Bhagavad Gītā · 2.16 · Sāṅkhya Yoga
nāsato vidyate bhāvo
The verse that sets the Gītā's metaphysical floor: what is unreal never comes to be, what is real never ceases.
Sanskrit
Transliteration
nāsato vidyate bhāvo nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ |
ubhayor api dṛṣṭo 'ntas tv anayos tattva-darśibhiḥ ||
Word by word
| Surface | Lemma | Morphology | Gloss | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| न | na | indeclinable | not | MW 0523 |
| असतः | asat | gen. sg. n. | of the unreal | MW 0118 |
| विद्यते | vid | pres. 3 sg. pass. | is found, exists | MW 0963 |
| भावः | bhāva | nom. sg. m. | being, existence | MW 0754 |
| सतः | sat | gen. sg. n. | of the real | MW 1134 |
Every gloss above resolves to a dictionary entry in the source snapshot. Unsupported readings are marked, never inferred.
Translation
Primary. Of the unreal there is no being; of the real there is no non-being. The certainty of both has been seen by the seers of truth.
Alternate · literal
There is found no existence of what is not, and no non-existence of what is.
Alternate · interpretive
The unreal has no enduring reality; the real never ceases to be.
Grammar
- Metre
- Anuṣṭubh
- Syllables
- 8 × 4
- Sandhi
- 3 resolved
- Compounds
- 1 tatpuruṣa
Sandhi. na + asataḥ → nāsato (savarṇa-dīrgha); dṛṣṭaḥ + antaḥ → dṛṣṭo 'ntaḥ (visarga + avagraha).
Compound. tattva-darśibhiḥ — "by those seeing the truth", instr. pl. See sandhi.
Commentary
Śaṅkara reads this verse as the Gītā's statement of the criterion of reality: that which does not change across the three times is sat. The argument is not consolation for grief but a redefinition of what can be lost.
Rāmānuja resists the acosmic reading, taking asat as the body's transient states rather than as unreality as such.
Concepts
Related verses
- Bhagavad Gītā 2.20na jāyate mriyate vā kadācit — the ātman is unborn and undying
- Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.2.18Direct parallel; the Gītā verse is widely read as a reworking
- Bhagavad Gītā 2.12Continues the same argument from personal continuity
Citation
- Stable ID
- bg.2.2.16
- Source
- GRETIL
- Position
- 612
Project Artha. "Bhagavad Gītā 2.16." projectartha.xyz/texts/bhagavad-gita/chapter-2/verse-16. Accessed 2026.