’s higher nature is the changeless, unsurpassable consciousness that is never absent. Complete devotion must eventually lead from loving Bhagavān in form to recognizing the limitless reality revealed through that form.