When Brahman can't be known through five means of knowledge, then it is only revealed by śāstra as an independent means of knowledge in the form of words. It is called śabda-pramānam. Though the words of śāstra need to be cognised by ears and operated in the mind just like how any other knowledge works, but the words are not revealing brahman, since the mind can't arrive at it. Śruti makes it through śabda - sentence, creates the vrtti - thought in the buddhi which removes the ignorance of self being brahman. This kind of operation is possible only because brahman is self evident me. Only by the removal of wrong notion about myself, this fact becomes evident to me, just like when we want to reveal the source of light which is covered, we only need to remove the cover, without shining another light on it to make it evident. This is how śabda-pramānam works.
Pramānam means appropriate means employed to know particular knowledge, which result is not in our hand. Just like when we wish to see, what we can do is just open our eyes, because perception takes place without our control. In the same way with regards to ātma-jñānam, when appropriate means is deployed, self knowledge is known as it is " I am limitless brahman". There is no other means can give mokṣa because the problem is ignorance about the self which is already here, and nothing else resolves ignorance except the knowledge of the self. Ātmā is already self evident, only we have the ignorance about its nature. Therefore śabda-pramānam in the form of words revealing I the self evident ātmā is that limitless brahman. We know ātmā, but we don't know brahman. How do we arrive at this oneness? Therefore negating what I am not this body-mind-sense-complex, we arrive at consciousness I, and by negating what brahman is not (na sat na asat) arrives at consciousness ātmā the negator who is self-evident. In all other pramāna's operation, the knower continues to be the subject related to the object known. But when we listen to the words "you are brahman", the knower gives up the status "I the knower" who identify with the body-mind-sense-complex, and resolves into the known. There is no difference between the knower and known.
As long as there is no pratibandha - obstruction for one to understand this fact, there is no reason one doesn't get the result of śabda-pramānam. Therefore removal obstructions by karma yoga and all the values which described in previous verses is an important factor for the pramāna to work.
In the commentary śankara-ācārya introduces next verse saying when it is not an object of word sat, like a pot is, there can be a doubt that it is non-existence like rabbit-horn. To remove that doubt, Lord Krsna shows the existence of that which is to be known, jñeya, through the existence of this world.
sarvataḥ pāṇipādaṁ tat sarvato 'kṣiśiromukham | sarvataḥ śrutimalloke sarvam āvṛtya tiṣṭhati||13.13||
That (jñeyam brahman) has hands and feet on all sides, has eyes, heads and mouths (faces) on all sides, has ears on all sides in the (bodies) of the people, and remains pervading everything.
We can't experience brahman, but we know existence of brahman through manifested object which we called upādhi - medium of manifestation. Just like we couldn't perceive light per-se, and whatever light we perceive is always light with attribute. Even though it is the light which we are seeing but what is recognised in the mind is the attribute of the object. In the same way we recognise the existence of brahman only through superimposition on name and form, after negating the dependent reality of upādhi, what left out is brahman alone. Only with this method, attribute-less brahman is brought to understanding - adhyaropāpavādabyām nisprapancam prapancyate. This mithya - depending reality world is not separated from brahman because brahman lending the existence to it. It is established that brahman exists not as one of the objects but the world - jagat. Therefore brahman is said to have hand and feet on all sides - sarvataḥ pāṇipādaṁ tat. Wherever there are hands and feet they are the hands and feet of brahman. One awareness appears as the whole creation in the form of the five elements which have themselves become hands, legs, etc. sarvato 'kṣiśiromukham - having eyes, heads and mouths in all sides, sarvataḥ śrutimalloke - having ears all sides in the body of all people. Wherever either as a physical body which is nothing but an assembly of various limbs, or subtle senses, that is brahman. Even though brahman pervades all - sarvam āvṛtya, but it doesn't undergo any change to become them - tiṣṭhati. Therefore brahman is said to be transformed as it were into this creation, just like the rope transforms to be a snake as it were.
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