Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 2, Verse 21
वेदाविनाशिनं नित्यं य एनमजमव्ययम्।
कथं स पुरुषः पार्थ कं घातयति हन्ति कम्।।
कथं स पुरुषः पार्थ कं घातयति हन्ति कम्।।
vedāvināśinaṁ nityaṁ ya enam ajam avyayam
kathaṁ sa puruṣaḥ pārtha kaṁ ghātayati hanti kam
also searched as "vedavinashinam nityam ya enam ajam avyayam"
Translation
He who knows this self to be indestructible, unborn, unchanging, and thus eternal—how, O Arjuna, does he cause anyone to be killed, and whom does he kill?
Vāṇi's rendering
Once you know the self cannot be destroyed — unborn, eternal, unchanging — whom could you kill? Whom could you make kill?
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| वेदveda | knows (joined with the next word by sandhi: vedāvināśinaṁ) |
| अविनाशिनम्avināśinam | indestructible, what cannot be destroyed |
| नित्यम्nityam | eternal, always |
| यःyaḥ | who (appears as ya before the vowel) |
| एनम्enam | this one — the self |
| अजम्ajam | unborn |
| अव्ययम्avyayam | unchanging, never wearing away |
| कथम्katham | how |
| सःsa | he, that one |
| पुरुषःpuruṣaḥ | person |
| पार्थpārtha | Arjuna, son of Pṛthā |
| कम्kam | whom |
| घातयतिghātayati | causes to be killed, has killed by another |
| हन्तिhanti | kills, strikes down |
| कम्kam | whom |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 Verse 21 mean?
Krishna asks Arjuna a question rather than giving him a permission. If the self is unborn and cannot be destroyed, then whom would a killer kill? Bodies end. The one who wears them does not. Arjuna's guilt is real as feeling, but it is aimed at something that was never at risk.
Why does the verse mention both killing and causing to kill?
Because Arjuna wanted a distance between his hand and the deed. Krishna closes it. Hanti is the hand that strikes; ghātayati is the mouth that orders. Both are named in one breath, and both are answered the same way. There is no cleaner second-hand version of an act you have chosen.
Is Krishna saying killing does not matter?
No. He is saying it does not reach as far as Arjuna fears. Nothing here excuses cruelty or removes the weight of choosing rightly — the whole rest of the Gītā is about that weight. What is removed is the terror that Arjuna could annihilate someone. He cannot. No one can.
What does vedavinashinam nityam ya enam ajam avyayam mean?
Four words for one thing that will not move: indestructible, eternal, unborn, unchanging. Krishna is not describing a doctrine you must accept. He is describing what remains when everything that can be taken away has been taken. Once you have actually seen it, the question of who kills whom stops making sense.
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Commentary
Krishna answers Arjuna's fear of guilt with a question, not a rule. Arjuna has been counting the dead he will make — teachers, cousins, the boys who called him uncle. Krishna does not say the killing is permitted. He says look again at what is being killed. The self was never born; nothing entered it, nothing can leave. And notice that both doors close at once — the hand that strikes and the mouth that orders. Arjuna hoped the second was cleaner. So do you, when you arrange a thing you will not touch. Neither hand reaches what cannot die.