Clarity — Lesson 7
Changing bodies is like changing clothes (Gita 2.22)
Verse
नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि ।
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णान्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ॥ २.२२ ॥
Transliteration
vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya
navāni gṛhṇāti naro'parāṇi
tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny anyāni saṁyāti navāni dehī
Meaning
Just as a person gives up worn-out clothes and takes new ones, so the embodied one gives up old bodies and takes on new ones.
Sandhi-vigraha
नवानि गृह्णाति नरः अपराणि ।
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णानि अन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ॥
Anvaya
तथा देही जीर्णानि शरीराणि विहाय अन्यानि नवानि संयाति।
Key Words
- vāsāṁsi — clothes
- jīrṇāni — worn-out
- vihāya — giving up
- navāni — new
- gṛhṇāti — takes
- śarīrāṇi — bodies
- dehī — the embodied one
Teaching
Krishna gives a very relatable example.
Just like we change clothes when they become old or unusable, the body is also something that is taken up and given up.
The person wearing the clothes is different from the clothes.
In the same way, the Self is different from the body.
Death, then, is not an end. It is simply a change of the body.
Connection to Clarity
Clarity removes fear by correcting misunderstanding.
If I think I am the body, then death appears as the end.
If I understand I am the one who "has" a body, then death becomes a transition, not a loss of Self.
This changes how we relate to life and death.
Reflection
I say “my body” just like I say “my clothes.”
If the body is something I have, can it be what I truly am?