Sanskrit
त्वमक्षरं परमं वेदितव्यम् त्वमस्य विश्वस्य परं निधानम् । त्वमव्ययः शाश्वतधर्मगोप्ता सनातनस्त्वं पुरुषो मतो मे ॥
tvam akṣaraṃ paramaṃ veditavyam tvam asya viśvasya paraṃ nidhānam tvam avyayaḥ śāśvatadharmagoptā sanātanas tvaṃ puruṣo mato me
Translation
Lofty beyond all thought, unperishing, Thou treasure-house supreme, all-immanent; eternal Dharma's changeless Guardian, Thou; as immemorial Man I think of Thee.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
A brief change of register: after two verses of pure sensory report, Arjuna reaches for theological vocabulary — akṣara (the imperishable), dharma-goptā (guardian of eternal law), sanātana puruṣa (the eternal Man). It reads as an attempt to steady himself by naming the thing in familiar terms he already has, before the description resumes its escalation in verse 19. The anchoring doesn’t hold for long.