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Bhagavad-Gītā with Śaṅkara's bhāṣya · 2.26
atha cainaṃ nityajātaṃ nityaṃ vā manyase mṛtam | tathāpi tvaṃ mahābāho naivaṃ śocitum arhasi
Translation. Now, even if you consider this Self (ātman) continually born, or continually dead,
even so, mighty-armed one, you ought not to grieve in this way.
Grammar check: 15 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 |
|---|
| atha | atha | pass |
| ca | ca | pass |
| enam | enad | unsupported |
| nityajātam | nityajāta | pass |
| nityam | nityam | pass |
| vā | vā | pass |
| manyase | man | pass |
| mṛtam | mṛta | pass |
| tathā | tathā | pass |
| api | api | pass |
| tvam | tvad | pass |
| mahābāho | mahābāhu | pass |
| na | na | pass |
| evam | evam | pass |
| śocitum | śuc | pass |
| arhasi | arh | 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.
Atha ca is taken as introducing a concessive supposition, expressed in English by ‘even if’, rather than merely marking temporal succession.→ A concessive ‘even if/supposing that’.
gita [1]atha ca iti abhyupagamārthaḥ |
‘Atha ca’ has the purpose of making a concession or provisional admission.
Enam denotes the Self (ātman) under discussion. Manyase is Kartari, ‘you consider’, with enam as object and nityajātam/mṛtam as predicative accusatives.→ The previously discussed Self, construed as what Arjuna hypothetically considers continually born or dead.
gita [2]enaṃ prakṛtam ātmānaṃ nitya-jātaṃ loka-prasiddhayā praty aneka-śarīrotpatti jāto jāta iti manyase |
You consider this—the Self under discussion—continually born, according to worldly convention: at the arising of multiple bodies, ‘born, born.’ The transmitted wording praty aneka-śarīrotpatti is syntactically rough, but the identification enaṃ prakṛtam ātmānam and the repeated jāto jāta are clear.
gita [3]tathā prati-tat-tad-vināśaṃ nityaṃ vā manyase mṛtaṃ mṛto mṛta iti |
Or likewise, at the destruction of each respective body, you consider it continually dead: ‘dead, dead.’
Nityajāta is analyzed as a compound meaning ‘continually/repeatedly born’, not as asserting one timeless condition of eternal createdness.→ A karmadhāraya compound with adverbial force, nityaṃ jātaḥ, interpreted as repeated birth in connection with multiple bodies.
gita [2]enaṃ prakṛtam ātmānaṃ nitya-jātaṃ loka-prasiddhayā praty aneka-śarīrotpatti jāto jāta iti manyase |
Śaṅkara relates ‘continually born’ to worldly convention and multiple bodily originations, emphasizing recurrence through ‘born, born.’ The text’s praty aneka-śarīrotpatti is probably imperfectly segmented or transmitted.
The independent nityam belongs with the death-predicate mṛtam and signifies recurrent death at successive bodily destructions, rather than ‘you always think’ or permanent nonexistence.→ ‘Continually/repeatedly dead’, corresponding to successive bodily destructions.
gita [3]tathā prati-tat-tad-vināśaṃ nityaṃ vā manyase mṛtaṃ mṛto mṛta iti |
Likewise, at each respective destruction, you consider it continually dead—‘dead, dead.’
Tathā api scopes over the entire conceded hypothesis (‘even if the Self were so’), while na evam śocitum arhasi means ‘you ought not to grieve in this way’.→ ‘Even so/even in that case’; the negation governs the obligation expressed by arhasi with śocitum.
gita [4]tathāpi tathābhāve 'py ātmani tvaṃ mahābāho, na evaṃ śocitum arhasi, janmavato nāśo nāśavato janma cety etāv avaśyaṃbhāvināv iti ||bhgs_2.26||
Even so—even if the Self were in that condition—you, mighty-armed one, ought not to grieve thus, because destruction for what has birth and birth for what has destruction are both inevitable.
Mahābāhu is a bahuvrīhi referring to one whose arms are mighty, and mahābāho is its masculine singular vocative.→ Bahuvrīhi: mahāntau bāhū yasya saḥ.
gita []
Tvam is Prathamā singular, not Dvitīyā singular, because it is the subject of second-person singular arhasi.→ Prathama Eka.
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Śocitum is an indeclinable tumun-infinitive from śuc, with Kartari sense, governed by arhasi; it is not a first-person imperative from a root śocay.→ The infinitive śocitum, ‘to grieve’, from śuc.
gita []
Śaṅkara's commentary on this unit
1atha ca iti abhyupagamārthaḥ |
2enaṃ prakṛtam ātmānaṃ nitya-jātaṃ loka-prasiddhayā praty aneka-śarīrotpatti jāto jāta iti manyase |
3tathā prati-tat-tad-vināśaṃ nityaṃ vā manyase mṛtaṃ mṛto mṛta iti |
4tathāpi tathābhāve 'py ātmani tvaṃ mahābāho, na evaṃ śocitum arhasi, janmavato nāśo nāśavato janma cety etāv avaśyaṃbhāvināv iti ||bhgs_2.26||
5tathā ca sati--