A core teaching · expansive in mood · builds on earlier teachings
“What changes is not the whole of you.”
In this world, there are two kinds of beings: the perishable and the imperishable. All embodied beings are perishable; the steadfast one is called imperishable.
The verse in reading order — each Sanskrit word with its meaning beneath. Tap a word to focus on it.
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There are two kinds of existence here: what changes and what does not. Bodies pass away, but the unchanging reality within remains.
Krishna speaks this verse, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in the chapter titled "Purushottama Yoga" (The Yoga of the Supreme Person).
Verse 16 sits in Chapter 15 of the Bhagavad Gita — Purushottama Yoga, "The Yoga of the Supreme Person". The chapter has 20 verses in total.
Standing at an old friend's funeral, you see the body that changed over fifty years. Krishna separates that perishable part from the steady one, which he calls imperishable, and asks you to know both.
Did you like this verse?
Two kinds of purusha exist, Krishna says: the perishable, which is every body, and the steady imperishable.
What this verse means
There are two kinds of existence here: what changes and what does not. Bodies pass away, but the unchanging reality within remains.
Context & commentary
Krishna widens the frame beyond the war: all bodies are temporary, and the steady reality within them lasts. This verse prepares Arjuna to act without mistaking the body for the whole person.
What it looks like today
Standing at an old friend's funeral, you see the body that changed over fifty years. Krishna separates that perishable part from the steady one, which he calls imperishable, and asks you to know both.
“You can stop clinging to what fades and rest in what does not.”
Explore related themes: akshara (12 verses)