4.9 Knowing my birth and my work Krishna speaks
जन्म कर्म च मे दिव्यमेवं यो वेत्ति तत्त्वतः
त्यक्त्वा देहं पुनर्जन्म नैति मामेति सोऽर्जुन
janma karma cha me divyam evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti so ’rjuna
One who truly knows my birth and my work as they are, on leaving the body is not born again, but comes to me.
Explanation
Knowing the birth and the work as they are.
tattvataḥ — truly, as it is. Such a one, leaving the body, is not born again.
Which makes 4.6's contradiction the thing to be understood rather than a difficulty to be excused. What liberates is grasping how something unborn can act in time.
Word by word
- janma
- birth
- karma
- activities
- cha
- and
- me
- of mine
- divyam
- divine
- evam
- thus
- yaḥ
- who
- vetti
- know
- tattvataḥ
- in truth
- tyaktvā
- having abandoned
- deham
- the body
- punaḥ
- again
- janma
- birth
- na
- never
- eti
- takes
- mām
- to me
- eti
- comes
- saḥ
- he
- arjuna
- Arjun
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