Arjuna has put down his bow. We might expect the Lord to tell him what to do next. Instead, for twenty verses, he speaks about who it is that lives in a body, and what can and cannot be lost. What does the Gita say the self is, and how does it get from there to "do not grieve"?
In a sentence: the self is the one who stays the same through every change of the body and cannot be cut, burnt or ended, and grief is aimed at the body and the shared life, which do end. For the one who cannot accept this, the Lord gives a second answer that does not need the first. Here the verses are taken in order. The passing of pleasure and pain (Gita 2.14–15) is read in Equanimity, and the arguments from duty (Gita 2.31–37) in Duty, Honour and Fear.
Where these verses come in
The first chapter ended in Arjuna's Despondency. At the start of the second he is in tears (Gita 2.1), and he asks to be taught, since his own mind cannot decide (Gita 2.7). The verses here are the first answer. They begin The Self and the Body, and the chapter afterwards turns from the self to the steady intellect, which is read in Buddhi Yoga.
Grief is aimed at the wrong thing (2.11)
अशोच्यानन्वशोचस्त्वं प्रज्ञावादांश्च भाषसे ।
गतासूनगतासूंश्च नानुशोचन्ति पण्डिताः ॥ २.११ ॥
aśhochyān anvaśhochas tvaṁ prajñāvādāṁśh cha bhāṣhase |
gatāsūn agatāsūṁśh cha nānuśhochanti paṇḍitāḥ || 2.11 ||
The Blessed Lord said: You grieve for those who are not worthy of grief, yet you speak words of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the dead nor for the living.
The Lord says that Arjuna grieves for those who are not to be grieved for, and that the wise grieve neither for the dead nor for the living (Gita 2.11). The verse is not an accusation of love. It looks at the belief inside the grief: that the person is wholly gone. And it names the living as well as the dead. Whatever follows is therefore about how we hold anyone dear, now or later, and not only about dying.
We have always been, and will always be (2.12–13)
न चैव न भविष्यामः सर्वे वयमतः परम् ॥ २.१२ ॥
na chaiva na bhaviṣhyāmaḥ sarve vayam ataḥ param || 2.12 ||
Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor shall any of us cease to exist hereafter.
तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुह्यति ॥ २.१३ ॥
tathā dehāntaraprāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati || 2.13 ||
Just as the embodied soul passes in this body through childhood, youth and old age, in the same way it attains another body. The wise person is not deluded about this.
There was never a time when the Lord, Arjuna and these kings were not, and none of them will cease to be (Gita 2.12). The next verse gives something each of us can check. The self passes in this body through childhood, youth and old age, and takes another body in the same way; the steady person is not bewildered (Gita 2.13). Every stage of the body is different, and yet nobody thinks a new person has arrived. "I was a child" is true of the one who says it. The verse asks us to take that change we have lived through as the model for the change that looks like an ending.
What is real never ends (2.16–18)
उभयोरपि दृष्टोऽन्तस्त्वनयोस्तत्त्वदर्शिभिः ॥ २.१६ ॥
ubhayor api dṛiṣhṭo 'ntas tv anayos tattvadarśhibhiḥ || 2.16 ||
Of the unreal there is no being, and of the real there is no non-being. The seers of truth have seen the final conclusion about both of these.
विनाशमव्ययस्यास्य न कश्चित्कर्तुमर्हति ॥ २.१७ ॥
vināśham avyayasyāsya na kaśhchit kartum arhati || 2.17 ||
Know that by which all this is pervaded to be indestructible. No one is able to bring about the destruction of this imperishable.
अनाशिनोऽप्रमेयस्य तस्माद्युध्यस्व भारत ॥ २.१८ ॥
anāśhino 'prameyasya tasmād yudhyasva bhārata || 2.18 ||
These bodies of the eternal, indestructible and immeasurable embodied soul are said to have an end. Therefore fight, O Bharata.
Of what is unreal there is no being, and of what is real there is no absence (Gita 2.16). In plain words, what comes and goes cannot be the lasting ground, and what lasts cannot be made to end. The real and the unreal are not "true" and "false". A body is real enough, as any grieving person knows. It is called unreal only because it has no lasting being.
The self is that by which all this is pervaded, and no one can destroy it (Gita 2.17). The bodies of the embodied one have an end, while the embodied one is eternal (Gita 2.18). The verse closes with "therefore fight". That conclusion is for Arjuna's situation, and its ground is duty, which belongs to Duty, Honour and Fear.
The self neither slays nor is slain (2.19–21)
उभौ तौ न विजानीतो नायं हन्ति न हन्यते ॥ २.१९ ॥
ubhau tau na vijānīto nāyaṁ hanti na hanyate || 2.19 ||
One who thinks that this soul is a slayer, and one who thinks that it is slain, both of them do not know. This soul neither slays nor is slain.
अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे ॥ २.२० ॥
ajo nityaḥ śhāśhvato 'yaṁ purāṇo na hanyate hanyamāne śharīre || 2.20 ||
This soul is never born, nor does it ever die. Nor, having come into being, will it cease to be again. It is unborn, eternal, everlasting and ancient. It is not slain when the body is slain.
कथं स पुरुषः पार्थ कं घातयति हन्ति कम् ॥ २.२१ ॥
kathaṁ sa puruṣhaḥ pārtha kaṁ ghātayati hanti kam || 2.21 ||
O Partha, how can a person who knows this soul to be indestructible, eternal, unborn and immutable, kill anyone or cause anyone to be killed?
Both the one who thinks "I kill" and the one who thinks "he is killed" do not know (Gita 2.19). The self is never born and never dies, and it is not ended when the body is ended (Gita 2.20). The next verse asks how a person who knows the self to be indestructible can kill, or cause anyone to kill (Gita 2.21).
These verses are about the self, which cannot be ended by any act. They do not say that harm is harmless, or that what we do to one another has no weight. The Gita treats the weight of acts elsewhere: the deluded one thinks "I am the doer" (Gita 3.27).
Clothes, weapons and what cannot be touched (2.22–25)
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णान्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ॥ २.२२ ॥
tathā śharīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny anyāni saṁyāti navāni dehī || 2.22 ||
Just as a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new bodies, giving up the old and worn-out ones.
न चैनं क्लेदयन्त्यापो न शोषयति मारुतः ॥ २.२३ ॥
na chainaṁ kledayanty āpo na śhoṣhayati mārutaḥ || 2.23 ||
Weapons do not cut this soul, fire does not burn it, water does not wet it, and wind does not dry it.
नित्यः सर्वगतः स्थाणुरचलोऽयं सनातनः ॥ २.२४ ॥
nityaḥ sarvagataḥ sthāṇur achalo 'yaṁ sanātanaḥ || 2.24 ||
This soul is unbreakable, incombustible, and can neither be wetted nor dried. It is eternal, all-pervading, stable, immovable, and primeval.
तस्मादेवं विदित्वैनं नानुशोचितुमर्हसि ॥ २.२५ ॥
tasmād evaṁ viditvainaṁ nānuśhochitum arhasi || 2.25 ||
This soul is said to be unmanifest, inconceivable and unchangeable. Therefore, having known it thus, you should not grieve.
The self takes up new bodies as a person puts on new clothes and leaves the worn ones (Gita 2.22). Weapons do not cut it, fire does not burn it, water does not wet it and wind does not dry it (Gita 2.23). It is steady, all-pervading and primeval, unmanifest and beyond thought (Gita 2.24–25).
Each picture meets one fear. The clothes meet the fear that what we love simply wears out. The weapons and the elements meet the fear that it can be destroyed by force or by nature. The last words meet the fear of the unknown: what cannot be seen or thought is not for that reason gone. The group ends with "so do not grieve", the first time the Lord gives it as a conclusion of the teaching.
For the one who cannot accept this (2.26–28)
तथापि त्वं महाबाहो नैवं शोचितुमर्हसि ॥ २.२६ ॥
tathāpi tvaṁ mahābāho naivaṁ śhochitum arhasi || 2.26 ||
And even if you think that this soul is constantly born and constantly dies, still, O mighty-armed one, you should not grieve in this way.
तस्मादपरिहार्येऽर्थे न त्वं शोचितुमर्हसि ॥ २.२७ ॥
tasmād aparihārye 'rthe na tvaṁ śhochitum arhasi || 2.27 ||
For one who is born, death is certain, and for one who has died, birth is certain. Therefore, you should not grieve over what is unavoidable.
अव्यक्तनिधनान्येव तत्र का परिदेवना ॥ २.२८ ॥
avyaktanidhanāny eva tatra kā paridevanā || 2.28 ||
All beings are unmanifest in the beginning, manifest in the middle, O Bharata, and unmanifest again in the end. What is there to lament about this?
The Lord does not leave the one who finds this hard without an answer. Even if Arjuna thinks that the self is born and dies again and again, he should not grieve (Gita 2.26). Birth is certain for the one who has died and death for the one who is born, so there is no ground to grieve over the unavoidable (Gita 2.27). Beings are unseen before, seen in the middle and unseen again after, and the verse asks what there is to lament (Gita 2.28).
This second answer is not cold. It speaks of what cannot be avoided, not of what a person is worth, and it places the visible life between two sides we do not see. The grief of the one who holds this view is for only the middle.
A wonder, and the self in every being (2.29–30)
आश्चर्यवच्चैनमन्यः शृणोति श्रुत्वाप्येनं वेद न चैव कश्चित् ॥ २.२९ ॥
āśhcharyavach chainam anyaḥ śhṛṇoti śhrutvāpy enaṁ veda na chaiva kaśhchit || 2.29 ||
Some look upon this soul as a wonder, another speaks of it as a wonder, another hears of it as a wonder, and yet another, even after hearing about it, does not understand it at all.
तस्मात्सर्वाणि भूतानि न त्वं शोचितुमर्हसि ॥ २.३० ॥
tasmāt sarvāṇi bhūtāni na tvaṁ śhochitum arhasi || 2.30 ||
O Bharata, this soul that dwells in the body of everyone is always indestructible. Therefore, you should not grieve for any being.
The Lord is honest that the teaching is not easy. One looks on the self as a wonder, another speaks of it as a wonder, another hears of it as a wonder, and yet another, even after hearing, does not understand it (Gita 2.29). The last verse widens the whole teaching: the self in every body is indestructible, so there is no reason to grieve for any being (Gita 2.30). The first verse spoke of the dead and the living, and the last speaks of all.
Three things we mean when we say "I"
The verses are easier to follow once we see how many things the word "I" can point at. The first is the body, which changes from childhood to old age and is put aside like worn clothes (Gita 2.13, Gita 2.22). The second is the mind and the senses. These are not the body, and the self takes them along when it leaves one body for another, as the wind takes a fragrance from its source (Gita 15.7–8). What we call a person's nature travels in this way, yet it is not the unchanging one. The third is the doer. Ego says "I do this", while all action is done by the modes of nature (Gita 3.27).
Beneath all three is the one who knows them: the body is called the field, and the self is its knower (Gita 13.2). It is called unborn and unending (Gita 2.20). So "the person is wholly gone" mixes up the layers. The body has ended, the shared routines have ended, and the knower has not. Grief often speaks of all of them in one breath, and the verses ask us to separate them.
The teaching at a glance
| For whom | What the verses say | What changes in the grief |
|---|---|---|
| The one who sees the self as lasting (2.13, 2.16–25) | The self stays through all change and cannot be ended. | The belief "wholly gone" loosens. |
| The one who sees only the body (2.26–28) | Birth and death are unavoidable and beings are unseen before and after. | The grief is for the middle only, and the unavoidable is accepted. |
| Anyone (2.29–30) | The self in every being is indestructible. | The dear ones are seen in a wider way, living and dead. |
Love and tears are not what is corrected
Nothing in these verses calls Arjuna's tears wrong. They meet them with teaching (Gita 2.1, Gita 2.7). The Gita itself praises the devotee who is friendly and compassionate to all (Gita 12.13), and the yogi who feels another's pain as his own (Gita 6.32). The teaching removes the belief that the person is wholly gone. The feeling that went with the love can stay.
The pain itself is not denied either. The contacts of the senses bring cold and heat, pleasure and pain, and they come and go, so the Lord asks that they be borne patiently (Gita 2.14), and he speaks of the steady person whom they do not disturb (Gita 2.15). These are the waves of missing that anyone who has lost someone knows: each returns, and each passes. Their fuller reading is in Equanimity.
Other chapters say the same thing from another side. The Lord says that he and Arjuna have passed through many births, and that he knows them while Arjuna does not remember (Gita 4.5). This is why the continuity is not seen directly. The self is also said to take the mind and senses along with it when it leaves a body, as the wind carries a fragrance from its source (Gita 15.7–8). And the body is called the field, with the self as the one who knows it (Gita 13.2). Each of these verses describes the same self in its own setting.
Where Arjuna's grief ends
A grief of this kind is not removed by one verse, and the Gita does not pretend that it is. It begins with Arjuna in tears (Gita 2.1). He then asks to be taught (Gita 2.7), and only after that does the teaching begin. Much later, after the Lord has shown him the whole of what he is, Arjuna says that the delusion in him has been dispelled (Gita 11.1). At the very end he says that his delusion is gone, that he has regained his memory and that he will act on the Lord's word (Gita 18.73). The grief is walked with, from the first chapter to the last. And the Lord's counsel closes with the same words with which it opened: do not grieve (Gita 18.66).
Common misreadings
"Because the self is eternal, grieving is wrong." The verses question the belief inside the grief, and they meet Arjuna's tears with teaching and not a ban (Gita 2.1).
"If no one can be killed, harm does not matter." The verses speak of the self that cannot be ended. The weight of an act is taught elsewhere (Gita 3.27).
"The body is called unreal, so it is worthless." "Unreal" means that it has no lasting being (Gita 2.16).
"This is only about the dead." The first verse names the living too (Gita 2.11).
An example: Rukmini and the reading glasses
Take Rukmini, whose husband died in the winter. His reading glasses are still on the shelf. People tell her that he is not really gone, and it does not help. One evening she thinks about her own life: the girl who came as a bride, the mother, the grandmother. It was the same Rukmini through all of it, though nothing about her stayed as it was (Gita 2.13). She begins to see what it means to say "he" of him. The missing stays. What shifts is its object: it is no longer "he is nowhere" but "the one I knew has gone out of sight". Nothing here claims to know where he is. It only loosens the sentence "he is wholly gone".
A practice from the verses
- Look at your own life and ask who has stayed the same through all its changes (Gita 2.13).
- Name what you loved in the person that is hard to place in a body (Gita 2.20).
- Let the missing stay; nothing in the verses asks it to go.
- When it returns, go back to the single line that helps (Gita 2.30).
- Do not hurry.
- When have I been the same person while everything about me changed?
- What did I love in someone that I cannot point to in a body?
- Which of the three answers helps me today, and which does not?
If you want to comfort someone who is grieving
The way the Lord speaks to Arjuna also shows how to speak to someone else in grief. Arjuna's tears are seen first, and the teaching begins when he asks (Gita 2.1, Gita 2.7). So listen first, and offer when asked. Do not open with "he is not really gone". That is what Rukmini was told, and it did not help her. Speak of the person who lived in the body, and not only of the body. The Lord is honest that not everyone sees this at once (Gita 2.29), and he leaves the listener free: reflect on this fully, and then do as you wish (Gita 18.63).
Questions readers ask
Is the self the same as the mind or the personality?
No. The self is called unchanging (Gita 2.20). The mind and the senses are what it takes along when it leaves a body (Gita 15.7–8). So what we call the personality travels, and the self itself is the one who stays.
Is the Lord rebuking Arjuna in the first verse?
It is a correction of the belief inside the grief. The Lord then teaches for twenty verses, and Arjuna has just asked to be taught (Gita 2.7, Gita 2.11). A rebuke would end the conversation, and this verse begins it.
Is "death is certain for the one who is born" cold comfort?
It is meant for the one who finds the first answer hard. It speaks of what cannot be avoided, and the next verse adds that beings are unseen before and after (Gita 2.27, Gita 2.28). It does not say that a person's worth is small.
Do these verses make killing harmless?
No. They say that the self cannot be ended (Gita 2.19–21). They do not say that an act carries no weight, and the Gita goes on to speak of doership (Gita 3.27).
What if I cannot feel any of this?
The Gita says so itself: some hear and still do not understand (Gita 2.29). It then points to learning from those who have seen, with humility and service (Gita 4.34), and says that the Lord gives understanding to the steadfast (Gita 10.10).
The answer in a few words
The question was how the Gita gets from the self to "do not grieve". The self is the one who stays through every change, and what ends is the body and a shared life. For the one who cannot see this, the Lord says that birth and death are unavoidable and that beings are unseen before and after. And the teaching that began with "do not grieve" ends the whole counsel with the same words (Gita 18.66).
For a shorter first approach, see the simple reading. For the finer points and the objections, see the deeper reading.