Sanskrit
बहूनि मे व्यतीतानि जन्मानि तव चार्जुन । तान्यहं वेद सर्वाणि न त्वं वेत्थ परन्तप ॥
bahūni me vyatītāni janmāni tava cārjuna tāny ahaṃ veda sarvāṇi na tvaṃ vettha parantapa
Translation
Many births have been left behind by Me and by thee, O Arjuna. I know them all, but thou knowest not thine, O Parantapa.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Rather than defend the chronology Arjuna just questioned, Krishna asserts something larger: both of them have had many births, his own difference being that he remembers all of his while Arjuna remembers none of his own. This is the reincarnation doctrine from Chapter 2 (verses 2.13, 2.22) reapplied specifically to Krishna, and it quietly answers verse 4’s objection by denying that “birth” limits him the way it limits Arjuna.
Concepts