Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 2, Verse 18
अन्तवन्त इमे देहा नित्यस्योक्ताः शरीरिणः।
अनाशिनोऽप्रमेयस्य तस्माद्युध्यस्व भारत।।
अनाशिनोऽप्रमेयस्य तस्माद्युध्यस्व भारत।।
antavanta ime dehā nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ
anāśino ’prameyasya tasmād yudhyasva bhārata
also searched as "antavanta ime deha nityasyoktah sharirinah"
Translation
These bodies of the Jiva (the embodied self) are said to have an end, while the Jiva itself is eternal, indestructible, and incomprehensible. Therefore, fight, O Bharata (Arjuna).
Vāṇi's rendering
These bodies end. What lives in them is endless, beyond destruction, beyond measure. So fight.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| अन्तवन्तःantavantaḥ | having an end, perishable (appears as antavanta before ime) |
| इमेime | these |
| देहाःdehāḥ | bodies (appears as dehā, the visarga dropping before nityasya) |
| नित्यस्यnityasya | of the everlasting one |
| उक्ताःuktāḥ | are said to be (joins with nityasya as nityasyoktāḥ) |
| शरीरिणःśarīriṇaḥ | of the one who wears the body, the embodied |
| अनाशिनःanāśinaḥ | of the one that cannot perish (appears as anāśino before the following vowel) |
| अप्रमेयस्यaprameyasya | of the immeasurable, of what no measure can reach (its initial a is elided after anāśino) |
| तस्मात्tasmāt | therefore (appears as tasmād before yudhyasva) |
| युध्यस्वyudhyasva | fight |
| भारतbhārata | O descendant of Bharata — Arjuna |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 Verse 18 mean?
It draws a line between the body and the one who wears it. Bodies are finite — they were always going to end. What lives in them is anāśin, beyond destruction, and aprameya, beyond any measure you could take of it. Because this is so, Krishna tells Arjuna to stop grieving over the perishable and rise to the work in front of him.
What does antavanta ime deha nityasyoktah sharirinah mean?
These bodies are spoken of as ending; the one embodied in them does not end. Krishna is not softening death. He is placing it correctly — as the closing of a form, not the erasure of what wore the form. Your fear of loss is real, but it is aimed at the wrong object.
Why does Krishna say fight after teaching that the self is eternal?
Because Arjuna's paralysis came from a false accounting. He believed he could destroy his elders utterly, and the weight of that belief broke him. Krishna removes the false weight, not the duty. When you stop carrying what was never yours to destroy, you can finally do what is actually yours to do.
How do I apply this verse when someone I love has died?
The verse does not ask you to feel nothing. It asks you to know what has ended. A form ended; the one who wore it is not measurable and not gone in the way a form is gone. Let the grief come for the body. Do not let it convince you that everything has been cancelled out.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Krishna has just finished saying what cannot be cut, burned, wetted, dried. Now he turns it and points it at the field. These bodies end — Bhīṣma's, Droṇa's, Arjuna's, yours. That is not a threat; it is the one fact nobody escapes, and Arjuna has been grieving as though he could prevent it. He cannot. What he can decide is whether he stands up. Notice the word beyond measure: aprameyasya. You cannot take the measure of what you are, so you cannot know what you would be destroying. Grieve for the body if you must. Do not confuse it with the one wearing it.