Sanskrit
वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि । तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णान्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ॥
vāsāṃsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya navāni gṛhṇāti naro'parāṇi tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny anyāni saṃyāti navāni dehī
Translation
As a man, casting off worn-out garments, taketh new ones, so the dweller in the body, casting off worn-out bodies, entereth into others that are new.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The most quoted image in the chapter. Just as a person discards worn-out clothes for new ones without any sense of loss, the embodied self moves from one body to the next. The simile does real philosophical work: clothing is incidental to the wearer, not identical with them — and Krishna is asking Arjuna to see the body the same way in relation to the self. The word dehī — “the one who has a body” — is itself the argument in miniature: it names the self by contrast with the body it merely wears. The garment simile recurs in later tradition precisely because it makes rebirth sound ordinary rather than uncanny.
Study deeper
Word by word
- vāsāṃsi jīrṇāniवासांसि जीर्णानि
- worn-out clothes (vāsāṃsi + jīrṇāni)
- yathāयथा
- as
- vihāyaविहाय
- having cast off
- navāni gṛhṇātiनवानि गृह्णाति
- takes on new ones (navāni + gṛhṇāti)
- naro'parāṇiनरोऽपराणि
- a person, other [garments] (naraḥ + aparāṇi)
- tathāतथा
- so too
- śarīrāṇiशरीराणि
- bodies
- vihāyaविहाय
- having cast off
- jīrṇānyजीर्णान्य्
- worn-out
- anyāni saṃyāti navāniअन्यानि संयाति नवानि
- goes to other new ones (anyāni + saṃyāti + navāni)
- dehīदेही
- the embodied self
Commentary
Site Commentary
After five straight verses of dense, technical metaphysics, this verse suddenly drops to the most ordinary image available — changing clothes. That’s a pacing choice, not an accident: the argument keeps checking itself against something anyone can picture, as if it doesn’t trust abstraction alone to do the convincing and periodically comes back down to ground level to make sure it hasn’t lost its audience.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you're working through a difficult, abstract idea, periodically translate it back into the most ordinary possible image you can find — if you can't, that's a sign the idea hasn't actually settled into something you understand, only something you can repeat.
Professional
- When explaining a complex technical concept to stakeholders, don't stay in abstraction for too long — periodically drop to the most ordinary analogy available to check whether the room is still with you, the way this verse alternates dense argument with a plain image.
Family & Social
- When trying to explain something complicated to someone you love, don't just keep building on the abstract version — periodically translate it into the simplest possible everyday image, both to check they're still following and to make sure you actually understand it yourself.
Ask yourself
A few ways to take this verse past reading. Ticks and the note stay in this browser.
Reflect on this verse
Keep exploring
Learning paths