संस्कृत
द्वाविमौ पुरुषौ लोके क्षरश्चाक्षर एव च । क्षरः सर्वाणि भूतानि कूटस्थोऽक्षर उच्यते ॥
dvāv imau puruṣau loke kṣaraś cākṣara eva ca kṣaraḥ sarvāṇi bhūtāni kūṭastho 'kṣara ucyate
अनुवाद
There are two Energies in this world, the destructible and the indestructible; the destructible is all beings, the unchanging is called the indestructible.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
व्याख्या
The chapter’s technical core begins with a formal taxonomy: two Purushas exist in the world, kshara (the perishable, identified with all beings) and akshara (the imperishable, called kūṭastha — literally “standing at the peak,” meaning unchanging, like an anvil). This binary maps roughly onto the field/knower-of-the-field distinction chapter 13 spent its length developing, but restates it in starker, more classificatory language, setting up the third term — the Purushottama — that verses 17-18 will introduce to break the binary open. The chapter’s central distinction: kṣara puruṣa = all perishable beings; akṣara puruṣa = the unchanging (the kūṭa-stha, the immutable witness). BG 15.17 will name a third, above both — which is what makes this chapter’s title.
गहराई से अध्ययन करें
शब्द-दर-शब्द
- dvāv imau puruṣau lokeद्वाव् इमौ पुरुषौ लोके
- there are these two persons in the world (dvau + imau + puruṣau + loke)
- kṣaraś cākṣara eva caक्षरश् चाक्षर एव च
- the perishable and the imperishable (kṣaraḥ + ca + akṣaraḥ + eva + ca)
- kṣaraḥ sarvāṇi bhūtāniक्षरः सर्वाणि भूतानि
- the perishable is all beings (kṣaraḥ + sarvāṇi + bhūtāni)
- kūṭastho 'kṣara ucyateकूटस्थो ऽक्षर उच्यते
- the unchanging is called the imperishable (kūṭa-sthaḥ + akṣaraḥ + ucyate)
टीका
Site Commentary
The verse sets up a clean binary — perishable and imperishable, kshara and akshara — with a precision that makes it feel complete. It isn’t meant to stay that way: the whole point of naming this taxonomy so starkly is to give the next two verses something definite to overturn. A binary this tidy, appearing this deliberately, is usually a setup rather than a final answer.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Site Commentary — Second Reading
Kūṭastha, glossed here as “unchanging,” literally means standing at the top of a kūṭa — an anvil or a hammer-block, the fixed point that stays put while blow after blow lands on it. That’s a sharper image than plain changelessness: the akshara isn’t proposed as something untouched by events but as something that holds its position under continuous impact. The taxonomy reads differently once you notice it defines stability as what absorbs force without moving, not as what force never reaches.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
अवधारणाएँ
इस श्लोक को अपनाएँ
पाठ
व्यक्तिगत
- When you catch yourself sorting a hard question about yourself into a stark either/or — fixed or changeable, strong or weak — treat that binary as a likely setup for a third, truer option rather than the final answer.
व्यावसायिक
- When a technical debate at work collapses into a clean two-option binary — build versus buy, centralize versus decentralize — be suspicious that the framing itself is hiding a workable third option. Name that suspicion before the team commits to either extreme.
परिवार और समाज
- When a family disagreement gets framed as one person simply right and the other simply wrong, look for the third position that binary is probably hiding before you pick a side. Clean either/or framings rarely survive a closer look.
स्वयं से पूछें
इस श्लोक को पढ़ने से आगे ले जाने के कुछ तरीके। टिक और नोट इसी ब्राउज़र में रहते हैं।
इस श्लोक पर चिंतन करें
खोज जारी रखें
अध्ययन-मार्ग