A declaration · expansive in mood · builds on earlier teachings
“What is deepest in reality cannot be destroyed by any ending.”
Beyond that unmanifest is another, eternal unmanifest. Even when all beings perish, it does not perish.
The verse in reading order — each Sanskrit word with its meaning beneath. Tap a word to focus on it.
Read literallybeyond that · but · state/being · another · unmanifest · than the unmanifest · eternal · which · that · in all · beings · when perishing · not · perishes
There is something beyond the visible world that is eternal and cannot be destroyed, even when all living things disappear.
Krishna speaks this verse, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in the chapter titled "Akshara Brahma Yoga" (The Imperishable Absolute).
Verse 20 sits in Chapter 8 of the Bhagavad Gita — Akshara Brahma Yoga, "The Imperishable Absolute". The chapter has 28 verses in total.
When floods wash away a village's fields, houses and road, the old people still point to where the river has always run. Krishna points past every form that dissolves to an unmanifest that never perishes.
Did you like this verse?
Beyond the unmanifest that dissolves lies another, eternal unmanifest that survives when all beings perish.
What this verse means
There is something beyond the visible world that is eternal and cannot be destroyed, even when all living things disappear.
Context & commentary
Krishna keeps tracing reality beyond birth and death while Arjuna is shaken and the armies wait. After describing how beings arise and dissolve, he points to what remains when every form vanishes: the eternal unmanifest.
What it looks like today
When floods wash away a village's fields, houses and road, the old people still point to where the river has always run. Krishna points past every form that dissolves to an unmanifest that never perishes.
“The deepest reality is not vulnerable to collapse, so loss does not have the final word.”
Explore related themes: akshara (12 verses), avyakta (10 verses)