Sanskrit
अथ चैनं नित्यजातं नित्यं वा मन्यसे मृतम् । तथापि त्वं महाबाहो नैनं शोचितुमर्हसि ॥
atha cainaṃ nityajātaṃ nityaṃ vā manyase mṛtam tathāpi tvaṃ mahābāho nainaṃ śocitum arhasi
Translation
Or if thou thinkest of him as being constantly born and constantly dying, even then, O mighty-armed, thou shouldst not grieve.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
A notable pivot: having spent several verses asserting the self’s immortality as fact, Krishna now offers a fallback argument that doesn’t depend on Arjuna accepting any of it. Even if you think of the self as something born and dying over and over — the ordinary, non-technical view most people hold — that alone is still no reason to grieve. It’s a second, independent line of argument stacked underneath the first, not a retraction of it.
Concepts