Verse 2.12
न त्वेवाहं जातु नासं न त्वं नेमे जनाधिपाः ।
न चैव न भविष्यामः सर्वे वयमतः परम् ॥
Transliteration
na tvevāhaṃ jātu nāsaṃ na tvaṃ neme janādhipāḥ |
na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ sarve vayamataḥ param ||
By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · @indic-transliteration/sanscript 1.3.3
Translation
Nor at any time indeed was I not, nor thou, nor these rulers of men, nor verily shall we ever cease to be hereafter.
From the owner's sheet · +1 more
Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor these rulers of men; nor shall any of us ever cease to be hereafter.
By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · claude-opus-5-5 · 2026-11-08 · +1 more
Word by word
By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · claude-opus-5-5 · 2026-11-08
Explanation
Krishna declares that neither he, nor Arjuna, nor the assembled kings ever began to exist, and none will cease to exist. The verse uses plural forms, which some traditions read as affirming many eternal selves and others read as speaking from the ordinary viewpoint before pointing to a single reality. Either way, the point in the dialogue is the same: the people Arjuna fears to kill are not reduced to their bodies. Their existence extends before and beyond this battle, so death cannot be the absolute loss Arjuna imagines.
By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · claude-opus-5-5 · 2026-11-08