Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 26

अथ चैनं नित्यजातं नित्यं वा मन्यसे मृतम् । तथापि त्वं महाबाहो नैवं शोचितुमर्हसि

atha cainaṃ nityajātaṃ nityaṃ vā manyase mṛtam | tathāpi tvaṃ mahābāho naivaṃ śocitumarhasi

Translation

But even if thou thinkest of Him as ever being born and ever dying, even then, O mighty-armed, thou oughtst not to grieve thus.

— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri

Word meanings

atha

now

ca

and

enam

this

nityajātam

constantly, born

nityam

perpetually

vā

or

manyase

(thou) thinkest

mṛtam

dead

tathā

so

api

also

tvam

thou

mahābāho

great, (two) arms, whose, (O thou)

na

not

enam

this

śocitum

to grieve

arhasi

(thou) oughtest

Śaṅkarācārya's commentary

Even if, abandoning the Vedāntic teaching, you adopt the popular view that the Self is constantly born along with the body and dies along with the body, even then you have no occasion to grieve. For birth and death follow each other inevitably (as the next verse shows), so that the cycle is natural and unavoidable.