भक्त्या मामभिजानाति यावान्यश्चास्मि तत्त्वतः ।
ततो मां तत्त्वतो ज्ञात्वा विशते तदनन्तरम् ॥ १८.५५ ॥

bhaktyā mām-abhijānāti yāvān-yaścāsmi tattvata: |
tato mām tattvato jñātvā viśate tad-anantaram || 18.55 ||

By devotion he comes to know the Supreme well - what and who It is. Knowing the supreme Reality thus in essence, he enters into It.

By means of such intense and wholesome devotion, the seeker comes to know the supreme Reality. The supreme Reality always remains a lofty concept, the cause and source of creation. The world being stupendous on all fronts, its source must be all the more so. How can one comprehend it then, much less access it?

The mind is, after all, within our limited body. The natural doubt is: it must also be equally limited. Can such a mind climb to the required level to comprehend the Supreme? But all this skepticism vanishes, once the mind becomes pure, sublime and refined, bereft of all notes of desire, hatred and ego.

Getting thus the essential knowledge of the Supreme, the seeker feels his existence is already within It, as is the world within the unbounded space. The earth, sun, moon, stars and all else come within the world. Likewise, the seeker as an entity is undoubtedly within the Supreme.

The entry he feels is not a physical one, like water or air entering a jar. It is a knowledge process. He comes to know that his being is already within the Supreme. Not that it was not earlier, but he did not know it so far. Now the knowledge and confirmation have dawned in him unshakably. As a result, he realizes how he is already dissolved or merged into the Supreme (viśate tad-anantaram).

Generally, devotees have wonderful ideas about God as well as the merger into Him, the supreme Divinity. In many instances, devotional imagination is quite picturesque. But if the subject is thought of in a rational, philosophical manner, there is enough clarity to be gained in the matter. Our being is already within the orbit of God or Divinity. What is required is the dawning of the understanding and realization that this is so.