There is nothing beyond Kṛṣṇa
The words "Om Tat Sat" are very important in Vedic literature. In short, Om tat sat means "Absolute Truth is Eternal". However, just like other Vedic mantras, it has a very deep meaning.
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We tend to think that this material world is separated from Kṛṣṇa. We are here, He is there, and we need to go to Him. However, in truth, the material creation is also composed of the energy of Kṛṣṇa and is not independent of Him. Pure devotees can live in this world while remaining fully absorbed in the service of Kṛṣṇa. What causes material existence is not being here geographically, but accepting the illusion of being an enjoyer here. When we understand that this world is also the energy of Kṛṣṇa and should thus be used in His service, we can see the spiritual reality behind it.
In the Gītā, Kṛṣṇa defines the material elements as bhinnā prakṛtiḥ, His separated material energies.
Why is that? The reason the material energy is called separated is that, although the energy is anchored in Kṛṣṇa, He is not directly present there in His personal form. This is a complicated discussion: everything exists within Kṛṣṇa and depends upon Him, and Kṛṣṇa pervades everything as Paramātmā. Still, His personal form is not transformed into the material creation. He is the source of the cosmic manifestation, but at the same time, He remains transcendental and independent from it. The cosmic manifestation is thus separated but not independent.
Prabhupāda explains it with a simple example: milk comes from the cow and depends upon the cow, but milk is not the cow. The cow contains milk, but milk does not contain the cow.
The correct answer, thus, is that the material cosmos is Kṛṣṇa in one sense, because it is His energy and has no existence apart from Him; but at the same time, it is not Kṛṣṇa because the energy is not the complete energetic Person. It is one and different, as explained in the acintya-bhedābheda-tattva philosophy of Mahāprabhu. When we use material assets for Kṛṣṇa in devotional service, they become connected with Him and thus spiritualized, but when we use the same objects for our sense gratification, they become material.
Prabhupāda deals with this complicated philosophical problem in Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers:
“Śrīla Prabhupāda: We accept what Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, “This earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, and ego – they are My eight separated energies.”
Bob: They are separated energies?
Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like this milk. What is this milk? The separated energy of the cow. [Śyāmasundara and Bob, stunned, laugh in realization.] Is it not? It is the manifestation of the separated energy of the cow. “Separated” means that this is made out of the body of the cow but it is not the cow. That is separation.
Bob: So, this earth and all is made out of Kṛṣṇa but it is not Kṛṣṇa?
Śrīla Prabhupāda: It is not Kṛṣṇa. Or, you can say it is Kṛṣṇa and not Kṛṣṇa simultaneously. That is our philosophy – one and different. You cannot say that the things of this world are different from Kṛṣṇa, because without Kṛṣṇa they have no existence. At the same time, you cannot say, “Then let me worship water. Why worship Kṛṣṇa?” The pantheists say that because everything is God, whatever we do is God worship. This is Māyāvāda philosophy – that because everything is made of God’s energy, therefore everything is God. But our philosophy is that everything is God but also not God.”
In this way, everything depends on Kṛṣṇa, but Kṛṣṇa does not depend on anything. A materialist could argue that God depends on the universe because God would be meaningless without the creation, but the philosophy of the Gītā is deeper than that. Kṛṣṇa has His own abode, associates, and activities. He is not entangled in this material creation and doesn’t depend on it in any way. On the contrary, He comes here to reclaim us. The cosmic manifestation, however, cannot exist without Kṛṣṇa; the universe exists only because He sustains it, just as pearls remain together in a necklace because of the thread connecting them. We are also completely dependent on Kṛṣṇa at every step. Without His empowerment and sanction, we cannot move or even breathe.
This point is essential for realizing the transcendental knowledge Kṛṣṇa reveals in the subsequent chapters. Once we understand that both the material and spiritual potencies belong to Kṛṣṇa and depend completely upon Him, we can begin to see Him everywhere, which is the foundation for always remembering Him, fulfilling the perfection of yoga described at the end of the previous chapter.
Bg 7.7 also poses a challenge to the impersonalists. Māyāvādīs argue that Kṛṣṇa is just a manifestation of the impersonal Brahman, which assumes a form and performs activities under the influence of the material modes. Kṛṣṇa Himself, however, challenges this by declaring mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (there is nothing beyond Me). Later, in 14.27, He reinforces it by declaring: brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham (And I am the pratiṣṭhā, the basis, rest, or foundation of the impersonal Brahman).
A Māyāvādī could argue based on the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad, which mentions: tato yad uttara-taraṁ tad arūpam anāmayam, ya etad vidur amṛtās te bhavanti athetare duḥkham evāpiyanti. The verse describes the Absolute Truth with the words arūpam (without form) and anāmayam (free from defect). Therefore, they argue, if the Absolute Truth is without form, how can Kṛṣṇa be the ultimate manifestation of this Absolute Truth? Prabhupāda, however, calls the bluff: Arūpam in this context does not mean without form. It means without material form. This is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā: īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (The Supreme Absolute Truth is Kṛṣṇa, who is the primeval Lord, the reservoir of all pleasure, and the eternal form of complete bliss and knowledge). The correct meaning of the words “arūpam anāmayam” of the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad is thus “without material form and free from all material contaminations.”
This leads to the translation given by Śrīla Prabhupāda in his purport to text 7.7: “In the material world Brahmā, the primeval living entity within the universe, is understood to be the supreme amongst the demigods, human beings and lower animals. But beyond Brahmā there is the Transcendence, who has no material form and is free from all material contaminations. Anyone who can know Him also becomes transcendental, but those who do not know Him suffer the miseries of the material world.”
Kṛṣṇa is behind Brahmā and the whole cosmic manifestation. He is even behind the impersonal Brahmajyoti. There is, however, nothing beyond Him. He is the Supreme Absolute Truth.
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