Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 8, Verse 3

श्रीभगवानुवाच । अक्षरं ब्रह्म परमं स्वभावोऽध्यात्ममुच्यते । भूतभावोद्भवकरो विसर्गः कर्मसंज्ञितः

śrībhagavānuvāca | akṣaraṃ brahma paramaṃ svabhāvo'dhyātmamucyate | bhūtabhāvodbhavakaro visargaḥ karmasaṃjñitaḥ

Translation

Brahman is the Imperishable (Akṣara), the Supreme. The Ego is said to be the Individual Self (Adhyātma, He who dwells in the body). The offering which causes the origin of physical beings is called action (Karma).

— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri

Word meanings

akṣaram

undecaying

brahma

Brahman

paramam

supreme

svabhāvaḥ

own being (His nature)

adhyātmam

Adhyātma

ucyate

is called

bhūtabhāvodbhavakaraḥ

of beings, of the nature, the birth, makes, thus, that

visargaḥ

emanation

karmasaṃjñitaḥ

action, name, whose, that

Śaṅkarācārya's commentary

Brahman is the Akṣara, the Imperishable, the Supreme Self (Paramātman); the Śruti says "O Gārgī, it is at the command of this Akṣara, the Imperishable Paramātman, that heaven and earth remain, held in their places" (Bṛ. Up. 3.8.9). 'Akṣara' does not here mean the syllable "Oṃ"; for the latter is subsequently specified thus: "Uttering the syllable 'Oṃ,' the Brahman" (viii.13). And the epithet 'supreme' applies better to Brahman, the Imperishable, who transcends all. The same Supreme Brahman existing as the Ego, as the Innermost Self, as the Pratyagātman, in every individual body, is said to be Adhyātma. The sacrificial act which consists in offering cooked rice, cakes and the like to the Gods (Devatās), and which causes the origin of all creatures, is known by the term 'Karma'; it forms the seed as it were of all beings; it is in virtue of this act that all beings, animate and inanimate, come into existence, after passing through rain and other regions of life.