Verse 2.22

वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय

नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि ।

तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा-

न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ॥

2.22

Transliteration

vāsāṃsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya

navāni gṛhṇāti naro'parāṇi |

tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇā-

nyanyāni saṃyāti navāni dehī ||

By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · @indic-transliteration/sanscript 1.3.3

Translation

Just as a man casts off worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, so also the embodied Self casts off worn-out bodies and enters others which are new.

From the owner's sheet · +1 more

Word by word

garments
worn out
just as
casting off

new
takes
a man
others

so
bodies
casting off
worn out

other
enters
new
the embodied self

By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · claude-opus-5-5 · 2026-11-08

Explanation

This is the Gita's best known image for rebirth. As a person sets aside worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, the embodied one (dehin) leaves worn-out bodies and takes on new ones. The image is homely and easy to grasp, and it turns death from an ending into a change of covering. For Arjuna the point is emotional as well as logical: the elders he fears to kill are not destroyed but pass on. The verse prepares the series of descriptions that follow about what cannot be harmed.