2.24 The four negations again Krishna speaks
अच्छेद्योऽयमदाह्योऽयमक्लेद्योऽशोष्य एव च
नित्यः सर्वगतः स्थाणुरचलोऽयं सनातनः
achchhedyo ’yam adāhyo ’yam akledyo ’śhoṣhya eva cha
nityaḥ sarva-gataḥ sthāṇur achalo ’yaṁ sanātanaḥ
It cannot be cut, cannot be burnt, cannot be wetted, cannot be dried. It is everlasting, everywhere, unmoving, unchanging, always.
Explanation
And then all four again, as adjectives.
Uncuttable, unburnable, unwettable, undryable — followed by everlasting, everywhere, unmoving, unchanging.
The repetition is not padding. Saying it as verbs and then as properties makes the point twice in different grammar, which is how this text does emphasis.
Going further
Word by word
- achchhedyaḥ
- unbreakable
- ayam
- this soul
- adāhyaḥ
- incombustible
- ayam
- this soul
- akledyaḥ
- cannot be dampened
- aśhoṣhyaḥ
- cannot be dried
- eva
- indeed
- cha
- and
- nityaḥ
- everlasting
- sarva-gataḥ
- all-pervading
- sthāṇuḥ
- unalterable
- achalaḥ
- immutable
- ayam
- this soul
- sanātanaḥ
- primordial
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Four negations in 2.23 — not cut, not burnt, not wetted, not dried — and then 2.24 repeats all four as adjectives.
The repetition is the argument. Krishna is not adding information; he is exhausting the ways a thing can be destroyed and finding that none of them apply. Fire, water, wind, blade: the four elemental attacks available to an ancient imagination, each tried and each failing.