Sanskrit
नाहं वेदैर्न तपसा न दानेन न चेज्यया । शक्य एवंविधो द्रष्टुं दृष्टवानसि मां यथा ॥
nāhaṃ vedair na tapasā na dānena na cejyayā śakya evaṃvidho draṣṭuṃ dṛṣṭavān asi māṃ yathā
Translation
Nor can I be seen as thou hast seen Me by the Vedas, nor by austerities, nor by alms, or by offerings;
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna repeats verse 48’s list almost exactly — Vedas, austerity, alms, ritual offering — but the repetition itself is the point. This isn’t new information; it’s the negative half of an argument being restated immediately before its positive resolution, the classic rhetorical setup where the same claim is driven home twice before the actual answer is allowed to land. The sentence doesn’t even close on its own; it runs straight into verse 54, withholding the positive method for one more line of suspense before naming it.