Bhagavad Gita 2.22

Sanskrit

वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि । तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ॥2.22॥

Transliteration

vāsāṃsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya navāni gṛhṇāti naro'parāṇi | tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇā nyanyāni saṃyāti navāni dehī ‖2.22‖

Meaning

“Just as a person casts off worn-out garments and puts on new ones, so the embodied Self casts off worn-out bodies and enters new ones.”

Key learning

Death is compared to changing clothes. Just as you take off worn-out clothes and put on new ones, the inner self leaves an old body and moves on. The clothes are not who you are, and the body is not the whole person either. What you loved in someone was always the person wearing the body, not the body itself.

How to apply this today

When you lose someone, try to hold on to what was never physical: their love, their values, the way they made you feel. When your sweet little child turns into a distant teenager, remember the same person is still there in a new form. When a long career ends, you are setting down an old role, not erasing yourself. Today, when grief hits, gently shift your attention from the body that is gone to the love that remains.

Theme: The Yoga of Knowledge

This verse is part of Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2: Sankhya Yoga , read all verses in this chapter.

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