Bhagavad Gītā › Chapter 2 › Verse 21
Bhagavad Gītā 2.21: Knowing the unborn self
वेदाविनाशिनं नित्यं य एनमजमव्ययम् ।
कथं स पुरुषः पार्थ कं घातयति हन्ति कम् ॥
vedāvināśinaṃ nityaṃ ya enamajamavyayam
kathaṃ sa puruṣaḥ pārtha kaṃ ghātayati hanti kam
Recitation: NehalDaveND (Wikimedia Commons) · CC BY-SA 4.0, adapted, original recording
Meaning
One who knows this self to be indestructible, eternal, unborn and imperishable — how and whom can such a person slay, O Pārtha, or cause to be slain? The rhetorical question concludes the argument of 2.19–2.21 that the self is beyond killing; it addresses Arjuna’s grief, not the ethics of harm in general.
For children
Krishna asks Arjuna: “If you know that the real self inside everyone can never be hurt, how can anyone really hurt it?”
This verse comes just after the famous 2.20 (“it is never born, and it never dies”) and draws its conclusion.
Word by word
वेदाविनाशिनं नित्यं — Whoever knows it as indestructible and eternal
- veda: knows
- avināśin: indestructible
- nitya: eternal
य एनमजमव्ययम् — unborn and unchanging
- aja: unborn
- avyaya: unchanging
कथं स पुरुषः पार्थ — how can that person, Arjuna,
- katham: how
- pārtha: son of Pṛthā (Arjuna)
कं घातयति हन्ति कम् — harm anyone, or cause anyone to be harmed?
- ghātayati: causes to kill
- hanti: kills
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.