In this stretch of the second chapter the Lord tells Arjuna not to grieve at least five times, each time with a different reason. Grief rests on a wrong idea of what is lost (Gita 2.11). The self cannot be ended (Gita 2.25). Death and birth are unavoidable (Gita 2.27). Beings are unseen before and after (Gita 2.28). The self in every body is indestructible (Gita 2.30). Is this one argument said again and again, or several arguments? And how do they fit with a self that is all-pervading yet changes bodies, with the Lord's own compassion, and with the "therefore fight" of a verse in the middle?
The answer here is that they are several reasons, built for several listeners, and that they agree in outcome. The first group (Gita 2.16–25) is for the one who sees that the self is lasting. The second (Gita 2.26–28) holds even for the one who does not accept the first. The third (Gita 2.29–30) turns the whole teaching towards every being. None of them cancels another, and the hard points they raise have direct replies in the verses and elsewhere in the Gita.
This reading takes the verses in order and then the difficulties. The passing of pleasure and pain between them (Gita 2.14–15) is read in Equanimity, and the arguments from duty that follow (Gita 2.31–37) in Duty, Honour and Fear. The chapter begins with Arjuna's tears and his plea to be taught (Gita 2.1, Gita 2.7), which follow on from Arjuna's Despondency.
The text and its wording
The wording of these verses is stable in the commentarial tradition, and no variant reading needs to be weighed. Two pairs of verses have close echoes in the Katha Upanishad: the verse that says the self neither slays nor is slain (Gita 2.19) and the verse that says it is never born and never dies (Gita 2.20). The verse on the wonder of the self (Gita 2.29) echoes the same Upanishad as well. These are parallels from the tradition, and they show that the Lord is giving an old teaching to Arjuna, not a new one.
अशोच्यानन्वशोचस्त्वं प्रज्ञावादांश्च भाषसे ।
गतासूनगतासूंश्च नानुशोचन्ति पण्डिताः ॥ २.११ ॥
aśhochyān anvaśhochas tvaṁ prajñāvādāṁśh cha bhāṣhase |
gatāsūn agatāsūṁśh cha nānuśhochanti paṇḍitāḥ || 2.11 ||
The Blessed Lord said: You grieve for those who are not worthy of grief, yet you speak words of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the dead nor for the living.
न चैव न भविष्यामः सर्वे वयमतः परम् ॥ २.१२ ॥
na chaiva na bhaviṣhyāmaḥ sarve vayam ataḥ param || 2.12 ||
Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor shall any of us cease to exist hereafter.
तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुह्यति ॥ २.१३ ॥
tathā dehāntaraprāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati || 2.13 ||
Just as the embodied soul passes in this body through childhood, youth and old age, in the same way it attains another body. The wise person is not deluded about this.
A correction of what grief assumes, and a shared past and future (2.11–13)
The first verse has a gentle irony. Arjuna has just spoken what sounded like wisdom about duty and family, and the Lord says that he grieves for those who are not to be grieved for. Then comes the surprise: the wise grieve neither for the dead nor for the living (Gita 2.11). Both are named, so the point is wider than death. It concerns how anyone dear is held, now or later.
The second verse is the first support. There was never a time when the Lord, Arjuna and these kings were not, and none of them will cease to be (Gita 2.12). The Lord counts himself in the same sentence. The commentators read the plural in two streams. One holds that the selves are many and distinct, and that the Lord is named with them as one among them in this respect. The other holds that the many are many bodies, with the self one and pervading, as a later verse says (Gita 2.17). Both reach the same consequence for grief: nobody in the sentence has an end.
The third verse offers evidence we can check. The one who lives in the body passes through childhood, youth and old age, and in the same way takes another body; the steady person is not bewildered by it (Gita 2.13). The body in each stage is different, and the person who says "I" is the same. The verse asks us to take that observed change as the model for the passage to another body.
उभयोरपि दृष्टोऽन्तस्त्वनयोस्तत्त्वदर्शिभिः ॥ २.१६ ॥
ubhayor api dṛiṣhṭo 'ntas tv anayos tattvadarśhibhiḥ || 2.16 ||
Of the unreal there is no being, and of the real there is no non-being. The seers of truth have seen the final conclusion about both of these.
विनाशमव्ययस्यास्य न कश्चित्कर्तुमर्हति ॥ २.१७ ॥
vināśham avyayasyāsya na kaśhchit kartum arhati || 2.17 ||
Know that by which all this is pervaded to be indestructible. No one is able to bring about the destruction of this imperishable.
अनाशिनोऽप्रमेयस्य तस्माद्युध्यस्व भारत ॥ २.१८ ॥
anāśhino 'prameyasya tasmād yudhyasva bhārata || 2.18 ||
These bodies of the eternal, indestructible and immeasurable embodied soul are said to have an end. Therefore fight, O Bharata.
The test of what lasts (2.16–18)
Of the unreal there is no being, and of the real there is no absence, and the seers have seen the end of both (Gita 2.16). The verse says two things at once: nothing that is real is lost, and nothing unreal is gained by holding on. "Unreal" here means that something has no lasting being. It does not mean that it is false or worthless. A body is as present as anything can be, and yet it is not what lasts.
The next verse names what lasts as that by which all this is pervaded, and says that no one can bring about the destruction of what does not diminish (Gita 2.17). The one after it says that the bodies of the embodied one are said to have an end, while the embodied one is eternal and beyond measure (Gita 2.18). The verse closes with "therefore fight". That conclusion is drawn for Arjuna's immediate fear, and its ground, which is duty, is taken up in Duty, Honour and Fear. Taken alone, the self's survival does not decide what should be done.
उभौ तौ न विजानीतो नायं हन्ति न हन्यते ॥ २.१९ ॥
ubhau tau na vijānīto nāyaṁ hanti na hanyate || 2.19 ||
One who thinks that this soul is a slayer, and one who thinks that it is slain, both of them do not know. This soul neither slays nor is slain.
अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे ॥ २.२० ॥
ajo nityaḥ śhāśhvato 'yaṁ purāṇo na hanyate hanyamāne śharīre || 2.20 ||
This soul is never born, nor does it ever die. Nor, having come into being, will it cease to be again. It is unborn, eternal, everlasting and ancient. It is not slain when the body is slain.
कथं स पुरुषः पार्थ कं घातयति हन्ति कम् ॥ २.२१ ॥
kathaṁ sa puruṣhaḥ pārtha kaṁ ghātayati hanti kam || 2.21 ||
O Partha, how can a person who knows this soul to be indestructible, eternal, unborn and immutable, kill anyone or cause anyone to be killed?
The self neither slays nor is slain (2.19–21)
Both the one who thinks that the self kills and the one who thinks it is killed do not know (Gita 2.19). The self is never born and never dies, and it is not ended when the body is ended (Gita 2.20). The next verse asks how a person who knows the self to be indestructible can kill or cause to kill (Gita 2.21).
A finer point lies in what the verses remove. They remove the idea that the self can be ended by an act. They do not say that an act carries no weight. The Gita treats the weight of acts elsewhere: the deluded one thinks "I am the doer" (Gita 3.27), and the whole teaching of action rests on that. A reading of these three verses as permission for harm is therefore not what they teach.
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णान्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ॥ २.२२ ॥
tathā śharīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny anyāni saṁyāti navāni dehī || 2.22 ||
Just as a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new bodies, giving up the old and worn-out ones.
न चैनं क्लेदयन्त्यापो न शोषयति मारुतः ॥ २.२३ ॥
na chainaṁ kledayanty āpo na śhoṣhayati mārutaḥ || 2.23 ||
Weapons do not cut this soul, fire does not burn it, water does not wet it, and wind does not dry it.
नित्यः सर्वगतः स्थाणुरचलोऽयं सनातनः ॥ २.२४ ॥
nityaḥ sarvagataḥ sthāṇur achalo 'yaṁ sanātanaḥ || 2.24 ||
This soul is unbreakable, incombustible, and can neither be wetted nor dried. It is eternal, all-pervading, stable, immovable, and primeval.
तस्मादेवं विदित्वैनं नानुशोचितुमर्हसि ॥ २.२५ ॥
tasmād evaṁ viditvainaṁ nānuśhochitum arhasi || 2.25 ||
This soul is said to be unmanifest, inconceivable and unchangeable. Therefore, having known it thus, you should not grieve.
Clothes, weapons and the unmanifest (2.22–25)
The self takes up new bodies and gives up the worn-out ones, as a person changes clothes (Gita 2.22). Weapons do not cut it, fire does not burn it, water does not wet it and wind does not dry it (Gita 2.23). It is unbreakable and all-pervading, steady and immovable and primeval (Gita 2.24). It is unmanifest, beyond thought and unchanging, and so there is no ground to grieve (Gita 2.25).
Some finer points sit in the wording. The verse about the self not being born denies three things at once: that it is ever born, that it ever dies, and that, having come to be, it will cease to be (Gita 2.20). That covers the beginning, the end and the change in between. The verses about weapons name four things that act on a body, which are the blade, fire, water and wind, and put the self out of reach of each (Gita 2.23, Gita 2.24). And the verse that ends the group has three negatives, since the self is unmanifest, beyond thought and unchanging, and only then comes "so do not grieve" (Gita 2.25).
The three pictures meet three fears: that what is dear wears out, that it can be destroyed by force or by nature, and that it passes into something we cannot know. The final verse of the group is where the Lord first gives "do not grieve" as a conclusion of the argument and not only as an instruction.
तथापि त्वं महाबाहो नैवं शोचितुमर्हसि ॥ २.२६ ॥
tathāpi tvaṁ mahābāho naivaṁ śhochitum arhasi || 2.26 ||
And even if you think that this soul is constantly born and constantly dies, still, O mighty-armed one, you should not grieve in this way.
तस्मादपरिहार्येऽर्थे न त्वं शोचितुमर्हसि ॥ २.२७ ॥
tasmād aparihārye 'rthe na tvaṁ śhochitum arhasi || 2.27 ||
For one who is born, death is certain, and for one who has died, birth is certain. Therefore, you should not grieve over what is unavoidable.
अव्यक्तनिधनान्येव तत्र का परिदेवना ॥ २.२८ ॥
avyaktanidhanāny eva tatra kā paridevanā || 2.28 ||
All beings are unmanifest in the beginning, manifest in the middle, O Bharata, and unmanifest again in the end. What is there to lament about this?
A second answer for the one who does not accept the first (2.26–28)
Even if Arjuna holds that the self is born and dies again and again, the Lord says, he should not grieve in this way (Gita 2.26). For the one who is born, death is certain; for the one who has died, birth is certain; so there is no ground to grieve over the unavoidable (Gita 2.27). Beings are unseen before, seen in the middle and unseen again after, and the verse asks what there is to lament (Gita 2.28).
The commentators again divide into two streams over the first of these verses. One hears a concession to a different view, in which the self is only a stream that arises and passes, and says that the consolation holds even then. The other hears the same teaching told once more through the cycle of birth and death. The result is the same either way: the consolation does not depend on the first argument being accepted. The second verse speaks of the unavoidable, not of the worth of the person, and the third places the visible life between two unseen sides, so that the grief is for only the middle.
आश्चर्यवच्चैनमन्यः शृणोति श्रुत्वाप्येनं वेद न चैव कश्चित् ॥ २.२९ ॥
āśhcharyavach chainam anyaḥ śhṛṇoti śhrutvāpy enaṁ veda na chaiva kaśhchit || 2.29 ||
Some look upon this soul as a wonder, another speaks of it as a wonder, another hears of it as a wonder, and yet another, even after hearing about it, does not understand it at all.
तस्मात्सर्वाणि भूतानि न त्वं शोचितुमर्हसि ॥ २.३० ॥
tasmāt sarvāṇi bhūtāni na tvaṁ śhochitum arhasi || 2.30 ||
O Bharata, this soul that dwells in the body of everyone is always indestructible. Therefore, you should not grieve for any being.
The wonder, and the self in every being (2.29–30)
The Lord says honestly that this is hard to take in. One looks on the self as a wonder, another speaks of it as a wonder, another hears of it as a wonder, and yet another, even after hearing, does not understand it at all (Gita 2.29). The verse sets four ways of coming to the teaching side by side, and the last of them is the one who hears and does not see. The seventh chapter says the same of the whole path: among thousands hardly one strives, and hardly one knows (Gita 7.3).
The group ends where it began, with a wider reach. The self that dwells in the body of everyone is indestructible, and so there is no reason to grieve for any being (Gita 2.30). The first verse spoke of the dead and the living, and the last speaks of all.
Where the same teaching appears elsewhere
| Verse | What it adds |
|---|---|
| 2.1, 2.7 | Arjuna's tears and his plea to be taught. The teaching meets grief, it does not ask grief to go away first. |
| 4.5 | Many births are passed by both the Lord and Arjuna; the Lord knows them and Arjuna does not remember. This is why the continuity is not seen directly. |
| 5.18, 6.29 | The one who sees the same self in all beings. |
| 6.32 | The yogi who feels another's pain as his own. Compassion stays when the teaching is seen. |
| 7.3 | Among thousands hardly one strives. It matches the "wonder" of 2.29. |
| 13.2, 13.22 | The body is the field and the self is its knower; the self among the modes of nature. |
| 15.7–8 | An eternal part of the Lord becomes the living self and carries mind and senses along as the wind carries scent. |
| 3.27 | The deluded one thinks "I am the doer". This is where the weight of acts is placed. |
| 18.66 | The counsel ends with "do not grieve". |
| 2.14–15 | Pain and pleasure come and go and are to be borne; read in Equanimity. |
| 11.1, 18.73 | The delusion is dispelled and memory regained. |
| 6.30 | Nothing seen in the one self is lost to the seer. |
| 15.15 | Memory, knowledge and their loss come from the Lord. |
| 18.63 | Reflect fully, then do as you wish. |
The teaching works by remembering
The Gita presents this teaching as something remembered and not newly added. The Lord says that he and Arjuna have passed through many births, and that he knows them while Arjuna does not remember (Gita 4.5). He also says that from him come memory, knowledge and their loss (Gita 15.15). So forgetting is part of the situation Arjuna is in. When the teaching has done its work, Arjuna's words are about memory and delusion: the delusion in him is dispelled (Gita 11.1), and he has regained his memory (Gita 18.73). The path from the tears of the first chapter (Gita 2.1) to these words is the path from forgetting to remembering. That is why the verses speak in the language of what has always been (Gita 2.12) and not in the language of something new.
Where the readings divide
The traditions differ on two points that matter here. One is the plural in the verse about always having been (Gita 2.12): many selves, or many bodies of one self. The other is the "even if you think" in the second group (Gita 2.26): a concession to another view, or the same teaching told through the cycle. In each case both streams reach the same consequence for grief, so nothing in the rest of the reading depends on choosing one. Beyond these, the commentators read the main sense of each verse alike, and no division is invented where none exists.
Objections and replies
If the self cannot be lost, is grief a mistake?
The verses correct what grief assumes, not the love behind it. Arjuna's tears are met with teaching and not with a ban (Gita 2.1). The Gita praises the yogi who feels another's pain as his own (Gita 6.32) and the devotee who is friendly and compassionate to all (Gita 12.13). A teaching that removed compassion would contradict these. What it removes is the belief that the person is wholly gone.
How can an all-pervading, immovable self change bodies?
The self is called all-pervading and immovable (Gita 2.24), and also said to take up new bodies (Gita 2.22). The commentators answer in two streams. One says that what moves is what the self carries with it, the mind and the senses, as the wind carries scent from its source (Gita 15.8), while the self itself does not move. The other says that taking and leaving a body is language from the side of appearance. Both keep both verses true.
Do the verses on the unslayable self allow harm?
No. They say the self cannot be ended (Gita 2.19–21). They do not say an act has no weight. The Gita turns at once to doership (Gita 3.27) and, for Arjuna's case, to duty, which is read in Duty, Honour and Fear. The knower of the self is the one who cannot kill in the sense of ending a self, and nothing in the verses permits harm to a person.
Is "death is certain for the one who is born" cold?
It is said to the one for whom the first answer is hard. It does not speak of the worth of the person but of what cannot be avoided, and the next verse adds that beings are unseen before and after (Gita 2.27–28). The coldness a reader may feel comes from reading it alone. Read after the first answer, it is a second support offered with the same care.
Does "even if it is born and dies" contradict "never born"?
No. The first is said to a listener who does not accept the second, and the Lord is careful that the consolation should not depend on one view (Gita 2.26, Gita 2.20). It is a mark of how the teaching is built for the listener, and not a change in the teaching.
If one self is in all beings, is a loved one replaceable?
No. The one self seen in all beings (Gita 5.18, Gita 6.29) does not dissolve any relationship. The Lord says that for the one who sees him everywhere and sees everything in him, he is never lost, and neither is that one lost to him (Gita 6.30). Nothing that is seen in the self is lost to the seer. The same yogi takes each person's pain as his own (Gita 6.32), so the particular person is not erased and the care grows wider.
Is "do not grieve" at the start the same as at the end?
The words are the same, and what they answer is not. At the beginning the grief is over loss and death (Gita 2.11). At the end it is over being unfit and over wrongs, and the answer is refuge in the Lord (Gita 18.66). The counsel begins and ends with the same words for two griefs, one for what is lost and one for what has been done.
Questions the verses raise, answered from the Gita and the tradition
Where does the self go, and what goes with it?
The verses say that the self takes another body (Gita 2.13, Gita 2.22). The rest of the Gita adds that it takes mind and senses along, as the wind carries scent (Gita 15.8), that the state remembered at the end shapes what follows (Gita 8.6), and that even the one who falls short of the goal goes on (Gita 6.41). The tradition describes the journey in the language of the Upanishads, in outline, and gives no practical rule that this reading would repeat.
Why do we not see this continuity?
The Lord and Arjuna have passed through many births, and the Lord knows them while Arjuna does not remember (Gita 4.5). The deluded do not see the self depart, stay or enjoy, and those with the eye of knowledge do (Gita 15.10). The tradition calls this ignorance a veil, and the teacher's word as what lifts it.
What does the one who has seen this do with their love?
The Gita says that the one who sees the same self in all beings (Gita 5.18, Gita 6.29) takes another's pain as their own (Gita 6.32). Love does not shrink; it widens. The tradition counts compassion as the fruit of knowing.
How do those who find the teaching hard come to it?
The verse on the wonder says plainly that some hear and do not see (Gita 2.29). The Gita answers that the knowledge is to be sought from those who have seen the truth, with humility and service (Gita 4.34), that a restless mind is calmed by practice and detachment (Gita 6.35), and that the Lord gives understanding to those who are steadfast (Gita 10.10). The counsel then ends with the same words that opened it: do not grieve (Gita 18.66). The tradition holds the teacher and the Lord's grace as the support of the whole course.
How should one speak to a person who is grieving?
The verses show the order. Arjuna's tears are seen first, and the teaching begins after he asks to be taught (Gita 2.1, Gita 2.7). The Gita says that knowledge is given to the one who comes with humility and questions (Gita 4.34), and it leaves the listener free to reflect and then decide (Gita 18.63). The tradition counts the listener's readiness and request as the first condition of any teaching.
In short, the verses give the reasons, which are several and agree in outcome. The rest of the Gita gives the way and the compassion. The tradition gives the examples and the support.
What this reading rests on
This reading is built from the site's verse data and from the Gita's own parallel verses. No commentator is named. The two divisions of the commentators (the plural in the verse about always having been, and the "even if" verse), the answer to the all-pervading and the moving self, the echoes of the Katha Upanishad, and the tradition's account of the veil, the teacher, the listener's readiness and the journey are given as the traditions' own, and need a named source before they are attributed.
For a simpler first approach, see the simple reading and the detailed reading.