Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15, Verse 16

Chapter 15 – Purushottama Yoga · Speaker: Krishna

Sanskrit verse

द्वाविमौ पुरुषौ लोके क्षरश्चाक्षर एव च ।
क्षरः सर्वाणि भूतानि कूटस्थोऽक्षर उच्यते ॥

Transliteration

dvāvimau puruṣau loke kṣaraścākṣara eva ca .
kṣaraḥ sarvāṇi bhūtāni kūṭastho.akṣara ucyate ॥

Meaning

There are two kinds of Purusha in this world, the perishable and the imperishable. All beings are the perishable; the unchanging one, the kutastha, is called the imperishable.

Word meanings

द्वौ – two
इमौ – these
पुरुषौ – Purushas, orders of being
लोके – in the world
क्षरः – the perishable, the changing
च – and
अक्षरः – the imperishable, the unchanging
एव च – also
क्षरः – the perishable (is)
सर्वाणि – all
भूतानि – beings
कूटस्थः – anvil-like, immovable, unchanging
अक्षरः – the imperishable
उच्यते – is called

Anvaya (word order)

लोके इमौ द्वौ पुरुषौ — क्षरः च अक्षरः एव च; सर्वाणि भूतानि क्षरः, कूटस्थः अक्षरः उच्यते ।

Explanation

Here begins the section that gives the chapter its name, Purushottama Yoga. Krishna gathers the earlier teaching into an ordered vision of reality. There are, He says, two Purushas in the world, kshara and akshara. Purusha is used broadly: that which dwells in a pura, a city or support. Kshara is what wastes, changes and perishes; akshara is what does not. The word kutastha means ‘standing like an anvil’: the anvil bears every blow of the hammer and is itself unmoved.

The acharyas differ significantly on what these two are. For Shankara (Advaita), kshara is the whole changing world, all beings as effects. Akshara is the Lord’s power of maya, the seed and cause from which these beings arise; it is kutastha because it endures from beginningless time as the seed of the tree of samsara and does not perish as cause. What lies beyond both is the Uttama Purusha of the next verse.

Ramanuja (Vishishtadvaita) reads the pair in terms of individual selves. Kshara is the bound self joined to non-conscious matter; it is called ‘all beings’ because in union with the body it is known as a creature. Akshara is the liberated self, free from contact with matter and established in its own changeless nature, hence kutastha. Madhva (Dvaita) gives yet another reading: kshara is all souls from Brahma downward whose bodies perish, while akshara is Shri Lakshmi, presiding deity of prakriti, eternally free, whose divine form never decays.

Despite these differences a common thread runs through them: creation has a changing level and an unchanging level, and the Lord stands beyond both. The teaching echoes the field and its knower in 13.1–2 and the lower and higher prakriti of 7.4–5. For the seeker the first step is to see that whatever changes, body, circumstance and relationship, belongs to kshara, and to loosen one’s identification with it.

Context

In verse 15 Krishna declared Himself seated in all hearts and the One to be known by the Vedas. To make that knowable reality clear, He now introduces the two Purushas, perishable and imperishable. In the next verse He describes the Supreme Person who is distinct from both.

Life lesson

Recognise what changes in life as changing, and do not rest your peace on it. Keeping one’s gaze on the unchanging steadies the mind in the midst of change.

Key terms

Kshara Purusha: the perishable, changing order of being; all creatures
Akshara Purusha: the imperishable, unchanging order of being
Kutastha: anvil-like, unmoved by change