The Vedānta-sūtra also confirms this, janmādy asya yataḥ. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. What is Brahman? This is explained in one code word, janmādy asya yataḥ: Brahman is that from whom everything is emanating. That's all. Brahman is that from whom, or from which—whatever you like—everything is emanated. So that supreme source, summum bonum of everything, is described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: janmādy asya yato 'nvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ svarāṭ.
That supreme source of everything, what is the nature of that supreme source of everything? Now the Bhāgavata says, janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataś ca arthesu abhijñaḥ. He is conscious. First qualification is conscious. The supreme source cannot be unconscious. Why? Because we are conscious being. So we are also emanation from the Supreme Lord, the living entities. Some of the living entities are moving, some of the living entities, they do not move. Just like the trees, the hills, the mountains, they have got also their life. So they are not moving. We are moving. Man, human being, cats, dogs and ants, so many there are. So they are conscious. So unless the Supreme Lord is conscious, the supreme source of all generation is conscious, wherefrom this consciousness can come?
So the philosophy that the supreme source is void, how you can maintain? Wherefrom this consciousness comes? They say that consciousness is generated by the combination of matter. Up till now, no scientist has proved that by combination of chemicals and matter, physical things, one can produce consciousness. So the Bhāgavata very nicely describes that the supreme source of everything, He is conscious. Conscious. Janmādy asya yataḥ anvayāt itarataś ca.
Now, He is conscious in two ways: anvayāt itarataś ca. Directly and indirectly. Just like we are also conscious, but we are directly conscious. Indirectly, we are not conscious. Indirectly we are not conscious. But God is all-powerful supreme consciousness. Therefore He's directly conscious and indirectly conscious.
In the Bhagavad-gītā, you will find that Kṛṣṇa says that vedāhaṁ samatītāni vartamānāni ca bhārata (BG 7.26): "I know everything about atītāni, what is past, everything what is past, and I know what is present, I know what is future." And on this understanding, Kṛṣṇa says in the Second Chapter, you may remember that, "You, Me and all these persons who have assembled here, they were individual person in the past, they are individual persons now, and they will continue to be individual person in the future." This is consciousness, anvayāt itarataś ca.