📿 Shloka Collection

Ashcharyavat Pashyati Kashchit

Gita 2.29 Bhagavad Gita
📖 Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2 — Sankhya Yoga
आश्चर्यवत्पश्यति कश्चिदेनमाश्चर्यवद्वदति तथैव चान्यः ।
आश्चर्यवच्चैनमन्यः शृणोति श्रुत्वाप्येनं वेद न चैव कश्चित् ॥
Ashcharyavat pashyati kashchid enam ashcharyavad vadati tathaiva chanyah
Ashcharyavach chainam anyah shrinoti shrutvapy enam veda na chaiva kashchit
आश्चर्यवत् पश्यति
sees as a wonder
कश्चित् एनम्
someone, this (soul)
आश्चर्यवत् वदति
speaks of it as a wonder
अन्यः
another
शृणोति
hears
श्रुत्वा अपि
even after hearing
वेद न
does not know
कश्चित्
anyone

Rare is the person who truly perceives the soul. Rarer still is the one who can speak of it accurately. And even among those who hear about it from a realized teacher, most walk away without fully grasping what they heard. Krishna is acknowledging, with a kind of quiet awe, that the soul remains a mystery even to those who approach it sincerely.

This is not a discouraging statement — it is an honest one. Some truths are so vast that encountering them feels like standing at the edge of an ocean at night. You sense the enormity, you hear the waves, but you cannot see where it ends. The soul is that kind of truth. Each person touches a different edge of it — one through direct experience, another through teaching, another through listening — and still it remains larger than all of them.

There is humility woven into this shloka. Even Krishna, in the act of teaching, pauses to note that the subject is beyond easy comprehension. The soul is not a concept to be mastered in one sitting. It is a lifelong unfolding.

This shloka echoes a passage from the Katha Upanishad, where Yama tells Nachiketa that the knowledge of the soul is exceedingly rare — not many even hear about it, and among those who hear, few truly understand.

Placed here, near the end of the soul-nature teaching (2.11-2.30), it serves as both a summary and a caution: the teaching has been given, but its full realization takes time, reflection, and grace.

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