Bhagavad Gita 2.20

[Paramananda das]

TEXT 20

na jayate mriyate va kadacin nayam bhutva bhavita va na bhuyah ajo nityah sasvato 'yam purano na hanyate hanyamane sarire

SYNONYMS

na--never; jayate--takes birth; mriyate--never dies; va--either; kadacit--at any time (past, present or future); na--never; ayam--this; bhutva--came into being; bhavita--will come to be; va--or; na--not; bhuyah--or has coming to be; ajah--unborn; nityah--eternal; sasvatah--permanent; ayam--this; puranah--the oldest; na--never; hanyate--is killed; hanyamane--being killed; sarire--by the body.

TRANSLATION

For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Qualitatively, the small atomic fragmental part of the Supreme Spirit is one with the Supreme. He undergoes no changes like the body. Sometimes the soul is called the steady, or kutastha. The body is subject to six kinds of transformations. It takes its birth in the womb of the mother's body, remains for some time, grows, produces some effects, gradually dwindles, and at last vanishes into oblivion. The soul, however, does not go through such changes. The soul is not born, but, because he takes on a material body, the body takes its birth. The soul does not take birth there, and the soul does not die. Anything which has birth also has death. And because the soul has no birth, he therefore has no past, present or future. He is eternal, ever-existing, and primeval--that is, there is no trace in history of his coming into being. Under the impression of the body, we seek the history of birth, etc., of the soul. The soul does not at any time become old, as the body does. The so-called old man, therefore, feels himself to be in the same spirit as in his childhood or youth. The changes of the body do not affect the soul. The soul does not deteriorate like a tree, nor anything material. The soul has no by-product either. The by-products of the body, namely children, are also different individual souls; and, owing to the body, they appear as children of a particular man. The body develops because of the soul's presence, but the soul has neither offshoots nor change. Therefore, the soul is free from the six changes of the body. In the Katha Upanisad also we find a similar passage which reads:

na jayate mriyate va vipascin nayam kutascin na vibhuva kascit ajo nityah sasvato 'yam purano na hanyate hanyamane sarire (Katha 1.2.18)

The meaning and purport of this verse is the same as in the Bhagavad-gita, but here in this verse there is one special word, vipascit, which means learned or with knowledge. The soul is full of knowledge, or full always with consciousness. Therefore, consciousness is the symptom of the soul. Even if one does not find the soul within the heart, where he is situated, one can still understand the presence of the soul simply by the presence of consciousness. Sometimes we do not find the sun in the sky owing to clouds, or for some other reason, but the light of the sun is always there, and we are convinced that it is therefore daytime. As soon as there is a little light in the sky early in the morning, we can understand that the sun is in the sky. Similarly, since there is some consciousness in all bodies--whether man or animal--we can understand the presence of the soul. This consciousness of the soul is, however, different from the consciousness of the Supreme because the supreme consciousness is all-knowledge--past, present and future. The consciousness of the individual soul is prone to be forgetful. When he is forgetful of his real nature, he obtains education and enlightenment from the superior lessons of Krsna. But Krsna is not like the forgetful soul. If so, Krsna's teachings of Bhagavad-gita would be useless. There are two kinds of souls--namely the minute particle soul (anu-atma) and the Supersoul (the vibhu-atma). This is also confirmed in the Katha Upanisad in this way:

anor aniyan mahato mahiyan atmasya jantor nihito guhayam tam akratuh pasyati vita-soko dhatuh prasadan mahimanam atmanah (Katha 1.2.20)

"Both the Supersoul [Paramatma] and the atomic soul [jivatma] are situated on the same tree of the body within the same heart of the living being, and only one who has become free from all material desires as well as lamentations can, by the grace of the Supreme, understand the glories of the soul." Krsna is the fountainhead of the Supersoul also, as it will be disclosed in the following chapters, and Arjuna is the atomic soul, forgetful of his real nature; therefore he requires to be enlightened by Krsna, or by His bona fide representative (the spiritual master).

Commentary by Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur

The eternal nature of the jiva is here clearly proven. The first line negates the possibility of birth and death for the jiva at the present time. The second line negates birth and death in the past and the future. Therefore it is unborn (aja): in past, present and future. Because of no birth, it has no previous non-existence (prag abhava). It exists at all times (sasvatah), meaning that at no time in past, present or future, will it be destroyed (dhvamsa). Therefore it is eternal (nityah).

"But because the soul exists for a long time, it can grow old."

"No, though it is old (pura), it is as if new (na for nava), because of absence of the six states of transformations."

"With the death of the body, will it not die along with the body?"

"It does not die when the body dies. Because it does not have a relationship with the body, the soul is not subservient."

Rudra Vaisnava Sampradaya: Visnuswami Sridhara Swami's Commentary The understanding that the eternal soul is never slain is being confirmed by its freedom from the six changes of material existence being: birth, existence, growth, modification, decay and death which are controlling all living entities high and low in the material existence. The Supreme Lord by declaring the eternal soul is not born confirms the absence of any birth and by declaring the eternal soul does not die confirms the absence of any destruction. The word va occurring twice is used in the sense of and as in and the immortal soul does not come into existence by birth.The immortal soul is already by nature itself eternal. So existence by conception is proven false due to the fact the eternal soul is birthless. That which is conceived attains existence after birth; but that which already eternally exists by its own nature cannot be conceived again. This is the purport of this verse. Constant means not subject to modification. This confirms the absence of growth. Eternal confirms the absence of decay. Ancient confirms the absence of ageing ever beyond time the eternal soul is ageless. Thus there is never a repetition regarding the existence of the eternal soul and the six changes of the physical of birth, existence, growth, modification, decay and death mentioned by Yaksa and other expounders of the Vedic scriptures as to the nature of things in this world never is applicable to the eternal soul which factually every living entity born from a womb possesses. The imperishable nature of the soul and the fact that the six changes of the physical body have no influence on it which is the topic presently under discussion has now been satisfactorily concluded and so it is confirmed that the eternal soul does not perish when the body perishes.

Brahma Vaisnava Sampradaya: Madhvacarya Madhvacarya's Commentary Here to emphasise the authority of the Vedic scriptures the Supreme Lord Krishna uses the words na jayate meaning never takes birth. The knowledge of the Lord is not born nor does it cease to be in the literal sense of the words. In all situations, time and places as well as in all stages it is never subject to modification. Nor is the knowledge of the soul ever subject to destruction and this is fully established in the Vedic scriptures. How one may ask? Due to the attributes like ajah the unborn referring to the Supreme Lord, sasvatah means permanent signifying that He remains in His spiritual form of consciousness and bliss without any modification, puranam means that the eternal embodied soul acquires another pura or body. Thus it can be understood that the soul is not ever destroyed even when the physical body perishes. Now begins the summation. The living entity and the Supreme Lord are both irrevocably established as unborn, eternal and indestructible. The Supreme Lord possessing a spiritual body does not come into existence by being associated with the material manifestation; but is eternally existing independently. Death correctly comprehended is merely the separation of the embodied soul from the physical body leaving it lifeless. Since for the Supreme Lord there is never any destruction of His form, there cannot be any connection to death by Him. The eternal soul is also unborn and indestructible, otherwise creation could be considered simply a repetitive exercise going on and on absent of purpose. The eternal soul is also permanent but the eternal soul never exists independently; it has limited power, limited knowledge, incomplete in itself, dependent upon the transcendental energy of the Supreme Lord. In juxtaposition to that are the sublime attributes of the Supreme Lord who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. These are the natural attributes of the 2 there is no modifications to be found in them. Therefore the holy sages and rishi’s designated them both as sasvatah or permanent. Thus in the Visnu Purana because the living entity is embodied in countless bodies from the beginning of time it is known as puranah meaning ancient.

Sri Vaisnava Sampradaya: Ramanuja Ramanuja's Commentary For the reasons previously described, characteristics which are natural to all living entities such as birth, ageing and death do not pertain to or have any influence on the indestructible soul as it has no modification due to its eternal nature. The bodily experience has no affect on the eternal soul thus it is spoken of as it is not born nor does it die. It cannot be proven that having been before a kalpa the soul is not going to exist after a kalpa. Such births and deaths at the beginning and end of every kalpa are told by the Agamasin the Vedic scriptures as replacing each Brahma who manages and directs the functioning and maintenance of creation in one singular universe in the infinite celestial firmament. But this reference pertains only to the physical body and does not affect the eternal soul. The imperishable soul which pervades the physical body of all living entities is aja or unborn and thus it is known to be eternal and constant only changing its external embodied form. The two characteristics of eternality and constancy denote that like the material substratum known as prakritieven the most subtle and infinitesimal modifications in the stage preceding manifestation has no ability in any way to affect the eternal soul. The word purana means ancient. Etymologically it stems from purapi navahmeaning old yet new illustrating that the eternal soul although ancient is experienced with every birth as ever new. Thus it has been clarified that the physical body only perishes but never can the eternal soul perish.

Kumara Vaisnava Sampradaya: Nimbaditya Kesava Kasmiri's Commentary As to questions of how the soul is neither the instigator of any actions or the recepient of any actions, Lord Krishna explains that the soul being eternal is not subject to the six modifications of material existence which are: birth, being, growth, transformation, dimunition and death. The soul is never born and never dies at any time. How can this be? It is not that the soul did not exist before and will not exist in the future. The soul exists eternally but opting the experiences of the material existence accepts a physical body. What did not exist in the past but is manifested only in the present is called conceived and that which exists now but will cease to exist eventually is called dead. But the soul is not conceived as it eternally exists and it will never die because it is immortal. With the 2 words ajah meaning unborn and nityah meaning eternal, it is made clear that the 2 modifications of birth and death are not applicable in regards to the soul. In order to also negate the idea of the soul posessing any modifications by even being, Lord Krishna explains that the soul is everlasting which means it is free from being or unbeing. The modification of any growth of the soul is neutralisd by the word puranah meaning ancient, that it always existed as it is. One posessing a body grows by the increase of the bodily parts; but the soul being bodiless does not increase it is the same eternally. The remaining 2 modifications of transformation and dimunition are rendered inapplicable by inference in understanding that the soul being eternal without any need to increase remains as it is and is changeless. Hence the soul being bereft of any of the six modifications of the physical body can never be destroyed even when the physical body is destroyed.