This is the first place in the Song where Kṛṣṇa quietly shifts his standpoint — from Kṛṣṇa the friend to Kṛṣṇa the Absolute (recall the dual character noted in the Introduction). “One who knows, in truth, My divine birth and action, is not born again on leaving the body; he comes to Me.” He speaks not as a man claiming godhood, but as the realised one for whom the little “I” of Kṛṣṇa and the “I” of Brahman have become one. When a jīvanmukta says “Me,” the word no longer points to a body; it points to the Self that is the Self of all. The claim is startling only if we insist on hearing it from the lower vantage-point. From the higher one, it is simply a statement of fact.