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Bhagavad-Gītā with Śaṅkara's bhāṣya · 2.23
nainaṃ chindanti śastrāṇi nainaṃ dahati pāvakaḥ | na cainaṃ kledayanty āpo na śoṣayati mārutaḥ
Translation. Weapons do not cut this Self (ātman), the embodied one;
fire does not burn it.
Nor do the waters make it wet;
the wind does not dry it out.
Grammar check: 13 words pass / 0 flagged / 3 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 |
| enam | enad | unsupported |
| chindanti | chid | pass |
| śastrāṇi | śastra | pass |
| na | na | pass |
| enam | enad | unsupported |
| dahati | dah | pass |
| pāvakaḥ | pāvaka | pass |
| na | na | pass |
| ca | ca | pass |
| enam | enad | unsupported |
| kledayanti | klid | pass |
| āpaḥ | ap | pass |
| na | na | pass |
| śoṣayati | śuṣ | pass |
| mārutaḥ | māruta | 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.
The three occurrences of enam refer not merely to an unspecified masculine ‘him’ but to the embodied Self under discussion, identified by Śaṅkara as both the prakṛta dehin and the ātman.→ this Self (ātman), the embodied one
gita [1]enaṃ prakṛtaṃ dehinaṃ na chindanti śastrāṇi, niravayavatvāt nāvayava-vibhāgaṃ kurvanti |
Weapons do not cut this embodied one under discussion; because it is without parts, they do not divide its parts.
gita [8]enaṃ tv ātmānaṃ na śoṣayati māruto 'pi ||bhgs_2.23||
But even the wind does not dry out this Self.
Śastrāṇi means physical weapons, and chindanti denotes cutting or dividing. Śaṅkara explains the negation through the Self’s partlessness: weapons cannot produce division into parts.→ weapons
gita [1]enaṃ prakṛtaṃ dehinaṃ na chindanti śastrāṇi, niravayavatvāt nāvayava-vibhāgaṃ kurvanti |
Weapons do not cut this embodied one under discussion; because it is without parts, they do not divide its parts.
gita [2]śastrāṇi asy-ādīni |
‘Weapons’ means ‘asy-ādīni.’ The printed asy- is probably a surface error for asi-, giving ‘swords and the like.’
Pāvakaḥ is ‘fire,’ not the abstract ‘purifier’ or a proper name here; dahati is burning, explicated as reducing something to ashes.→ fire does not burn it
gita [3]tathā nainaṃ dahati pāvakaḥ, agnir api na bhasmīkaroti |
Likewise fire does not burn it; even fire does not reduce it to ashes.
Āpaḥ is feminine nominative plural ‘waters,’ governing the plural causative kledayanti, ‘make wet.’ Śaṅkara describes water’s normal action as producing wetness in a composite object and thereby causing separation of its parts, an action impossible in the partless Self.→ the waters do not make it wet
gita [4, 5, 6]tathā na cainaṃ kledayanti āpaḥ |
apāṃ hi sāvayavasya vastuna ādrībhāva-karaṇena avayava-viśleṣāpādane sāmarthyam |
tan na niravayave ātmani saṃbhavati |
Likewise the waters do not make it wet. Waters have the capacity, by producing wetness in a thing possessing parts, to bring about the separation of those parts. That cannot occur in the partless Self. The printed ādrībhāva- may be faulty for the expected ārdrībhāva-.
Mārutaḥ denotes the wind, and śoṣayati means ‘dries out.’ Śaṅkara explains the ordinary destructive action as the wind’s removal of moisture or oil from an oily substance, while denying that it can act so on the Self.→ the wind does not dry it out
gita [7, 8]tathā snehavat dravyaṃ sneha-śoṣaṇena nāśayati vāyuḥ |
enaṃ tv ātmānaṃ na śoṣayati māruto 'pi ||bhgs_2.23||
Likewise wind destroys an oily substance by drying up its oil. But even the wind does not dry out this Self.
The enclitic ca belongs with the repeated negation na and coordinates another parallel clause; in English this is naturally ‘nor,’ not an independently emphasized ‘and.’→ nor do the waters
gita [3, 4]tathā nainaṃ dahati pāvakaḥ, agnir api na bhasmīkaroti |
tathā na cainaṃ kledayanti āpaḥ |
Likewise fire does not burn it; even fire does not reduce it to ashes. Likewise, nor do the waters make it wet.
All four finite verbs are active: the nominative weapons, fire, waters, and wind are agents, while enam is their repeated accusative object. Śaṅkara consistently paraphrases the clauses with those same agent–object relations.→ active agent–object construal throughout
gita [1, 3, 4, 8]enaṃ prakṛtaṃ dehinaṃ na chindanti śastrāṇi, niravayavatvāt nāvayava-vibhāgaṃ kurvanti |
tathā nainaṃ dahati pāvakaḥ, agnir api na bhasmīkaroti |
tathā na cainaṃ kledayanti āpaḥ |
enaṃ tv ātmānaṃ na śoṣayati māruto 'pi ||bhgs_2.23||
Śaṅkara directly restates each expression with weapons, fire, waters, or wind as the acting subject and enam as the object.
Śaṅkara's commentary on this unit
1enaṃ prakṛtaṃ dehinaṃ na chindanti śastrāṇi, niravayavatvāt nāvayava-vibhāgaṃ kurvanti |
2śastrāṇi asy-ādīni |
3tathā nainaṃ dahati pāvakaḥ, agnir api na bhasmīkaroti |
4tathā na cainaṃ kledayanti āpaḥ |
5apāṃ hi sāvayavasya vastuna ādrībhāva-karaṇena avayava-viśleṣāpādane sāmarthyam |
6tan na niravayave ātmani saṃbhavati |
7tathā snehavat dravyaṃ sneha-śoṣaṇena nāśayati vāyuḥ |
8enaṃ tv ātmānaṃ na śoṣayati māruto 'pi ||bhgs_2.23||
9yata evaṃ tasmāt --