Transcendental Knowledge
Verse 2.22
वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि। तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही।।2.22।।
vāsānsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya navāni gṛihṇāti naro ’parāṇi tathā śharīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇānya nyāni sanyāti navāni dehī
Word Meanings
vāsānsi—garments; jīrṇāni—worn-out; yathā—as; vihāya—sheds; navāni—new; gṛihṇāti—accepts; naraḥ—a person; aparāṇi—others; tathā—likewise; śharīrāṇi—bodies; vihāya—casting off; jirṇāni—worn-out; anyāni—other; sanyāti—enters; navāni—new; dehī—the embodied soul
Translation · English
Just as a man casts off worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, so too the embodied Self casts off worn-out bodies and enters others that are new.
Deep Meaning · English
In this verse, Krishna employs the gentle metaphor of changing clothes to dissolve Arjuna’s paralyzing grief over the death of his kin. By equating the body to a worn-out garment, the Lord shifts the focus from the ephemeral form to the eternal 'Dehī' (the embodied soul). Philosophically, this underscores the Advaitic truth that the Self is immutable and untouched by the processes of birth and decay. The body is merely a temporary residence, a vehicle acquired for a specific cycle of experience, and its shedding is as natural and inconsequential as discarding old fabric for new attire. This realization is meant to liberate the warrior from the sorrow of loss by revealing that death is not an end, but a transition within the continuity of consciousness. It dismantles the illusion of identity tied to the material body, urging Arjuna—and the seeker—to recognize that one's true essence remains forever unchanged by the passing of time or the transformations of matter.
The soul's journey is a continuous evolution where death acts not as a cessation, but as a graceful transition into new possibilities of expression.
Connected Verses
Provides the technical mechanism of how the soul carries its impressions from one body to another, much like the wind carries scents from flowers.
Highlights that one's state of consciousness at the moment of shedding the body determines the nature of the 'new garment' the soul will assume.
Establishes the fundamental premise that the soul is never born nor does it ever die, serving as the ontological foundation for the clothing metaphor.
Directly precedes this concept by explaining that the soul undergoes childhood, youth, and old age within one body, and then transfers to another.
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