Sankhya Yoga 2.13

 Verse 2.13 Atma is changless (atma nirvikara:) anatma is ever changing (savikara:)

देहिनोऽस्मिन्यथा देहे कौमारं यौवनं जरा |

तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुह्यति || 13||

dehino ’smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā

tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati

dehinaḥ—of the embodied (atma); asmin—in this; yathā—as; dehe—in the body; kaumāram—childhood; yauvanam—youth; jarā—old age; tathā—similarly; deha-antara—another body; prāptiḥ—achieves; dhīraḥ—the wise; tatra—thereupon; na muhyati—are not deluded

 Just as the embodied atma continuously passes from childhood to youth to old age, similarly, at the time of death, atma passes into another body. The wise are not deluded by this.

The definition of Jeeva:

Atma that contains mind, body and senses is called Jeeva: 

Jeeva: can be understood to have made up of the following.

Jeeva: = the self + the mind + chitabhasam

Chit means consciousness. Atma is of the nature of consciousness. Aabasam means similar to.

Chitabhasam means abasa of chit. Reflection of consciousness. Hence chitabhasam is called the reflected consciousness. Due to the relationship with the self, the mind borrows the consciousness aspect and acquires the quality of knowing. During death, the mind, along with the chitabhasam leaves the body. The mind coupled with the chitabhasam is called the soul. (Again, soul is not a proper translation here. But still this word comes real close to the tamil word uyir. Also in western theology and even in some of the eastern philosophies the soul is considered immortal and upon death it is believed either to reach heaven or hell based on its actions during its lifetime in the physical body. According to advaita vedanta soul is different from atma and it is not immortal. Though at a fundamental level of discussion it is agreed that the soul reaches either heaven or hell after death, vedanta will emphatically reject the existence of heaven or hell in the course of its teaching about the true nature of the self.) Atma is all pervading. Hence it need not move anywhere. Chitabhasam is the one which gives the feeling of existence and awareness to both the mind and the body. 

The wise are not deluded

Baghvan here mentions the three transformations that the physical body undergoes. Each transformation is different from one another. The physical modifications such as growing up and acquiring strength and vitality to become a youth from childhood or weakening of limbs and losing the ability to perform one’s daytoday functions at old age do not affect the self. It is not agreeable to argue that the person who was a child is not the same as the person who is now a youth or who will eventually be an old person. If that is the case, the person will not be able to identify himself with his childhood or youth and remember things that happened to him in the past. In every single experience of one’s life, atma is the only thing that is present as eternal substance.

The self is unaffected when an old body is dropped and a new body is acquired in the same way it was unaffected during the transformations of childhood, youth and old age in the same body. Here Baghvan states that the physical body is acquired through past karmas and when the karmas are exhausted the body drops and the jeeva takes on a new body based on his fructified karmas. A man cannot remember the first three years of his life. In the same manner, jeeva in his new body will not be able to remember his past life. Which serves well for us, because if we have the ability to remember our past lives, then we would have to hold a grudge on many people who harmed us in our past lives. Acquisition of a new physical body presents the jeeva with a fresh start. If he had not made use of his human body and achieved what could be the highest achievement by the body, he could try to do the same with a new body in his next birth. The highest achievement that a jeeva in a human body can accomplish is attaining self realization.

Atma is eternal. The jnani knows that the transformation of the physical body or the cessation of it will not affect atma that is beyond time and hence he is not deluded. The value that we should learn from this verse is that the self is eternal and the physical body is perishable. If we identify the I sense with the atma, we will not be deluded.