Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 2, Verse 12
न त्वेवाहं जातु नासं न त्वं नेमे जनाधिपाः।
न चैव न भविष्यामः सर्वे वयमतः परम्।।
न चैव न भविष्यामः सर्वे वयमतः परम्।।
na tvevāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ
na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ sarve vayamataḥ param
also searched as "na tvevaham jatu nasam na tvam neme janadhipah"
Translation
There never was a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor any of these kings. Nor will there be any time in the future when all of us shall cease to exist.
Vāṇi's rendering
There was never a time I was not, nor you, nor these kings. None of us will ever end.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| नna | not |
| तुtu | but, indeed (joined in sandhi as tv) |
| एवeva | surely, ever |
| अहम्ahaṁ | I |
| जातुjātu | at any time |
| नna | not (joined with the next word as nāsaṁ) |
| आसम्āsaṁ | was, existed |
| नna | nor |
| त्वम्tvaṁ | you |
| नna | nor (joined with the next word as neme) |
| इमेime | these |
| जनाधिपाःjanādhipāḥ | rulers of people, kings |
| नna | not |
| चca | and (joined in sandhi as caiva) |
| एवeva | indeed |
| नna | not |
| भविष्यामःbhaviṣyāmaḥ | shall we be |
| सर्वेsarve | all |
| वयम्vayam | we (joined in sandhi as vayamataḥ) |
| अतःataḥ | from this point |
| परम्param | onward, hereafter |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 Verse 12 mean?
Krishna answers Arjuna's grief with a fact about time. Neither of them, nor the kings arrayed before them, ever began; none of them will finish. The verse denies not the death of bodies but the ending of the one who wears them. Arjuna is mourning a disappearance that has never once happened.
What does 'na tvevaham jatu nasam' mean in the Gita?
It reads: there was never a time when I was not. Krishna says it of himself first, then extends it to Arjuna and to every king on that field. The double negative is deliberate — he is not promising a future forever, he is removing the idea that existence ever had a start.
Is Krishna saying the body never dies?
No. Bodies end, and the next verse says so plainly. What Krishna denies here is the ending of the one aware of the body. You have already left behind a child's frame and a younger face without vanishing. That continuity, carried further, is what this verse points at.
How can this verse help with the fear of death?
It moves the question. Instead of asking how long you will last, ask what in you could stop. Every fear of death is a fear on behalf of something that can be lost. Sit with the part that is doing the fearing and ask whether it was ever born at all.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Count the tenses. Krishna reaches back before Arjuna's birth and forward past the death he is dreading, and finds no gap — not for himself, not for Arjuna, not for the men across the field Arjuna is about to kill. The kings get named too. That is the sharp part. The ones whose ending he cannot bear to cause have no ending to cause. He grieves a loss that cannot occur. Notice the plural: sarve vayam, all of us. Not the body — bodies end all day. The one in you who is frightened of ending has already outlasted every ending you can name.