कर्ता न पूर्वं नाऽप्यद्य कथमाक्रम्यते वद । यदैष कल्पनां बुद्ध्या मृतिनाम्नीं करिष्यति ॥ ३१ ॥
kartā na pūrvaṁ nā’pyadya kathamākramyatē vada | yadaiṣa kalpanāṁ buddhyā mṛtināmnīṁ kariṣyati || 31 ||
Translation
He was no doer before, and is none now: how can he be overcome? Tell me. When he himself, with his intellect, forms the conception called death,
Word by word
- kartā
- a doer
- na
- no; not
- pūrvaṁ
- before
- api
- and
- adya
- now
- katham
- how
- ākramyatē
- can be overcome
- vada
- tell me
- yadā
- when
- ēṣa
- he himself
- kalpanāṁ
- the conception
- buddhyā
- with his intellect
- mṛti
- death
- nāmnīṁ
- called
- kariṣyati
- forms
Meaning
Yama turns the question back on Death: one who has never acted and does not act now, how could you overcome him? The second line begins the condition under which Death could act, finished in the next verse. The commentary on this line: whenever Brahmā, by his intellect whose will comes true, imagines death for creatures, then you can seize them. Death has no power of his own; it is lent to him by the creator's conception.