2.16 What is, never ceases Krishna speaks
नासतो विद्यते भावो नाभावो विद्यते सतः
उभयोरपि दृष्टोऽन्तस्त्वनयोस्तत्त्वदर्शिभिः
nāsato vidyate bhāvo nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ
ubhayorapi dṛiṣhṭo ’nta stvanayos tattva-darśhibhiḥ
What is not, never comes to be; what is, never ceases to be. Those who see the truth have seen the end of both.
Explanation
The most compressed verse in the chapter.
What is not, never comes to be. What is, never ceases to be.
Everything the Gita says about death rests on this and it is worth sitting with. It is not a claim about souls surviving — it is a claim that coming into and going out of existence is not something that actually happens.
Going further
Word by word
- na
- no
- asataḥ
- of the temporary
- vidyate
- there is
- bhāvaḥ
- is
- na
- no
- abhāvaḥ
- cessation
- vidyate
- is
- sataḥ
- of the eternal
- ubhayoḥ
- of the two
- api
- also
- dṛiṣhṭaḥ
- observed
- antaḥ
- conclusion
- tu
- verily
- anayoḥ
- of these
- tattva
- of the truth
- darśhibhiḥ
- by the seers
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The most compressed verse in the chapter, and the one most worth sitting with. What is not, never comes to be. What is, never ceases to be.
It is not a consolation, it is a definition — and it does something specific to grief. Grief argues that something which existed has been annihilated. This verse says annihilation is not a thing that happens to what actually is; what vanished was never in that category. Whether you accept it or not, notice that it addresses the structure of the loss rather than the feeling of it.