Sanskrit
न मे विदुः सुरगणाः प्रभवं न महर्षयः । अहमादिर्हि देवानां महर्षीणां च सर्वशः ॥ २ ॥
na me viduḥ suragaṇāḥ prabhavaṃ na maharṣayaḥ ahamādir hi devānāṃ maharṣīṇāṃ ca sarvaśaḥ
Translation
The multitude of the Shining Ones, or the great Rishis, know not my forthcoming, for I am the beginning of all the Shining Ones and the great Rishis.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
A claim of self-causation: neither the gods nor the great Rishis know Krishna’s origin, because he is prior to and the origin of both classes. This sets the metaphysical ceiling the rest of the chapter operates under — every specific manifestation named from verse 21 onward is downstream of a source that is, by this verse’s own logic, unknowable in the ordinary sense.