From the seven hundred
न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयःअजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे
na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin nāyaṃ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ ajo nityaḥ śāśvato’yaṃ purāṇo na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre

“It is never born, and it never dies. Unborn, lasting, ancient and ever the same, it is not slain when the body is slain.”

Bhagavad Gita 2.20
In plain terms

The view widens past the body, past even this one life, to the one thing in us that winning and losing never touch. Whatever that self is, the verse says, it was never born and it cannot die.

You do not have to take the metaphysics on trust for the verse to work on you. Read slowly, it loosens the grip of the day's smaller deaths: the lost job, the failed plan, the ended chapter.

All the verses, by the moment you need them

Keep reading

Nearby verses

2.14“The senses meeting the world bring cold and heat, comfort and pain. They come, and they go.…”Bhagavad Gita 2.14Previous →2.47“You have a right to your work, but never to its fruits. Let the fruit not be your motive,…”Bhagavad Gita 2.47Next →2.11“You grieve for those who need no grief, and yet you speak as the wise do. The wise grieve…”Bhagavad Gita 2.11Same feeling →
Read it in place Chapter Two when the Gita talks a warrior off the deck