Sanskrit
अक्षरं ब्रह्म परमं स्वभावोऽध्यात्ममुच्यते । भूतभावोद्भवकरो विसर्गः कर्मसंज्ञितः ॥
akṣaraṃ brahma paramaṃ svabhāvo'dhyātmam ucyate bhūtabhāvodbhavakaro visargaḥ karmasaṃjñitaḥ
Translation
The indestructible, the supreme is the Eternal; His essential nature is called Self-knowledge; the emanation that causes the birth of beings is named Action;
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna’s answer begins, and the shift in speaker matters: from here through verse 4 he works through Arjuna’s list in the exact order it was asked. Brahman is defined as akshara, the indestructible — a term that becomes the chapter’s real subject from verse 20 onward, well after these opening definitions are finished. Note that “karma” here gets its narrowest possible sense: not the ethical discipline of desireless action from chapter 2, but the creative emanation (visarga) that brings beings into existence — a different use of the same word.
Concepts