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Bhagavad Gita · 13.24 · Yoga through Distinguishing the Field and the Knower of the Field·24 of 35

य एवं वेत्ति पुरुषं प्रकृतिं च गुणैःसहसर्वथा वर्तमानोऽपि न स भूयोऽभिजायते

ya evaṁ vetti puruṣhaṁ prakṛitiṁ cha guṇaiḥ

saha sarvathā vartamāno ’pi na sa bhūyo ’bhijāyate

Sanskrit recitation

Matter, spirit, and freedom · 13.19–13.35 · Teaching

Translation

He who thus knows the Spirit and Matter together with their qualities, in whatever condition he may be, he is not reborn.

Meaning

One who knows the Soul and Nature with its alities, whatever his conduct may be, frees himself from the cycle of births and deaths. Such is the advantage he gains from the discriminative knowledge of Spirit and Matter. He knows that he is eternal and changeless and that all changes are due to the modifications of Nature on account of its alities. The self through ignorance identifies itself with the body and suffers rirth.In whatsoever condition he may be, whether he is engaged in prescribed or forbidden acts (like Indra who killed the Purohita Visvarupa and many Sannyasins), he is not born again, because the,actions (which are the seeds of rirth), of one who knows the Spirit and Matter, who has gained the knowledge of the Self, are burnt by the fire of that knowledge. Just as the seeds that are fried in fire do not sprout again, so also the actions burnt in the fire of knowledge cannot produce new bodies or further births. In his case they are Karmabhasa (mere semblance of Karma). They are not effective causes and cannot produce further births. A burnt cloth cannot serve the purpose of the cloth.Those actions which are done with egoism and desire (expectation of fruits) will produce fruits or results. In the case of a wise man, the seeds of evil, viz., ignorance, egoism, attachment, etc., are burnt by the fire of knowledge

After Swami Sivananda

Matter, spirit, and freedom· 13.19–13.35

Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.

Word-by-word
na
not
api
although
cha
and
evam
thus
saha
with
saḥ
they
vetti
understand
yaḥ
who
bhūyaḥ
again
sarvathā
in every way
guṇaiḥ
the three modes of nature
puruṣham
Puruṣh
abhijāyate
take birth
prakṛitim
the material nature
vartamānaḥ
situated

Related verses

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