Ramanuja's Gita Bhashyam - Chapter 2 - sloka 19

The entire content of this mail is based  on  Swami Adidevananda's translation of  Sri Ramanuja Gita Bhashya, published by Sri Ramakrishna Math.

The Real and the Unreal Sloka 16-20

1 Gita Sloka every day - Chapter 2 - Samkhya Yoga - Sloka 19

Ya enam vetti hantaram  yah cha enam manyate hatam I

Ubhau tau na vijanitah na ayam hanti na hanyate II sloka 19

य एनं वेत्ति हन्तारं यः च एनं मन्यते हतं ।

उभौ तौ न विजनितः न अयं हन्ति न हन्यते ।। श्लोक १९ 

He who deems It (the Self) a slayer, and he who thinks of It as slain - both are ignorant. For the self neither slays nor is slain.

With regards to "This" viz., the self, whose nature has been described above. he who thinks of It as the slayer, ie. as the cause of slaying, and he who thinks "This" (self) as slain by some cause or the other - both of them do not know. As this self is eternal for the reasons mentioned earlier, no possible cause of destruction can slay It and for the same reason It cannot be slain. Though the root "han" (to slay) has the self for its object, it signifies causing the separation of the body from the self not destruction of the self. Spiritual texts like "You shall not cause injury to beings" and "the Brahmana shall not be killed" (K.Sm.8.2) indicate unsanctioned actions, causing separation of the body form the self.  [In the above quotes, slaughter in an ethical sense is referred to, while the text refers to the killing or separating the self from the body in a metaphysical sense. This is explicit in the next verse]