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Bhagavad-Gītā with Śaṅkara's bhāṣya · 2.19
ya enaṃ vetti hantāraṃ yaś cainaṃ manyate hatam | ubhau tau na vijānīto nāyaṃ hanti na hanyate
Translation. Whoever knows this Self (ātman) as the killer,
and whoever considers it slain—
neither of those two understands:
this Self does not kill, nor is it killed.
Grammar check: 16 words pass / 0 flagged / 2 beyond the checkerPāṇini-verified
Every word's claimed grammar is re-derived with vidyut-prakriya, software implementing Pāṇini's rules. Flags are shown, never hidden; some are the text taking epic or Vedic liberties the classical rules do not generate.
Word by word
| surface | lemma | grammar |
|---|
| yaḥ | yad | pass |
| enam | enad | unsupported |
| vetti | vid | pass |
| hantāram | hantṛ | pass |
| yaḥ | yad | pass |
| ca | ca | pass |
| enam | enad | unsupported |
| manyate | man | pass |
| hatam | hata | pass |
| ubhau | ubha | pass |
| tau | tad | pass |
| na | na | pass |
| vijānītaḥ | jñā | pass |
| na | na | pass |
| ayam | idam | pass |
| hanti | han | pass |
| na | na | pass |
| hanyate | han | pass |
How the commentary settled it
Where the verse alone is ambiguous, the reading follows Śaṅkara's commentary; the deciding lines are quoted below each decision.
Both occurrences of enam and the later ayam denote the embodied Self (ātman) under discussion, not the physical body.→ the embodied Self under discussion
gita [1]enaṃ prakṛtaṃ dehinaṃ
‘this embodied one under discussion’
gita [2]avivekena ātmānam
‘the Self, through lack of discrimination’
Hantāram is a predicative accusative construed with enam and means ‘as the killer,’ specifically the agent of the act of killing.→ predicative accusative expressing supposed agency
gita [1]hantāraṃ hanana-kriyāyāḥ kartāraṃ
‘the killer, the agent of the act of killing’
Manyate is active in construction, and hatam is its predicative accusative: the second person mistakenly considers the Self to be slain because the body has been killed.→ ‘considers this Self slain’
gita [1]ya ca enam anyo manyate hataṃ deha-hananena hato 'ham iti hanana-kriyāyāḥ karma-bhūtam
‘and another who considers this slain—“I have been slain” through the killing of the body—as the object of the act of killing’
gita [3]hantā ahaṃ, hato 'smy aham iti deha-hananena ātmānam
‘[those who apprehend] the Self, through the killing of the body, as “I am the killer” or “I have been slain”’
Ubhau tau correlates with the two yaḥ clauses. The negative means that neither of those two possesses true knowledge of the Self; ātmānam is the understood object of vijānītaḥ.→ ‘neither of those two understands the Self’
gita [2]tau ubhau na vijānītaḥ na jñātavantau avivekena ātmānam
‘Those two both do not understand—have not known—the Self, owing to nondiscrimination.’
gita [3]yau vijānītaḥ tau ātma-svarūpānabhijñau ity arthaḥ
‘Those two who apprehend it thus are ignorant of the Self’s true nature: that is the meaning.’
Hanti is active and hanyate passive, but the verse denies that the immutable Self is respectively the agent or the affected object of killing.→ denial that the Self is either killing-agent or killed object, grounded in its immutability
gita [4]hanti na hanana-kriyāyāḥ kartā bhavati, na ca hanyate na ca karma bhavatīty arthaḥ, avikriyatvāt
‘It does not kill: it does not become the agent of the act of killing; nor is it killed, nor does it become the object—that is the meaning—because it is immutable.’
The lemma of ubhau is the nominal stem ubha, rather than the verbal root ubh proposed as the stem by Vyākaraṇī.
→ ubha
Śaṅkara's commentary on this unit
1ya enaṃ prakṛtaṃ dehinaṃ vetti vijānāti hantāraṃ hanana-kriyāyāḥ kartāraṃ ya ca enam anyo manyate hataṃ deha-hananena hato 'ham iti hanana-kriyāyāḥ karma-bhūtam |
2tau ubhau na vijānītaḥ na jñātavantau avivekena ātmānam |
3hantā ahaṃ, hato 'smy aham iti deha-hananena ātmānam ahaṃ pratyaya-viṣayaṃ yau vijānītaḥ tau ātma-svarūpānabhijñau ity arthaḥ |
4yasmāt na ayam atmā hanti na hanana-kriyāyāḥ kartā bhavati, na ca hanyate na ca karma bhavatīty arthaḥ, avikriyatvāt ||bhgs_2.19||
5katham avikriya ātmeti dvitīyo mantraḥ --