Sanskrit
प्रकृतिं पुरुषं चैव विद्ध्यनादी उभावपि । विकारांश्च गुणांश्चैव विद्धि प्रकृतिसंभवान् ॥
prakṛtiṃ puruṣaṃ caiva viddhy anādī ubhāv api vikārāṃś ca guṇāṃś caiva viddhi prakṛtisambhavān
Translation
Know thou that Matter and Spirit are both without beginning; and know thou also that modifications and qualities are all Matter-born.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The chapter’s second section opens with its central metaphysical claim: prakriti (nature — the source of all material form, activity, and the three gunas) and purusha (spirit — the witnessing self) are both anadi, beginningless, neither one produced by the other. This is classical Samkhya dualism adopted wholesale into the Gita’s framework, and it matters because it rules out treating purusha as an effect of prakriti or vice versa — whatever their relationship turns out to be in verses 21-23, it isn’t causal creation.