Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 4, Verse 5
श्री भगवानुवाच
बहूनि मे व्यतीतानि जन्मानि तव चार्जुन।
तान्यहं वेद सर्वाणि न त्वं वेत्थ परन्तप।।
बहूनि मे व्यतीतानि जन्मानि तव चार्जुन।
तान्यहं वेद सर्वाणि न त्वं वेत्थ परन्तप।।
śrī bhagavān uvāca
bahūni me vyatītāni janmāni tava cārjuna
tānyahaṁ veda sarvāṇi na tvaṁ vettha parantapa
also searched as "bahuni me vyatitani janmani tava charjuna"
Translation
The Lord said, "Many of My births have passed, O Arjuna, as have yours. I know them all, but you do not know them."
Vāṇi's rendering
You and I have passed through many births. I remember every one of them; you do not.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| श्रीśrī | holy, revered |
| भगवान्bhagavān | the Blessed One, Krishna |
| उवाचuvāca | said |
| बहूनिbahūni | many |
| मेme | of mine |
| व्यतीतानिvyatītāni | have gone by, passed away |
| जन्मानिjanmāni | births |
| तवtava | of yours |
| चca | and (joined by sandhi to the next word) |
| अर्जुनarjuna | O Arjuna |
| तानिtāni | those, all of them |
| अहम्aham | I (sandhi with tāni) |
| वेदveda | know, remember |
| सर्वाणिsarvāṇi | every one |
| नna | not |
| त्वम्tvam | you |
| वेत्थvettha | know |
| परन्तपparantapa | O scorcher of foes |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 4 Verse 5 mean?
Krishna answers Arjuna's objection about time by placing them both inside it. Many births have passed for each of them. The one difference is memory: Krishna holds every one, Arjuna holds none. The verse does not ask you to recall your past; it asks you to notice that something in you outlasted what it cannot remember.
What is the meaning of 'bahuni me vyatitani janmani tava charjuna'?
Many births of mine have gone by, and of yours too, Arjuna. Krishna says it plainly, without mystery. Birth is not a single event you were handed once; it is something that has happened again and again. The line puts teacher and student on the same long road, differing only in what each can see of it.
Why does Krishna remember his births while Arjuna does not?
Because Krishna is not carried by birth the way Arjuna is. He enters it and remains awake inside it; Arjuna enters and forgets at the door. The forgetting is not a punishment. It is simply what happens when the knower identifies with the field it wakes up in — and it can thin.
Does this verse mean I have lived before?
The Gītā takes it as ordinary fact, not as a marvel. But nothing here depends on your recovering a single memory. What matters is the implication: the self you are is older than the story you can tell about it. Your name is recent. What is looking out through it is not.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Arjuna asked a fair question — how could you have taught a sun-god born long before you? Krishna does not argue the arithmetic. He widens it. You too have been here before, many times; the difference between us is not that I have travelled further, but that I remember. Forgetting is the condition of being a person. You wake into a name and a family and take it for the whole of you. Krishna is not boasting of memory. He is telling Arjuna the loss is survivable, because something walked through all those doors and is still standing here, asking. That something is asking now, in you.