The Song Of Life: 15. Never Can This Soul Be Slain Poem by Aniruddha Pathak

He that knows Him as one that kills,
He too that believes Him slain,
They both know not well,
He never ever kills,
Nor yet ever gets slain. || 2.19 ||

Here is the transliteration with the meanings of Sanskrit words:

yah enam vetti hantāram yah cha enam manyate hatam |
ubhau tau na vijānītahna ayam hanti na hanyate ||

yah: he who; enam: this (soul): vetti: imagines, knows; hantāram: as hunter, slayer, killer; yah cha: and he who; enam: this (soul): manyate hatam: believes to be killed/slain; ubhau:(they)both; tau: they two; na vijānītah: know not well; na ayam: (that)neither this (soul): hanti: kills, slays; na hanyate: nor (is it)killed.

Here is one more interpretation:

If He is taken as one that slays,
Or thought of as slain,
Both ways one knows not still
This soul's subtlest of ways:
This One never doth kill,
Nor can He ever be slain.

1. Ralph Waldo Emerson translated this verse in his poem entitled Brahma as under:
If the red slayer think he slays,
Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways
I keep, and pass, and turn again.

2. Compare the closeness of this verse with # 1.2.19 of Kaţha Upaniśhad.