Quiz · 2.11–2.30
The self
Cover the answer. Read the Devanagari of the verse before you open it.
1
In 2.20, what construction is hanyamāne śarīre (हन्यमाने शरीरे), and who is the nominative of na hanyate (न हन्यते)?
Answer
A locative absolute: when the body is being killed. Both words are locative, and they give the time. The nominative is ayam (अयम्), this one. The body is not the thing the verse says is not killed.
2
देहिनः + अस्मिन् dehinaḥ + asmin in 2.13. What is recited, and which sandhi makes it?
Answer
dehino 'smin (देहिनोऽस्मिन्). अः + अ aḥ + a becomes o (ओ), and the following a (अ) drops. The avagraha is that dropped a (अ). The word underneath is still the genitive dehinaḥ (देहिनः), "of the embodied one," in this body.
3
What does 2.22 say the embodied one does with worn-out bodies?
Answer
As a man, having left worn-out clothes, takes other new ones, so the embodied one, having left worn-out bodies, goes on to other new ones.
4
Through 2.11–2.30, what does Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण) separate, and what does he say Arjuna ought not to do?
Answer
He separates the body, which ends, from the one in the body, who is not born and is not killed when the body is killed. Weapons, fire, water, and wind do not take that one. Arjuna ought not to grieve for him, and ought not to grieve even if he holds the other view, that birth and death are constant, and ought not to grieve for any being.
5
Say back the line that shows the body and the one in it have come apart. Which word fails the sitting if the not-killed is put on the body?
Answer
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे). śarīre (शरीरे) is the time, the body being killed. If that locative is recited as the thing that survives, the sitting fails.