Clarity — Lesson 3
Change belongs to the body, not to the Self (Gita 2.13)
Verse
तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुह्यति ॥ २.१३ ॥
Transliteration
dehino'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati
Meaning
Just as in this body the embodied one passes through childhood, youth, and old age, in the same way there is the gaining of another body. The wise person is not deluded by this.
Sandhi-vigraha
तथा देहान्तर-प्राप्तिः धीरः तत्र न मुह्यति ॥
Anvaya
Key Words
- dehinaḥ — of the embodied one
- dehe — in the body
- kaumāram — childhood
- yauvanam — youth
- jarā — old age
- dehāntara-prāptiḥ — gaining another body
- dhīraḥ — a steady, wise person
- na muhyati — is not deluded
Teaching
Krishna gives Arjuna a simple and direct example.
In one lifetime itself, the body keeps changing. The child's body is gone. The youth's body is gone. The old body also changes.
Yet through all these changes, the person says, “I was a child,” “I was young,” “now I am old.”
The body changes, but the one to whom these changes happen remains.
In the same way, the Gita says, the passing from one body to another is also a change that belongs to the body, not to the Self.
Connection to Clarity
Clarity comes when we learn to distinguish between the changing and the changeless.
Childhood changes into youth. Youth changes into old age. The body is always changing.
But the conscious being, the dehi, is not reduced to any one stage of the body.
This verse helps us see that identity based only on the body is incomplete.
Reflection
My body has changed many times since childhood. Yet I still say, “I.”
What is that constant “I” that remains through all these changes?