Sanskrit
इदं ज्ञानमुपाश्रित्य मम साधर्म्यमागताः । सर्गेऽपि नोपजायन्ते प्रलये न व्यथन्ति च ॥
idaṃ jñānam upāśritya mama sādharmyam āgatāḥ sarge'pi nopajāyante pralaye na vyathanti ca
Translation
Having taken refuge in this Wisdom and being assimilated to My own nature, they are not re-born even in the emanation of a universe, nor are disquieted in the dissolution.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The scale of the claim widens immediately: this isn’t freedom from one more human rebirth, it’s freedom from the entire cosmic cycle of emanation (sarga) and dissolution (pralaya) — the periodic birth and death of a universe itself. Whatever this wisdom turns out to be, verse 2 is already telling Arjuna its stakes are cosmological, not personal, which is why the chapter spends the next several verses building outward from cosmogony (verses 3-4) before narrowing down to the individual’s condition (verse 5 onward). Sādharmya — “sameness of nature” with Krishna — is not identity but likeness: the liberated share his freedom from the cosmic cycle without dissolving into him, the same distinction BG 14.19–BG 14.20 preserve as brahma-bhūya.
Study deeper
Word by word
- idaṃ jñānam upāśrityaइदं ज्ञानं उपाश्रित्य
- taking refuge in this knowledge (idam + jñānam + upāśritya)
- mama sādharmyam āgatāḥमम साधर्ंयं आगताः
- having attained likeness to My nature (mama + sādharmyam + āgatāḥ)
- sarge'pi nopajāyanteसर्गेऽपि नोपजायन्ते
- they are not born even at creation (sarge + api + na + upajāyante)
- pralaye na vyathanti caप्रलये न व्यथन्ति च
- nor troubled at dissolution (pralaye + na + vyathanti + ca)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Verse 2 doesn’t stop at promising freedom from one more human birth — it reaches all the way to the birth and dissolution of universes themselves, and does so with no more fanfare than a routine claim. The scale-jump is worth noticing on its own: a teaching that starts sounding personal, escaping suffering, can turn out to be making a claim at a completely different order of magnitude, while the practice being pointed to underneath it hasn’t changed size at all.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you learn that a habit or practice you're building has stakes far larger than you first assumed, don't let the scale change what you actually do day to day — the size of the outcome and the size of the daily action are different things entirely.
Professional
- When a project's true business impact turns out to be much larger than the scope you were told, resist inflating your daily execution to match the drama of the stakes — the size of the consequence and the size of the next concrete step remain unrelated.
Family & Social
- When you realize a small daily habit at home is actually protecting something much larger — a family's stability, a child's sense of security — let that raise your commitment, not your anxiety about the size of what's riding on it.
Ask yourself
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