Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 12

न त्वेवाहं जातु नासं न त्वं नेमे जनाधिपाः । न चैव न भविष्यामः सर्वे वयमतः परम्

na tvevāhaṃ jātu nāsaṃ na tvaṃ neme janādhipāḥ | na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ sarve vayamataḥ param

Translation

Never did I not exist, nor thou, nor these rulers of men; and no one of us will ever hereafter cease to exist.

— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri

Word meanings

na

not

tu

indeed

eva

also

aham

I

jātu

at any time

na

not

āsam

was

na

not

tvam

thou

na

not

ime

these

janādhipāḥ

of the people, lords

na

not

ca

and

eva

also

na

not

bhaviṣyāmaḥ

shall be

sarve

all

vayam

we

ataḥ

from this (time)

param

after

Śaṅkarācārya's commentary

Never did I cease to exist — on the contrary, I always did exist; through past bodily births and deaths I always existed. So also you, and these rulers of men. And no one of us shall ever cease to exist; we shall all certainly continue even after the death of these bodies. As the Self, the Ātman, we are eternal in all three periods of time — past, present, and future. The plural "us" is used with reference to the bodies that are different; it does not mean that there are more than one Self.