Bhagavad Gita · Sankhya YogaChapter 2, Shloka 22 (2.22)
Original Sanskrit · श्रीभगवान्
वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय
नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णानि
अन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही
॥ 2.22 ॥
vāsāṃsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya
navāni gṛhṇāti naro'parāṇi
tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāni
anyāni saṃyāti navāni dehī
Translation
"Just as a person casts off worn-out clothes and puts on other, new ones, so the embodied one (the self) casts off worn-out bodies and takes on other, new ones."
Interpretation
The simplest metaphor. Everyone understands changing clothes. When a garment becomes old, we discard it — and put on a new one. The wearer stays the same. Shankaracharya: puruṣavat avikriya eva — like a person changing clothes, the self remains unchanged.
"Jīrṇāni" — worn out. In the metaphor the clothes are "old, worn out". Many teachers see a gentle hint in this: in the metaphor, death is described as the shedding of a "tired body". But the shloka does not call every death — for example at a young age — "worn out"; it is a general metaphor.
Ramanuja's argument — a reason for joy. Ramanuja says: according to scripture, those who give up the body in a righteous war attain a body more auspicious than before — just as someone who discards old clothes and puts on new, beautiful ones feels happy. So for Arjuna there is here a reason not for grief but for joy.
In Arjuna's context. The bodies of Bhishma and Drona — they are old garments; what they truly are is not going anywhere.
AI-assisted draft translation — under review.