अच्छेद्योऽयमदाह्योऽयमक्लेद्योऽशोष्य एव च। नित्यः सर्वगतः स्थाणुरचलोऽयं सनातनः॥
acchedyo 'yam adāhyo 'yam akledyo 'śoṣya eva ca / nityaḥ sarva-gataḥ sthāṇur acalo 'yaṃ sanātanaḥ
The soul: uncut, unburned, unwet, undried — eternal, all-pervading, immovable, ancient.
Word by word (4)
- acchedyaḥ ayam adāhyaḥ ayam
- — this cannot be cut, this cannot be burned
- akledyaḥ aśoṣyaḥ eva ca
- — cannot be made wet, cannot be dried
- nityaḥ sarva-gataḥ
- — eternal, all-pervading
- sthāṇuḥ acalaḥ ayam sanātanaḥ
- — stable, immovable, primeval / ancient
'This cannot be cut. Cannot be burned. Cannot be made wet. Cannot be dried. It is eternal. All-pervading. Stable. Immovable. Ancient.'
A modern analogy
After all the negations (what it isn't), we get the positive portrait: eternal (nityaḥ), all-pervading (sarva-gataḥ), stable (sthāṇuḥ), immovable (acalaḥ), ancient (sanātanaḥ). This is not a description of a thing but of the ground in which things appear — like space itself: you cannot harm space, and space is everywhere.
Take with you
- After the negations (V23), V24 gives the positive attributes: all-pervading, eternal, stable, immovable, ancient.
- 'Sarva-gataḥ' — all-pervading. Not in a place but everywhere. This is not the description of an entity but of the ground of all entities.
- 'Sthāṇuḥ acalaḥ' — stable, immovable. In a world of constant change, this is the one stability.
V24 completes the description begun in V23. The structure: four negations (V23) followed by five positive attributes (V24). This is classic Upanishadic style: first neti neti (not this, not this), then the positive description. The five positive attributes — nityaḥ (eternal), sarva-gataḥ (all-pervading), sthāṇuḥ (stable), acalaḥ (immovable), sanātanaḥ (ancient) — together paint a portrait of something that is beyond all the characteristics of the physical world: change, location, motion, and time.
Public-domain translations (3) compare all →
This self cannot be cut, nor burned, nor moistened, nor dried. It is eternal, all-pervading, stable, immovable and ancient. [4]
Impenetrable, unentered, unassailed, unscorched, undried, The Brahman is, and everywhere, and evermore of ancient days. [7]
It cannot be cut, it is not burnt, it is not wetted, it is not dried. It is eternal, all-pervading, stable, firm, and everlasting. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Every physical force is named and negated — none of them can reach what you truly are.
I am the ātman, O Guḍākeśa, seated in the heart of all beings — their beginning, middle, and end.
Unborn. Undying. Ancient. Eternal. Not slain when the body is slain — this is what you are.
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?
Sattva, rajas, tamas — three guṇas born of Prakṛti — bind the indestructible ātman in every body.