Bhagavad Gita 2.21
Spoken by Krishna · Verse 21 of 72
वेदाविनाशिनं नित्यं य एनमजमव्ययम्। कथं स पुरुषः पार्थ कं घातयति हन्ति कम्॥
vedāvināśinaṃ nityaṃ ya enam ajam avyayam / kathaṃ sa puruṣaḥ pārtha kaṃ ghātayati hanti kam
If you know the soul is indestructible — who kills whom?
Word by word (4)
- vedāvināśinam nityam
- — one who knows this to be indestructible and eternal
- ya enam ajam avyayam
- — who knows it as unborn and unchanging
- katham sa puruṣaḥ pārtha
- — how can that person, O Partha
- kaṃ ghātayati hanti kam
- — cause whom to be killed? kill whom? · Two verbs: 'ghātayati' (cause to kill, instruct killing) and 'hanti' (kill directly). Both are covered — neither agency applies to one who knows the Atman.
'O Partha, if someone knows this to be indestructible, eternal, unborn, and unchanging — how can that person kill? How can they cause anyone to be killed?'
A modern analogy
If you know with certainty that what you're dealing with cannot be harmed, the action loses its most frightening dimension. A surgeon cutting a tumor knows the cutting is for healing, not harm. The 'harm' is to something that was already destructive. Krishna is extending this: if you know the soul cannot be killed, the act of battle changes its character entirely.
Take with you
- The knowledge of the Atman's indestructibility changes one's relationship to action — especially difficult action.
- Two questions: 'kaṃ ghātayati' (who does he cause to be killed?) and 'hanti kam' (whom does he kill?) — both rhetorical, both pointing to: no one real.
- This verse connects the philosophical teaching directly to Arjuna's situation: if you truly understand that you are unborn, undying, and never slain when the body is slain, how can you hesitate?
Public-domain translations (3) compare all →
O Partha, how can that man who knows this to be indestructible, eternal, unborn, and immutable, kill anyone or cause anyone to be killed? [4]
Who knows it birthless, knows it deathless, knows it everlasting, knows it ancient — how can such kill? How can he cause to kill? [7]
O son of Pritha, how can that man who knows this soul to be indestructible, eternal, unborn, and inexhaustible, slay any person or cause any person to be slain? [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Unborn. Undying. Ancient. Eternal. Not slain when the body is slain — this is what you are.
All actions are done by the gunas of nature. The ego-deluded one thinks 'I am the doer' — this is the root of bondage.
By bhakti one truly knows what and who I am; then knowing Me truly, one enters into Me immediately.
Where yogeśvara Kṛṣṇa is, where archer Pārtha stands — there abide fortune, victory, flourishing, and steadfast dharma.
No being — neither on earth nor among the devas in heaven — is free from these three guṇas born of Prakṛti.
The duties of Brāhmaṇas, Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas, and Śūdras are distributed by the guṇas born of their own nature.
Verse 21 of 72 · back to Chapter 2