Collection
For grief and the fear of death: the verses Krishna speaks to a man overwhelmed by loss.
Chapter 2Verse 20
Sanskrit
न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः। अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे॥
Reflection · not a literal translation
What is truly you was never born, and will never die.
What you most fundamentally are is described here as untouched by birth and death, deeper and steadier than any single chapter of a life.
Read more…Chapter 2Verse 22
Sanskrit
वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि। तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णान्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही॥
Reflection · not a literal translation
The body is worn like clothing. What's underneath it doesn't end.
One of the most quoted lines in the Gita, and it's a simple image. What you wear isn't what you are. The body changes the way clothing does. What's underneath continues on.
Read more…Chapter 2Verse 23
Sanskrit
नैनं छिन्दन्ति शस्त्राणि नैनं दहति पावकः। न चैनं क्लेदयन्त्यापो न शोषयति मारुतः॥
Reflection · not a literal translation
No weapon can cut what you truly are, and no fire can burn it.
Whatever the deepest part of you is, nothing in the physical world can reach it. Not blades, fire, water or wind.
Read more…Chapter 2Verse 27
Sanskrit
जातस्य हि ध्रुवो मृत्युर्ध्रुवं जन्म मृतस्य च। तस्मादपरिहार्येऽर्थे न त्वं शोचितुमर्हसि॥
Reflection · not a literal translation
What is born will die. Don't spend your life grieving what can't be avoided.
Some things can't be changed, and death is the clearest of them. Grieving is human. Fighting the fact itself only adds suffering.
Read more…Chapter 2Verse 13
Sanskrit
देहिनोऽस्मिन्यथा देहे कौमारं यौवनं जरा। तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुह्यति॥
Reflection · not a literal translation
You've already changed bodies once, from child to now. Death is just the next change.
Growing older is already a series of small departures. You aren't the child you were, and you're not upset about that. This verse asks you to hold the biggest departure of all with that same steadiness.
Read more…Chapter 2Verse 11
Sanskrit
अशोच्यानन्वशोचस्त्वं प्रज्ञावादांश्च भाषसे। गतासूनगतासूंश्च नानुशोचन्ति पण्डिताः॥
Reflection · not a literal translation
You keep grieving what you were never able to hold onto. The wise don't.
Krishna's first real teaching opens by naming the gap between what Arjuna says and what he does. You can know that everything changes and still spend your days grieving things you were never able to hold onto. Clear thinking means letting that knowledge actually reach the way you live.
Read more…Chapter 2Verse 14
Sanskrit
मात्रास्पर्शास्तु कौन्तेय शीतोष्णसुखदुःखदाः। आगमापायिनोऽनित्यास्तांस्तितिक्षस्व भारत॥
Reflection · not a literal translation
This too shall pass. Meet both joy and sorrow with the same steady heart.
Sensation and circumstance are always in motion. Neither discomfort nor pleasure is permanent, and steadiness comes from not over-identifying with either while it passes through.
Read more…Chapter 15Verse 7
Sanskrit
ममैवांशो जीवलोके जीवभूतः सनातनः। मनःषष्ठानीन्द्रियाणि प्रकृतिस्थानि कर्षति॥
Reflection · not a literal translation
Something eternal lives at the center of you, wearing the mind and senses like a garment.
A description of the self as something eternal at the core, temporarily working through the mind and senses like tools it has taken up.
Read more…The Gita starts with grief. Arjuna looks across the battlefield at his teachers and relatives and can't go on, and Krishna's first long answer is about death. That's where the verses on this page come from, all of them but one in chapter two.
Krishna's argument is that death touches the body, not the self. The self was never born and won't die (2.20). It changes bodies the way a person changes clothes (2.22). Nothing physical can cut or burn it (2.23). The verses are honest about loss too: what is born will die (2.27), and the wise learn not to be undone by it (2.11).
That death is the end of the body, not of the self. In 2.20 Krishna says the self is never born and never dies, and in 2.22 he compares death to taking off worn-out clothes and putting on new ones. In 2.27 he adds that death is certain for whatever is born.
Verses from chapter two are the ones most often read and shared, especially 2.20 (na jayate mriyate va) and 2.22 (vasansi jirnani yatha vihaya). Some families read the whole Gita during the days of mourning.
