Bhagavad Gita 2.21वेदाविनाशिनं नित्यं य एनमजमव्ययम्।कथं स पुरुषः पार्थ कं घातयति हन्ति कम् ॥
vedāvināśhinaṁ nityaṁ ya enam ajam avyayam
kathaṁ sa puruṣhaḥ pārtha kaṁ ghātayati hanti kam
Sanskrit recitation
You are more than this body · 2.11–2.30 · Teaching
Translation
Whoever knows it to be indestructible, eternal, unborn, and inexhaustible, how can that person slay, O Arjuna, or cause to be slain?
Hindi translation
हे पृथानन्दन! जो मनुष्य इस शरीरीको अविनाशी, नित्य, जन्मरहित और अव्यय जानता है, वह कैसे किसको मारे और कैसे किसको मरवाये?
Meaning
The enlightened sage who knows the immutable and indestructible Self through direct cognition or spiritual Anubhava (experience) cannot do the act of slaying. He cannot cause another to slay also.
After Swami Sivananda
You are more than this body· 2.11–2.30→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 2.11The Blessed Lord said, "You have grieved for those who should not be grieved for; yet, you…
- 2.12Nor, at any time, was I not, nor thou, nor these rulers of men; nor, verily, shall we ever…
- 2.13Just as the embodied soul passes through childhood, youth, and old age in this body, so…
- 2.14The contact of the senses with the objects, O son of Kunti, which causes heat and cold,…
- 2.15That firm man, whom surely these afflictions do not, O chief among men, to whom pleasure…
- 2.16The unreal has no being; there is no non-being of the real; the truth about both has been…
- 2.17Know that to be indestructible, by which all this is pervaded. No one can cause the…
- 2.18These bodies of the embodied Self, which are eternal, indestructible, and immeasurable,…
- 2.19He who takes the Self to be the slayer and he who thinks it is slain, neither of them…
- 2.20It is not born, nor does it ever die; after having been, it again does not cease to be;…
2.21Whoever knows it to be indestructible, eternal, unborn, and inexhaustible, how can that…
- 2.22Just as a man casts off worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, so too the embodied Self…
- 2.23Weapons cannot cut it, fire cannot burn it, water cannot wet it, wind cannot dry it.
- 2.24This Self cannot be cut, burned, wetted, nor dried up; it is eternal, all-pervasive,…
- 2.25This Self is said to be unmanifested, unthinkable, and unchangeable. Therefore, knowing…
- 2.26But even if thou thinkest of It as constantly being born and constantly dying, even then,…
- 2.27For the born, death is certain, and for the dead, birth is certain; therefore, you should…
- 2.28Beings are unmanifest in their beginning, manifest in their middle state, O Arjuna, and…
- 2.29One sees this (the Self) as a wonder; another speaks of it as a wonder; another hears of…
- 2.30This indweller in the body of everyone is ever indestructible, O Arjuna; therefore, you…
Word-by-word→
- kam
- whom
- ajam
- unborn
- enam
- this
- veda
- knows
- hanti
- kills
- saḥ
- that
- yaḥ
- who
- katham
- how
- nityam
- eternal
- avyayam
- immutable
- pārtha
- Parth
- ghātayati
- causes to be killed
- puruṣhaḥ
- person
- avināśhinam
- imperishable
Read this when you feel
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