13.20 Both without beginning Krishna speaks

प्रकृतिं पुरुषं चैव विद्ध्यनादी उभावपि
विकारांश्च गुणांश्चैव विद्धि प्रकृतिसंभवान्

prakṛitiṁ puruṣhaṁ chaiva viddhy anādī ubhāv api
vikārānśh cha guṇānśh chaiva viddhi prakṛiti-sambhavān

Know that nature and the person are both without beginning. Know too that the changes and the strands arise from nature.

Explanation

Both are beginningless, and that is the harder claim.

prakṛti and puruṣa — nature and the person — neither of them started.

So matter is not a later mistake or a fall from something purer. It is as old as spirit, which rules out the entire class of explanations in which the world is a problem to be undone.

Word by word

prakṛitim: material nature
puruṣham: the individual souls
cha: and
eva: indeed
viddhi: know
anādī: beginningless
ubhau: both
api: and
vikārān: transformations (of the body)
cha: also
guṇān: the three modes of nature
cha: and
eva: indeed
viddhi: know
prakṛiti: material energy
sambhavān: produced by