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Bhagavad-Gītā with Śaṅkara's bhāṣya · 2.20
na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin nāyaṃ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ | ajo nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṃ purāṇo na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre
Translation. It is never born, nor does it ever die;
this Self (ātman) does not, after coming to be, later pass into non-being,
nor, like a body, does it come to be after not having been.
Unborn (aja), eternal (nitya), undecaying (śāśvata),
primeval—ever new even of old—(purāṇa) is this Self;
it is not transformed (vipariṇāma) when the body is transformed.
Grammar check: 20 words pass / 0 flagged / 1 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 |
|---|
| na | na | pass |
| jāyate | jan | pass |
| mriyate | mṛ | pass |
| vā | vā | pass |
| kadācit | kadācit | unsupported |
| na | na | pass |
| ayam | idam | pass |
| bhūtvā | bhū | pass |
| bhavitā | bhū | pass |
| vā | vā | pass |
| na | na | pass |
| bhūyaḥ | bhūyas | pass |
| ajaḥ | aja | pass |
| nityaḥ | nitya | pass |
| śāśvataḥ | śāśvata | pass |
| ayam | idam | pass |
| purāṇaḥ | purāṇa | pass |
| na | na | pass |
| hanyate | han | pass |
| hanyamāne | hanyamāna | pass |
| śarīre | śarīra | 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.
Take jāyate as origination and mriyate as final destruction, with vā functioning conjunctively (‘and/nor’) rather than presenting an alternative.→ vā is conjunctive: ‘It is not born, nor does it die.’
gita [1, 2, 3, 4]na jāyate notpadyate, jani-lakṣaṇā vastu-vikriyā na ātmano vidyate ity arthaḥ |
tathā na mriyate vā |
vā-śabdaḥ cārthe |
na mriyate ca iti antyā vināśa-lakṣaṇā vikriyā pratiṣidhyate |
‘It is not born’ means ‘it does not arise’: the transformation of a thing characterized as birth does not belong to the Self. Likewise, ‘nor does it die.’ The word vā has the sense of ca. Thus the final transformation characterized as destruction is denied.
Give kadācit broad scope over all the denials of transformation, not merely over the immediately adjacent verb mriyate.→ ‘It is never born, nor does it ever die,’ with the temporal denial applying throughout the verse’s transformation predicates.
gita [5]kadācic chabdaḥ sarva-vikriyā-pratiṣedhaiḥ saṃbadhyate -- na kadācit jāyate, na kadācit mriyate, ity evam |
The word kadācit is connected with all the denials of transformation: ‘it is never born, it never dies,’ and so on.
Analyze bhūtvā as an absolutive of bhū and bhavitā as the third-person singular periphrastic future. Read the coordinated negations as excluding both passage from being into non-being and, conversely, coming into being after prior non-being; bhūyaḥ means ‘again/thereafter.’→ ‘This Self does not, after coming to be, later pass into non-being; nor, like a body, does it come to be after not having been.’
gita [6]yasmāt ayam ātmā bhūtvā bhavana-kriyām anubhūya paścāt abhavitā abhāvaṃ gantā na bhūyaḥ punaḥ, tasmāt na mriyate |
Because this Self does not, after having come to be and undergone the act of becoming, later become nonexistent—one who goes to non-being—again, therefore it does not die.
gita [8, 9, 10, 11, 12]vā-śabdāt na-śabdāc ca ayam ātmā abhūtvā vā bhavitā dehavat na bhūyaḥ |
tasmāt na jāyate |
yo hi abhūtvā bhavitā sa jāyata ity ucyate |
naivam ātmā |
ato na jāyate |
Because of vā and na, this Self also does not, like the body, come to be after not having been. Therefore it is not born. One who, not having been, will come to be is said to be born. The Self is not such; therefore it is not born.
Interpret aja as ‘unborn’ and nitya as ‘eternal,’ with each epithet summarizing a preceding denial: no birth and no death respectively.→ ‘Unborn (aja), eternal (nitya).’
gita [13]yasmād evaṃ tasmāt ajaḥ, yasmāt na mriyate tasmāt nityaś ca |
Because it is so, it is unborn; because it does not die, it is also eternal.
Render śāśvata specifically as ‘undecaying,’ because the commentary uses it to deny the intermediate transformation of diminution, whether of substance or qualities.→ ‘Undecaying (śāśvata).’
gita [14, 15, 16, 17, 18]yadyapi ādy-antayor vikriyayoḥ pratiṣedhe sarvā vikriyāḥ pratiṣiddhā bhavanti, tathāpi madhya-bhāvinīnāṃ vikriyāṇāṃ sva-śabdair eva pratiṣedhaḥ kartavyo 'nuktānām api yauvanādi-samasta-vikriyāṇāṃ pratiṣedho yathā syāt ity āha-- śāśvata ity ādinā |
śāśvata iti apakṣaya-lakṣaṇā vikriyā pratiṣidhyate |
śaśvad-bhavaḥ śāśvataḥ |
na apakṣīyate svarūpeṇa, niravayavatvāt |
nāpi guṇa-kṣayeṇa apakṣayaḥ, nirguṇatvāt |
Although denial of the initial and final transformations denies all transformations, the intervening transformations are nevertheless denied by their own words so that every unmentioned transformation, such as youth and the rest, may also be excluded; hence ‘śāśvata’ and the following words. By śāśvata the transformation characterized as decay is denied. Śāśvata is that which exists always. It does not decay in its own nature because it is partless, nor through loss of qualities because it is without qualities.
Interpret purāṇa as denying growth, not simply as ‘old.’ Śaṅkara draws out the expression ‘new even of old’: the partless Self cannot increase through an accession of parts.→ ‘Primeval (purāṇa)—ever new even of old.’
gita [19, 20, 21]apakṣaya-viparītāpi vṛddhi-lakṣaṇā vikriyā pratiṣidhyate --- purāṇa iti |
yo hi avayavāgamena upacīyate sa vardhate abhinava iti ca ucyate |
ayaṃ tu ātmā niravayavatvāt purāpi nava eveti purāṇaḥ na vardhate ity arthaḥ |
The transformation characterized as growth, the opposite of decay, is also denied by purāṇa. That which increases through the arrival of parts grows and is called newly produced. But because this Self is partless, it is new even of old; thus purāṇa means that it does not grow.
Although hanyate is morphologically passive of han, translate it here as ‘is transformed.’ Construe hanyamāne śarīre as a locative absolute, ‘when the body is transformed.’ Commentary line 25 prints śarīrāḥ, apparently a surface error for the verse’s and construction’s required śarīre; that suspect reading is quoted but not adopted.→ ‘It is not transformed when the body is transformed.’
gita [22, 23, 24]tathā na hanyate |
hantiḥ atra vipariṇāmārthe draṣṭavyo 'punaruktatāyai |
na vipariṇamyate ity arthaḥ |
Likewise, it is not hanyate. Here han is to be understood in the sense of transformation so as to avoid repetition. The meaning is: it is not transformed.
gita [25]hanyamāne vipariṇamyamāne 'pi śarīrāḥ |
‘While being struck’ means ‘even while being transformed, the body’—the source prints nominative plural śarīrāḥ, apparently in error for locative singular śarīre.
Understand the verse as systematically denying all six ordinary modifications of an existent thing and therefore asserting the Self’s complete freedom from transformation.→ The distinct epithets and verbal predicates jointly establish that the Self is wholly without transformation.
gita [26, 27]asmin mantre ṣaḍ-bhāva-vikārā laukika-vastu-vikriyā ātmani pratiṣidhyante |
sarva-prakāra-vikriyā-rahita ātmā iti vākyārthaḥ |
In this mantra the six modifications of being—the transformations of ordinary things—are denied of the Self. The sentence means that the Self is devoid of every kind of transformation.
Śaṅkara's commentary on this unit
1na jāyate notpadyate, jani-lakṣaṇā vastu-vikriyā na ātmano vidyate ity arthaḥ |
2tathā na mriyate vā |
3vā-śabdaḥ cārthe |
4na mriyate ca iti antyā vināśa-lakṣaṇā vikriyā pratiṣidhyate |
5kadācic chabdaḥ sarva-vikriyā-pratiṣedhaiḥ saṃbadhyate -- na kadācit jāyate, na kadācit mriyate, ity evam |
6yasmāt ayam ātmā bhūtvā bhavana-kriyām anubhūya paścāt abhavitā abhāvaṃ gantā na bhūyaḥ punaḥ, tasmāt na mriyate |
7yo hi bhūtvā na bhavitā sa mriyata ity ucyate lokā |
8vā-śabdāt na-śabdāc ca ayam ātmā abhūtvā vā bhavitā dehavat na bhūyaḥ |
9tasmāt na jāyate |
10yo hi abhūtvā bhavitā sa jāyata ity ucyate |
11naivam ātmā |
12ato na jāyate |
13yasmād evaṃ tasmāt ajaḥ, yasmāt na mriyate tasmāt nityaś ca |
14yadyapi ādy-antayor vikriyayoḥ pratiṣedhe sarvā vikriyāḥ pratiṣiddhā bhavanti, tathāpi madhya-bhāvinīnāṃ vikriyāṇāṃ sva-śabdair eva pratiṣedhaḥ kartavyo 'nuktānām api yauvanādi-samasta-vikriyāṇāṃ pratiṣedho yathā syāt ity āha-- śāśvata ity ādinā |
15śāśvata iti apakṣaya-lakṣaṇā vikriyā pratiṣidhyate |
16śaśvad-bhavaḥ śāśvataḥ |
17na apakṣīyate svarūpeṇa, niravayavatvāt |
18nāpi guṇa-kṣayeṇa apakṣayaḥ, nirguṇatvāt |
19apakṣaya-viparītāpi vṛddhi-lakṣaṇā vikriyā pratiṣidhyate --- purāṇa iti |
20yo hi avayavāgamena upacīyate sa vardhate abhinava iti ca ucyate |
21ayaṃ tu ātmā niravayavatvāt purāpi nava eveti purāṇaḥ na vardhate ity arthaḥ |
22tathā na hanyate |
23hantiḥ atra vipariṇāmārthe draṣṭavyo 'punaruktatāyai |
24na vipariṇamyate ity arthaḥ |
25hanyamāne vipariṇamyamāne 'pi śarīrāḥ |
26asmin mantre ṣaḍ-bhāva-vikārā laukika-vastu-vikriyā ātmani pratiṣidhyante |
27sarva-prakāra-vikriyā-rahita ātmā iti vākyārthaḥ |
28yasmād evaṃ tasmāt ubhau tau na vijānītaḥ iti pūrveṇa mantreṇa asya saṃbandhaḥ ||bhgs_2.20||
29ya enaṃ vetti hantāram ityanena mantreṇa hanana-kriyāyāḥ kartā karma ca na bhavati iti pratijñāya, na jāyate ity anena avikriyatvaṃ hetum uktvā pratijñātārtham upasaṃharati--