यः एवं वेत्ति पुरुषं प्रकृतिं च गुणैः सह / सर्वथा वर्तमानोऽपि न स भूयोऽभिजायते
yaḥ evaṃ vetti puruṣaṃ prakṛtiṃ ca guṇaiḥ saha / sarvathā vartamāno'pi na sa bhūyo'bhijāyate
Whoever knows puruṣa and prakṛti with the guṇas — however they live — is never born again.
Word by word (3)
- yaḥ evam vetti puruṣam prakṛtim ca guṇaiḥ saha
- — Whoever (yaḥ) knows thus (evam vetti) puruṣa and prakṛti together with the guṇas (guṇaiḥ saha) · Evam vetti = knows 'in this way' — referring to everything taught from V20 to V23: puruṣa's witness-nature, prakṛti's causal role, guṇa-saṅga as bondage, and the upadraṣṭā-paramātmā identity. This is integrated wisdom (vijñāna), not information. The knowledge must include all three: puruṣa (kṣetrajña), prakṛti (kṣetra), and guṇas (the mechanism of binding).
- sarvathā vartamānaḥ api
- — even though living in all ways (sarvathā = in every way, in all circumstances) — whatever their external conduct or station in life · Sarvathā = in all ways, whatever the circumstances. This is the Gita's radical inclusivity: grihastha or sannyāsi, warrior or scholar, active or contemplative — 'in all ways.' The liberation from rebirth is not contingent on adopting a particular lifestyle but on having this knowledge. 'Api' = even so. Even if you live actively in the world, even if you appear to be fully engaged in worldly life — the one who has this knowledge is free.
- na saḥ bhūyaḥ abhijāyate
- — that person is not born again (na = not; bhūyaḥ = again; abhijāyate = is born, from abhi + jan = to be born) · The liberation-promise: no more rebirth. This is the Gita's ultimate soteriological claim. Abhijāyate = is reborn (takes a new body). Na bhūyaḥ abhijāyate = will never be born again. The mechanism: knowing puruṣa as the witness (not the doer), prakṛti as the field (not the Self), and guṇas as the mechanism of binding — this knowledge dissolves guṇa-saṅga. Without guṇa-saṅga, there is no cause for rebirth (V22: guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya kāraṇam).
The liberation-promise of Ch.13. Whoever truly knows — not just intellectually but as lived recognition — (1) puruṣa as the witness-paramātmā, (2) prakṛti as the field of modification, and (3) guṇas as the mechanism of binding, is free from rebirth. The qualifier 'sarvathā vartamāno'pi' (even while living in any way) is profound: this is not a promise for future lifetimes of renunciation; it is a here-and-now liberation through recognition, available to anyone in any circumstance.
A modern analogy
The person who knows they are watching a film does not need to leave the cinema to be free from the film's drama. They can sit and enjoy the film for what it is — entertainment — without fear, without clinging, without being destroyed by the villain or elated by the hero. Knowing puruṣa-prakṛti = knowing you are the audience, not the character. The film continues (you keep living, sarvathā vartamānaḥ). But you are not reborn INTO the film.
What it does NOT mean
This verse is sometimes misread as meaning 'if you have the right intellectual beliefs about puruṣa-prakṛti, you're automatically liberated.' But evam vetti includes the vijñāya of V19 — the thorough, lived, integrated understanding. It is not belief but recognition; not information but transformation. The person who truly knows V23's upadraṣṭā no longer EXPERIENCES guṇa-saṅga — the knowing dissolves it.
Sarvathā vartamānaḥ api echoes Ch.5 V8-9 and Ch.18 V17: the truly wise person may appear to act fully in the world yet is truly non-attached (na karoti) and therefore not bound. The liberation is not from action but from identification. V24 closes the philosophical loop of V20-V23: V20 established the framework; V21 assigned causal roles; V22 identified bondage's mechanism; V23 revealed the liberation-mode (sākṣī); V24 announces the result.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
He who thus knows the Purusha and Prakriti together with the Gunas, whatever his life, is not born again. [4]
[Arnold full chapter text; verse states that whoever knows Purusha and Prakriti with the gunas, however living, is not born again] [7]
He who thus knows the spirit and nature, together with the qualities, in whatever condition he may be, is not born again. [9]
He who thus knows the Purusha and Prakriti along with the qualities, whatever his condition may be, is not born again. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Daivī wealth begins: abhaya, sattva-śuddhi, jñāna-yoga, dāna, dama, yajña, svādhyāya, tapa, ārjava.
The tattva-vit sees gunas moving among gunas and does not become attached. Knowledge itself produces liberation.
Krishna reopens with the supreme jñāna above all knowledge — knowing which every muni has reached parāṃ siddhim.
Those who resort to this knowledge attain My own nature — neither reborn at creation nor disturbed at dissolution.
Sattva — luminous and stainless — yet binds the jīva through attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge.
When the seer sees only guṇas as agents and knows what is beyond them — he attains My being.