न त्वेवाहं जातु नासं न त्वं नेमे जनाधिपाः। न चैव न भविष्यामः सर्वे वयमतः परम्॥
na tv evāhaṃ jātu nāsaṃ na tvaṃ neme janādhipāḥ / na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ sarve vayam ataḥ param
You have always existed. You will always exist. There was no time before you, and there will be no time without you.
Word by word (4)
- na tu eva aham jātu na āsam
- — never was there a time when I did not exist · Triple negative: 'na... na āsam' — not... did not exist. The construction is emphatic: I have always existed. This is the opening of Krishna's philosophical teaching — the eternal nature of the Atman.
- na tvam
- — nor you
- na ime janādhipāḥ
- — nor these kings / nor these rulers of men
- na ca eva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ sarve vayam ataḥ param
- — nor will any of us cease to exist after this · Past, present, future: we have always existed, we exist now, we will always exist. Three temporal dimensions covered in one verse. The Atman is beyond time.
'There was never a time when I did not exist — or you, or these kings. And there will never be a time when any of us cease to exist.'
A modern analogy
Consciousness — the awareness that says 'I am' — cannot be traced to a beginning or projected to an end. You can trace the body, the brain, the personality. But the witness behind all of these — the one that is aware of each experience — has no discoverable origin. Krishna's teaching begins with this observation: what you truly are was never born and will never die.
Take with you
- Krishna speaks in first person: 'I was not absent.' This is not abstract philosophy — it is direct self-disclosure.
- The teaching includes Arjuna ('you'), Krishna ('I'), and the kings — it applies to all selves equally.
- This is the philosophical foundation for everything that follows: if the self cannot die, grief for the 'death' of kinsmen is misplaced.
Verse 12 is the opening move of the Gita's central philosophical teaching. Krishna begins not with an instruction but with an ontological claim: the Atman (self) is eternal — without beginning or end. The structure of the verse is elegant: three times (past: 'was not,' present: the implied 'are,' future: 'will not be') and three referents (I, you, these kings). The teaching is universal — it applies to all selves without exception. Shankaracharya notes that this verse directly contradicts the Chārvāka (materialist) school's view that consciousness is a product of the body and ceases with it. The Gita's response is not philosophical argument but direct testimony: 'I know from my own knowledge that we have always existed.'
Advaita lens
In Advaita, the Atman is not merely eternal in the sense of 'continuing forever' — it is eternal in the sense of being beyond time altogether. Time is a feature of the manifest world (māyā); the Atman is prior to time. When Krishna says 'there was never a time I did not exist,' he is pointing to this: the Atman doesn't exist in time, time exists in the Atman.
Public-domain translations (5) compare all →
There was never a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor these kings; nor shall any of us ever cease to be hereafter. [1]
There was never a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be. [4]
There never was a time when I was not, nor thou, nor these princes of men; nor in the future will there not be. [6]
Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never; Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are dreams! [7]
But verily, I was not, thou wast not, nor these chiefs of men; nor shall we all cease to be hereafter. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
You grieve for those who should not be grieved for — and call it wisdom.
Unborn. Undying. Ancient. Eternal. Not slain when the body is slain — this is what you are.
The jīva is an eternal fragment of Me — drawing the 6-sense apparatus (5 senses + mind) toward itself in Prakṛti.
From all wombs all bodies arise — but the great Brahman is the womb and Krishna the seed-giving Father.
You've changed your clothes a thousand times — this is all that death is.
Arjuna asks: what does the truly wise person look like? How do they speak, sit, and move?