नैनं छिन्दन्ति शस्त्राणि नैनं दहति पावकः। न चैनं क्लेदयन्त्यापो न शोषयति मारुतः॥
nainaṃ chindanti śastrāṇi nainaṃ dahati pāvakaḥ / na cainaṃ kledayanti āpo na śoṣayati mārutaḥ
Every physical force is named and negated — none of them can reach what you truly are.
Word by word (4)
- na enam chindanti śastrāṇi
- — weapons do not cut this · The four classical elements each have their weapon: metal cuts, fire burns, water wets, wind dries. None of them reach the Atman. Every physical force is listed and negated.
- na enam dahati pāvakaḥ
- — fire does not burn this
- na ca enam kledayanti āpaḥ
- — water does not wet / moisten this
- na śoṣayati mārutaḥ
- — wind does not dry / parch this
'Weapons cannot cut it. Fire cannot burn it. Water cannot wet it. Wind cannot dry it.'
A modern analogy
Try to cut space with a knife. Burn consciousness with a torch. The instruments of physical destruction have no traction on what has no physical substance. The Atman is not located anywhere, has no surface to be cut, no substance to be burned, no moisture to be evaporated. The four classical elements — all of physical reality — are listed and found insufficient.
Take with you
- All four classical elements are negated: weapons (earth/metal), fire, water, air. The whole of the physical world cannot reach the Atman.
- This verse has been memorized as a mantra of reassurance across traditions — the self is beyond all harm.
- The negations are not abstract — they correspond to the actual weapons on a battlefield. On the very ground where Arjuna fears killing, nothing on that ground can reach the soul.
Verse 23 gives the Atman's indestructibility its most poetic expression. The four physical agents — weapons, fire, water, wind — correspond to the four classical elements of ancient Indian cosmology (earth/metal, fire, water, air). By negating all four, the verse covers all of physical reality: nothing in the material universe can touch the Atman. This verse is often combined with V20 in devotional recitation. Together they form the most complete statement of the Atman's nature: eternal, unborn, undying, beyond all physical harm.
Advaita lens
Shankaracharya's commentary on V23 is among his most detailed in the entire Gita. The four physical forces — weapons, fire, water, wind — correspond to the four classical elements. By systematically negating each, the verse establishes that the Atman has no physical substrate: it is not a thing among things that can be acted upon. In Advaita, this is because the Atman is identical with Brahman — the ground of all existence. What pervades all things cannot be acted upon by any thing within it. The analogy: space cannot be cut, because the knife exists within space. So the Atman cannot be touched, because all forces exist within the Atman.
Bhakti lens
For bhakti, V23's litany of negations — weapons, fire, water, wind — are not merely philosophical claims but declarations of the soul's divine invulnerability. The bhakta finds in this verse the reason devotion is the strongest force: it is directed toward the indestructible. The Beloved (Krishna) and the beloved's own ātman share this indestructibility. Every other love is shadowed by the fear of loss and death. Bhakti directed toward the Deathless is the one love that cannot be torn by any sword, burned by any fire, drowned by any flood, dried by any wind. The devotee who truly knows V23 loves without the fear of losing — because what they love (the Divine ātman) is nityaḥ sarvagatah sthāṇur (eternal, all-pervading, unchanging, ancient).
Karma-Yoga lens
For Tilak, V23 provides the philosophical guarantee that makes fearless action possible. If the self is beyond all physical destruction, then the deepest part of every person on the battlefield is indestructible. The warrior who truly knows this acts from duty without the paralysis of 'I might permanently destroy them.' The harm is real at the bodily level; the soul is untouched. This is not a license for cruelty — it is the foundation for acting without ego-driven fear.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
Weapons do not cut it, fire does not burn it, water does not wet it, wind does not dry it. [4]
Swords wound it not, fire burns it not, water wets it not, wind dries it not. [6]
Nay, but as when one layeth his worn-out robes away... The soul cannot be cut, nor burned, nor wetted, nor dried. [7]
Weapons do not cut it; fire does not burn it; water does not wet it; the wind does not parch it. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
The soul: uncut, unburned, unwet, undried — eternal, all-pervading, immovable, ancient.
Unborn. Undying. Ancient. Eternal. Not slain when the body is slain — this is what you are.
A blind king asks what happened on the battlefield — and the Gita begins.
You grieve for those who should not be grieved for — and call it wisdom.
That which pervades everything cannot be destroyed — nothing and no one has the power to end it.
The soul does not slay, and cannot be slain — both the slayer and the slain have mistaken the soul for the body.