Vishnu Wisdom & Light Bhagavad Gita Verse
Bhagavad Gita 2.22: Krishna compares leaving an old body to changing worn-out clothes. Sanskrit text and simple meaning.
Sanskrit
वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि ।
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णान्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ॥
Transliteration (IAST)
vāsāṃsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya navāni gṛhṇāti naro ’parāṇi |
tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny anyāni saṃyāti navāni dehī ||
Meaning
As a person puts aside worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, so the one who lives in the body puts aside worn-out bodies and enters others that are new.
Source / Textual Reference
Bhagavad Gita 2.22 (Chapter 2, verse 22)
The Bhagavad Gita is part of the Mahabharata. It records a talk between Krishna and the warrior Arjuna on the field of Kurukshetra, just before a great battle. Krishna is the speaker.
Traditional Significance
This is the Gita’s best-known picture of life and death. Death is compared to changing clothes: the clothes change, but the one who wears them stays the same. It follows Gita 2.20 in Krishna’s teaching on the self.
The verse states the Gita’s teaching of rebirth. This page reports that teaching; it does not argue for it.
Traditional Practice
The verse is read, studied and reflected on. There is no fixed time or number of repetitions.
Related Content
- The verse before it on the self, Gita 2.20
- Krishna Janmashtami
- Tat Tvam Asi, a saying of the Upanishads on the self