Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14, Verse 2

Chapter 14 – Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga · Speaker: Krishna

Sanskrit verse

इदं ज्ञानमुपाश्रित्य मम साधर्म्यमागताः ।
सर्गेऽपि नोपजायन्ते प्रलये न व्यथन्ति च ॥

Transliteration

idaṃ jñānamupāśritya mama sādharmyamāgatāḥ .
sarge.api nopajāyante pralaye na vyathanti ca ॥

Meaning

Those who take refuge in this knowledge and attain a nature like Mine are not born even at the time of creation, nor are they troubled at the time of dissolution.

Word meanings

इदम् – this
ज्ञानम् – knowledge
उपाश्रित्य – taking refuge in, making it one's support
मम – My
साधर्म्यम् – likeness of nature, oneness of being
आगताः – having attained
सर्गे – at the time of creation
अपि – even
न उपजायन्ते – are not born
प्रलये – at the time of dissolution
न व्यथन्ति – are not troubled
च – and

Anvaya (word order)

इदं ज्ञानम् उपाश्रित्य मम साधर्म्यम् आगताः (जनाः) सर्गे अपि न उपजायन्ते, प्रलये च न व्यथन्ति ।

Explanation

Having praised the knowledge in the first verse, Krishna now states its definite result. The word upashritya, 'taking refuge in', is significant. Merely hearing or reading the teaching is not enough; one must lean on it, make it the foundation of one's life, as a drowning person clings wholly to a boat.

Such seekers 'attain sadharmya with Me', a likeness to the Lord's own nature. Shankara reads this as identity with the Supreme: the liberated one realises himself as Brahman. Ramanuja understands it as likeness of qualities: the freed soul shares the Lord's purity, knowledge and bliss while remaining a distinct conscious being. Both readings agree on the essential point: the liberated soul is no longer under the sway of the gunas of prakriti.

The consequence follows. At the dawn of a new creation (sarga), ordinary souls are projected again into bodies according to their past karma; at cosmic dissolution (pralaya) they merge, helpless and unconscious, into unmanifest nature, only to return later. The knower of truth is not born again at creation and feels no distress at dissolution, because he has stepped out of the cycle altogether.

Thus Krishna assures Arjuna that the science of the gunas he is about to teach is no mere theory. It is a practical way to the end of all fear of birth and death.

Context

The previous verse called this the finest knowledge; this verse describes its fruit, freedom from rebirth and from the distress of cosmic dissolution. In the next two verses Krishna explains how creation itself happens: nature is the mother and He is the seed-giving father.

Life lesson

Knowledge bears fruit only when we make it the ground we stand on. One who is established inwardly in truth is not shaken even by the greatest upheavals of the world.

Key terms

Sadharmya: Likeness to the Lord's nature; the state of liberation
Sarga: The emanation or beginning of creation
Pralaya: The dissolution of the cosmos