Bhagavatgita a detailed study-chapter2

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22.vaasaamsi jeerNaani yaThaavihaaya navaani grhNaathi naraH aparaaNi

thaThaa SareeraaNi vihaaya jeerNaani anyaani samyaathi navaani dhehee

 

Just as the men throw away the old clothes and take new ones, the self discards the old bodies and attains new ones.

 

Even though it may be true that the real `I ` is the self and not the body, nevertheless the loss of life when the body dies is felt by all. How to explain this? The answer is given in this sloka. Death is something like discarding old clothes and putting on newones.

 

yaThaa-Just as

 

vihaaya- throwing away

 

Vaasaamsi –clothes

 

jeerNaani- which are old or used ones.

 

naraH grhnaathi- a man o puts on

 

navaani aparaaNi- other new ones

 

thaTha- likewise

 

dhehee- the self

 

vihaaya SareeraaNi jeerNani- discarding the old bodies

 

anyaani navaani samyaath- attains other new bodies.

 

This sounds alright if death occurs at old age when the body has become jeerna or old and becomes a burden.. But how can this analogy of discarding old clothes and putting on new ones be applied when death occurs at young age or childhood when the body cannot be termed as old?

 

Jeerna here means that it had served its purpose. A body is acquired for the purpose of exhausting a particular karma and when the result of that karma has been experienced, that body has served its purpose and becomes jeerna. The residue of karma cannot be exhausted in that body and hence it is shed to acquire a different one suited for the purpose. So death is not something to be feared or grieved about at any age.

 

To leave the old body and go to new one is a matter of grief only for an ignorant man and not for the wise. The mother changes the dirty cloth of the child putting on new one or puts on a different one suited to the occasion even if the child does not like to do so and cries. But it is for the benefit of the child the mother does it. Similarly the Lord takes off our existing body when it is time to enter a new one according to our karma.

 

The word samyaathi means to attain or move to. But the self is said to be eternal and ever existing and immutable. So how does it move from one place to another? The self .Athman is not the one which moves but the individual self , jeeva consisting of subtle body of mind and intellect and ego is that which movs from one gross body to another. When we taka a pot from one place to another, the space inside does not move because it is all pervading but it is only the pot that moves. Similarly the self is not moving anywhere but only the conditioning of mind and intellect and ego seem to move. That is why it is said that the self assumes new bodies, in plural, meaning gross body, subtle body, mind and intellect, and the causal body, ego the effect of karma. When the causal body also undergoes change according to karma the subtle body also acquires a new one.