Rebirth & continuity • Gītā 2.22
Saṃsāra
Read the cited source passages on this page →
Understand rebirth through the Gītā’s stages-of-life and garment images, then compare liberation using Sanskrit and Swami Swarupananda’s English translations.
What you will learn
By the end of this reading, you should be able to distinguish the embodied being from changing bodies in two Gītā images, and describe how a third verse introduces freedom from renewed birth. Allow about ten minutes. Read the English first; the Sanskrit is available for readers who want to examine the original.
- 2.13: stages of life — notice the comparison between changes within a life and attaining another body.
- 2.22: changing garments — identify what the image compares.
- 8.15: a goal beyond renewed birth — notice the relationship with Kṛṣṇa.
Read the source
Source passages to read on this page
Read the selected passages in English below. Translation, commentary and handbook guidance are labeled separately; the adjacent links let you check the source.
Bhagavad Gītā 2.13
Kṛṣṇa speaks to Arjuna in the Gītā’s dialogue. The surrounding chapter remains linked for context.
Reference: Swami Swarupananda; Śrīmad-Bhagavad-Gītā, Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati (1909); Ramakrishna Order / Advaita Vedānta. Check the cited passage or chapter →
English translation
As are childhood, youth, and old age, in this body, to the embodied soul, so also is the attaining of another body. Calm souls are not deluded thereat.
Public-domain 1909 English translation. Line breaks and evident OCR errors corrected against the passage; translator’s comments are not included. Original Sanskrit is identified separately.
Read the original Sanskrit
Original Sanskrit · Devanāgarī
देहिनोऽस्मिन्यथा देहे कौमारं यौवनं जरा ।
तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुह्यति ॥ १३ ॥
Bhagavad Gītā 2.22
Kṛṣṇa speaks to Arjuna in the Gītā’s dialogue. The surrounding chapter remains linked for context.
Reference: Swami Swarupananda; Śrīmad-Bhagavad-Gītā, Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati (1909); Ramakrishna Order / Advaita Vedānta. Check the cited passage or chapter →
English translation
Even as a man casts off worn-out clothes, and puts on others which are new, so the embodied casts off worn-out bodies, and enters into others which are new.
Public-domain 1909 English translation. Line breaks and evident OCR errors corrected against the passage; translator’s comments are not included. Original Sanskrit is identified separately.
Read the original Sanskrit
Original Sanskrit · Devanāgarī
वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि ।
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णान्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ॥ २२ ॥
Bhagavad Gītā 8.15
Kṛṣṇa speaks to Arjuna in the Gītā’s dialogue. The surrounding chapter remains linked for context.
Reference: Swami Swarupananda; Śrīmad-Bhagavad-Gītā, Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati (1909); Ramakrishna Order / Advaita Vedānta. Check the cited passage or chapter →
English translation
Reaching the highest perfection and having attained Me, the great-souled ones are no more subject to rebirth — which is the home of pain, and ephemeral.
Public-domain 1909 English translation. Line breaks and evident OCR errors corrected against the passage; translator’s comments are not included. Original Sanskrit is identified separately.
Read the original Sanskrit
Original Sanskrit · Devanāgarī
मामुपेत्य पुनर्जन्म दुःखालयमशाश्वतम् ।
नाप्नुवन्ति महात्मानः संसिद्धिं परमां गताः ॥ १५ ॥
2.13: continuity through change
Swami Swarupananda’s translation moves from childhood through youth to old age, then compares those stages with attaining another body. The passage calls its subject the embodied soul. In this reading, bodily change and the one described as embodied are distinct parts of the sentence.
Handbook reading question: which changes take place within the present body, and which change does the verse introduce by comparison? The movement from familiar life stages to another body is the verse’s religious teaching; observing childhood and aging alone does not independently demonstrate rebirth.
2.22: follow both sides of the garment image
In the supplied English, a person leaves worn clothes and takes new ones; the embodied leaves worn bodies and enters new ones. Keep both sides of that comparison in view. The verse’s word dehī identifies the embodied, while śarīrāṇi identifies bodies. The source link gives the Sanskrit word glosses.
The image makes a distinction between the wearer and what is worn. It is a reading aid within Kṛṣṇa’s teaching to Arjuna, rather than a description of the practical details of any particular person’s next life.
8.15: read rebirth alongside liberation
The third passage changes the focus. Swarupananda translates it as attaining Kṛṣṇa and highest perfection, with renewed birth no longer occurring. Kṛṣṇa is the speaker referred to by “Me.” Keeping that relationship visible prevents the verse from becoming an isolated slogan about escaping the world.
The Mokṣa guide adds the following verse, 8.16. Read it to explore the difference between another destination within repeated return and the freedom from rebirth described here.
A named commentary, kept separate
For optional further study, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda’s purport to 2.22 explains the individual soul’s change of bodies in relation to the Supersoul and the soul’s relationship with Kṛṣṇa. This is his Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava account. It is not additional wording in Swarupananda’s quoted translation, and it is not required to answer this page’s reading questions.
Edition note: the English verses on this page come from Swami Swarupananda’s 1909 Advaita Ashrama edition, associated with the Ramakrishna Order and Advaita Vedānta. Identifying an edition’s tradition does not make its verse wording a complete account of that tradition.
Questions readers often bring
Is saṃsāra just getting older?
The comparison in 2.13 begins with aging but also speaks of attaining another body. Reducing the passage to aging leaves out that second part. These selected verses introduce the broader subject of rebirth; they do not provide a complete theory of it.
Can I infer someone’s past life from their circumstances?
The passages supplied here identify no person’s previous life and give no procedure for doing so. Keep that unanswered question separate from what the verses actually say.
What if this subject brings up grief?
You may read slowly, pause, or return later. This is an optional handbook study suggestion. The guide does not ask you to suppress grief or determine another person’s spiritual destination.
Check your understanding
Try answering before opening the feedback. Which verse uses stages of life, which uses garments, and which describes freedom from renewed birth? In the garment image, is the embodied being identified with the discarded clothing?
Read the answer feedback
2.13 uses childhood, youth and old age; 2.22 compares bodies with garments; 8.15 describes freedom from renewed birth after attaining Kṛṣṇa and highest perfection. In 2.22 the embodied is compared with the wearer, and bodies with clothing. These are distinct roles in the image.
Optional reflection: write one sentence about each verse, beginning “In Swarupananda’s translation…” Add the verse number. Tomorrow, see whether you can recall the three different emphases before rereading.
Continue your reading
Continue with Mokṣa, Ātman, or the Gītā reading guide. All passages needed for this lesson are supplied above. Handbook explanations and exercises are separate from translation and commentary. Sources checked October 9, 2026; independent Sanskrit and philosophical review remains pending.