अनित्य
Anitya / Anicca
anitya / anicca (Pali)
In simple words
Anitya means impermanent. Everything we experience — bodies, feelings, thoughts, situations — changes. Seeing this clearly is a key step in many Indian paths.
What is it?
Anitya (Pali anicca) is impermanence. In Buddhism it is one of the three marks of existence, with dukkha and anatta: whatever is conditioned arises and passes away, and clinging to it brings suffering. Hindu traditions also stress the impermanence of the body and world, but usually contrast it with a permanent reality (the Self or Brahman), which Buddhism does not posit. The Gita repeatedly calls the world transient and advises enduring passing experiences.
Scholar’s note
Abhidharma and later Buddhist logicians (such as Dharmakirti) developed the doctrine of momentariness (kshanikavada): real things exist only for a moment. Nyaya and Mimamsa argued against momentariness, defending enduring substances and selves. In Vedanta the nitya/anitya viveka (discrimination between permanent and impermanent) is the first of the qualifications of the seeker.How its meaning differs
Impermanence is a mark of all conditioned phenomena; insight into it undermines craving and the sense of a lasting self.
Advaita teaches discrimination between the eternal and the non-eternal: the world and body are impermanent, while the Self is permanent and unchanging.
Nyaya accepts that composite things are impermanent but argues against Buddhist momentariness, defending enduring atoms, substances and selves.
Jain thought holds that substances are permanent while their modes change, applying its many-sided method to permanence and change.
The Guru Granth Sahib frequently reminds the listener of the passing nature of the world and wealth, contrasting it with the eternal Name.
Where it appears in the Gita
Pleasure and pain come and go — endure them
सुख-दु:ख आने-जानेवाले हैं, उन्हें सहो
मात्रास्पर्शास्तु कौन्तेय शीतोष्णसुखदु:खदा:।
Contacts with sense objects bring pleasure and pain through the favourable and unfavourable; they come and go, are impermanent — bear them.
इन्द्रियोंके विषय अनुकूलता-प्रतिकूलतासे सुख-दु:ख देनेवाले, आने-जानेवाले और अनित्य हैं; उन्हें सहन करो।
2.16The unreal has no being; the real never ceases
असत्की सत्ता नहीं, सत्का अभाव नहीं
नासतो विद्यते भावो नाभावो विद्यते सत:।
The unreal has no existence and the real never ceases to be; the seers of truth have seen the essence of both.
असत्का भाव विद्यमान नहीं और सत्का अभाव विद्यमान नहीं; तत्त्वदर्शी महापुरुषोंने दोनोंका तत्त्व अनुभव किया है।
8.15मामुपेत्य पुनर्जन्म दु:खालयमशाश्वतम्।
महात्मालोग मुझे प्राप्त करके दु:खालय अर्थात् दु:खोंके घर (और) अशाश्वत अर्थात् निरन्तर बदलने-वाले पुनर्जन्मको प्राप्त नहीं होते; (क्योंकि वे) परम सिद्धिको प्राप्त हो गये हैं अर्थात् उनको परम प्रेमकी प्राप्ति हो गयी है।
9.33किं पुनब्र्राह्मणा: पुण्या भक्ता राजर्षयस्तथा।
(जो) पवित्र आचरण करने-वाले ब्राह्मण और ऋषिस्वरूप क्षत्रिय भगवान्के भक्त हों, (वे परमगतिको प्राप्त हो जायँ) इसमें तो कहना ही क्या है! (इसलिये) इस अनित्य (और) सुखरहित शरीरको प्राप्त करके (तू) मेरा भजन कर।
Where else it appears
Follow this idea
Trace the idea from one source to the next.
- 1Gita verseBhagavad Gita 2.14Contacts giving heat and cold, pleasure and pain come and go; endure them.
- 2Gita verseBhagavad Gita 2.16The unreal has no being and the real never ceases: the Gita's contrast of changing and unchanging.
- 3Traditionबौद्ध दर्शनBuddhist philosophyImpermanence as one of the three marks of existence.
- 4Conceptअनात्मन्Anatta (Anatman)From impermanence Buddhism infers the absence of a permanent self.
- 5Textतत्त्वबोधTattva BodhaVedanta's discrimination between the eternal and the non-eternal.
- 6Traditionजैन दर्शनJain philosophyJain view: substances endure while their modes change.
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