Chapter 4, Verse 5
श्रीभगवानुवाच | बहूनि मे व्यतीतानि जन्मानि तव चार्जुन | तान्यहं वेद सर्वाणि न त्वं वेत्थ परन्तप ||४-५||
śrībhagavānuvāca . bahūni me vyatītāni janmāni tava cārjuna . tānyahaṃ veda sarvāṇi na tvaṃ vettha parantapa ||4-5||
Meaning
4.5 The Blessed Lord said Many births of Mine have passed as well as of thine, O Arjuna; I know them all but thou knowest not, O Parantapa (scorcher of foes).
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Krishna answers the riddle by revealing a profound difference: both He and Arjuna have lived through countless births, but Krishna remembers all of them, while Arjuna, like every embodied soul, has forgotten. The divine retains unbroken awareness across lifetimes; the human consciousness is veiled at each birth by māyā.
This verse quietly affirms reincarnation as a working truth of the Gita's worldview — the self persists, the body changes. But its deeper teaching is about consciousness itself. The Lord's knowledge is undimmed because He is never bound by the forgetfulness that overtakes us. Spiritual practice, in a sense, is the gradual recovery of that lost continuity — remembering what we truly are beneath the amnesia of repeated birth.
💡 Key Takeaway
We forget our past lives and deeper nature; spiritual growth is the slow recovery of the awareness we keep losing.
Related Verses
अजोऽपि सन्नव्ययात्मा भूतानामीश्वरोऽपि सन् | प्रकृतिं स्वामधिष्ठाय सम्भवाम्यात्ममायया ||४-६||
ajo.api sannavyayātmā bhūtānāmīśvaro.api san . prakṛtiṃ svāmadhiṣṭhāya sambhavāmyātmamāyayā ||4-6||
4.6 Though I am unborn, of imperishable nature, and though I am the Lord of all beings, yet, governing My own Nature, I am born by My own Maya.
जन्म कर्म च मे दिव्यमेवं यो वेत्ति तत्त्वतः | त्यक्त्वा देहं पुनर्जन्म नैति मामेति सोऽर्जुन ||४-९||
janma karma ca me divyamevaṃ yo vetti tattvataḥ . tyaktvā dehaṃ punarjanma naiti māmeti so.arjuna ||4-9||
4.9 He who thus know, in their true light, My divine birth and action, having abandoned the body, is not born again, he comes to Me, O Arjuna.
एवं बहुविधा यज्ञा वितता ब्रह्मणो मुखे | कर्मजान्विद्धि तान्सर्वानेवं ज्ञात्वा विमोक्ष्यसे ||४-३२||
evaṃ bahuvidhā yajñā vitatā brahmaṇo mukhe . karmajānviddhi tānsarvānevaṃ jñātvā vimokṣyase ||4-32||
4.32 Thus, manifold sacrifices are spread out before Brahman (literally) at the mouth or face of Brahman). Know them all as born of action and thus knowing, thou shalt be liberated.