Bhagavad Gītā › Chapter 2 › Verse 20
Bhagavad Gītā 2.20: Never born, never dies
न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः ।
अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे ॥
na jāyate mriyate vā kadācinnāyaṃ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato'yaṃ purāṇo na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre
Recitation: NehalDaveND (Wikimedia Commons) · CC BY-SA 4.0, adapted, original recording
Meaning
It is never born, nor does it ever die; it did not come to be, nor will it cease to be. Unborn, eternal, everlasting and primeval, it is not slain when the body is slain. One of the most quoted verses of the Gītā, it closely follows Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.2.18, and it is the first verse Kṛṣṇa speaks in the longer triṣṭubh metre.
For children
Krishna says: “The real you was never born and will never die. Even when a body grows old and stops, the real you is still there.”
Kṛṣṇa is answering Arjuna’s grief. In 2.19 he said the self neither kills nor is killed; this verse says why.
Word by word
न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन् — It is never born, and it never dies
- jāyate: is born
- mriyate: dies
- kadācit: ever, at any time
नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः — it did not begin, and it will never stop being
- ayam: this (the self)
- bhūtvā: having come to be
- bhavitā: will be
- bhūyaḥ: again
अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो — unborn, eternal, everlasting and ancient
- aja: unborn
- nitya: eternal
- śāśvata: everlasting
- purāṇa: ancient
न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे — it is not killed when the body is killed
- hanyate: is killed
- hanyamāne: when it is killed
- śarīra: body
Kṛṣṇa speaks this verse. The Sanskrit is checked against four editions; meanings and word notes are simple learning aids written for MahaPrabha Gurukul, awaiting review by a Sanskrit teacher.