Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 8, Verse 20

परस्तस्मात्तु भावोऽन्योऽव्यक्तोऽव्यक्तात्सनातनः । यः स सर्वेषु भूतेषु नश्यत्सु न विनश्यति

parastasmāttu bhāvo'nyo'vyakto'vyaktātsanātanaḥ | yaḥ sa sarveṣu bhūteṣu naśyatsu na vinaśyati

Translation

But that other eternal Unmanifested Being, distinct from this Unmanifested (Avyakta) — He does not perish when all creatures perish.

— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri

Word meanings

paraḥ

higher

tasmāt

than that

tu

indeed

bhāvaḥ

nature

anyaḥ

another

avyaktaḥ

unmanifested

avyaktāt

(than) the unmanifested

sanātanaḥ

ancient

yaḥ

who

saḥ

that

sarveṣu

in all

bhūteṣu

(in) beings

naśyatsu

(in) the being destroyed

na

not

vinaśyati

is destroyed

Śaṅkarācārya's commentary

"But" indicates that the Akṣara who is to be described now is distinct from the Avyakta. "Being": the Supreme, the Para-Brahman, called the Akṣara. To remove the impression that He is of the same nature as the Avyakta, the Lord qualifies Him by 'other,' meaning thereby that He is of a different nature from the Avyakta. He is unmanifested, imperceptible to the senses. He is distinct from the Avyakta mentioned above, which is Avidyā itself, the seed of the whole multitude of created beings. He does not perish when all beings from Brahmā downwards perish.