Arjuna then saw the effulgence of light known as the brahma-jyotir. The brahma-jyotir is situated outside the covering of the material universes, and because it cannot be seen with our present eyes, this brahma-jyotir is sometimes called avyakta. This spiritual effulgence is the ultimate destination of the impersonalists known as Vedāntists. The brahma-jyotir is also described as ananta-pāram, unlimited and unfathomed. When Lord Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna reached this region of the brahma-jyotir, Arjuna could not tolerate the glaring effulgence, and he closed his eyes. Lord Kṛṣṇa's and Arjuna's reaching the brahma-jyotir region is described in the Hari-vaṁśa. In that portion of the Vedic literature, Kṛṣṇa informs Arjuna, "My dear Arjuna, the glaring effulgence, the transcendental light you are seeing, is My bodily rays. O chief of the descendants of Bharata, this brahma-jyotir is I Myself." As the sun disc and the sunshine cannot be separated, Kṛṣṇa and His bodily rays, the brahma-jyotir, cannot be separated. Thus Kṛṣṇa claims that the brahma-jyotir is He Himself. This is clearly stated in the Hari-vaṁśa, when Kṛṣṇa says ahaṁ saḥ. The brahma-jyotir is a combination of the minute particles known as spiritual sparks, or the living entities, known as cit-kaṇa. The Vedic words so ’ham, or "I am the brahma-jyotir," can also be applied to the living entities, who can also claim to belong to the brahma-jyotir. In the Hari-vaṁśa, Kṛṣṇa further explains, "This brahma-jyotir is an expansion of My spiritual energy."
Kṛṣṇa told Arjuna, "The brahma-jyotir is beyond the region of My external energy, known as māyā-śakti." When one is situated within the material world, it is not possible to experience this Brahman effulgence. In other words, in the material world this effulgence is not manifested, whereas in the spiritual world it is manifested. That is the purport of the words vyakta-avyakta in the Hari-vaṁśa. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, avyakto ’vyaktāt sanātanaḥ: both these energies are eternally manifested.