Lord Krishna tells Yudishtra to put his questions to Bhishma, if he has any doubts regarding dharma. Bhishma then gives the thousand names of the Supreme One, and this is how the world was blessed with the Vishnu Sahasranama. When Bhishma finishes reciting the thousand names of the Lord, Yudishtra asks him who the Supreme One is! Bhishma points to Krishna and says that Krishna is the Supreme One. Krishna has lived in the midst of the Pandavas and has been on their side throughout, saving them from many dangers and offering them His unstinting support. He has shown them His divinity in many ways, and yet His simplicity has veiled His Supremacy.
It takes Bhishma to point out His divinity to Yudishtra. So even when God is close to us, and beside us, we do not recognise Him, said Kidambi Narayanan, in a discourse.
In Kunti Stuthi, Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas, refers to this unfathomable nature of the Supreme One. It is almost as if a curtain veils Him from our understanding. Even sages have difficulty understanding Him. Those who find wealth and fame attractive can never get near Him. But gnanis , to whom worldly distractions are insignificant and immaterial, are close to Him. He is close to them too. A person who has renounced all his desires and worldly attachments, a person who performs his duties with the full consciousness that it is the Lord who is in charge, such a gnani is dear to the Lord.
A person does not have to literally take to sanyasa to be a gnani . Sanyasa is simply a state of mind. If a man remains in worldly life and yet is unattached to anything, he too then is a sanyasi. This kind of mental sanyasa is a characteristic of gnana .
