Chapter 2, Verse 20

Sanskrit

न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचित् नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः। अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे॥

Transliteration

na jāyate mriyate vā kadācit nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ ajo nityaḥ śāśvato ‘yaṁ purāṇo na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre

Translation

This [atman] is not born, nor does it die at any time. Nor, having been, does it cease to be. Unborn, eternal, undecaying, ancient — it is not slain when the body is slain.

Concepts discussed

• atman — the subject; denied all six modifications
• shad-vikara — the sixfold modification; each of the six denied by one adjective
• mahavakya — the verse is a prose restatement of aham brahmasmi
• anitya — what the atman is not; by contrast what the body is
• sat — nitya, shashvata, purana all point to sat

Swami’s commentary

The verse looks repetitive — not born, not dying; not having existed does it cease to be; unborn, eternal, undecaying, ancient — but Shankara’s reading shows there is no repetition fault (punarukti). The adjectives systematically deny each of Yaska’s six modifications: birth, existing-from-having-not-existed, growth, maturation, decay, death. One negation per modification.

The verse opens: it neither is born nor dies, nor having been, does it cease to be. The first line is, by the structure of a Nyaya syllogism, the pratijña — the thesis. The second line gives the hetu — the reason: it is not the case that it existed and then stopped existing. The third line (with its five adjectives) is the nigamana — the conclusion restated under six attributes. Far from repeating, the verse is a five-part logical demonstration compressed into four pādas.

Purāṇa receives special attention: in Sanskrit, purāṇo ‘pi navaḥ — “though ancient, ever fresh.” Atman is not ancient in the sense of old-and-tired; it is timelessly present, not having undergone any process of aging.

Episode 8 [08:10–30:30]: The verse unpacked via the Nyaya syllogism structure, Yaska’s shad-vikara, and the four mahavakyas — each Upanishadic line that compresses the same thesis into one sentence.