Sankhya Yoga 2.22

Verse 2.22

वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय

नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि |

तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा

न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही || 22||

vāsānsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya

navāni gṛihṇāti naro ’parāṇi

tathā śharīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇānya

nyāni sanyāti navāni dehī

vāsānsi—garments; jīrṇāni—worn-out; yathā—as; vihāya—sheds; navāni—new; gṛihṇāti—accepts; naraḥ—a person; aparāṇi—others; tathā—likewise; śharīrāṇi—bodies; vihāya—casting off; jirṇāni—worn-out; anyāni—other; sanyāti—enters; navāni—new; dehī—the embodied soul

As a person sheds worn-out garments and wears new ones, likewise, at the time of death, the soul casts off its worn-out body and enters a new one.

Krishna gives an example here to establish that atma is nityam. He says as a man throws away his worn out, torn, old clothes and gets new clothes, atma (in this place it is the subtle body, for the subtle body does not die when the physical body dies.) also throws away the old, worn out bodies and assumes a new body. Why do people drop their physical bodies at various ages? Some die of old age, some from sickness, some by accident. Some die even when they are very young and even children die. When Krishna says vasamsi jirnani, the definition of worn-out clothes differs from person to person. A poor man may use his clothes until they are tattered and torn while a king might change his clothes every day. Likewise, the stage at which the dropping of the physical body happens differs from person to person. Shastra gives us an explanation as to why people die at different times in their lives.

Based on Shastra, a living being is born due to its prarabdha karma. There are three kinds of karma. Sanchita karma, prarabdha karma and agami karma. Sanchita karma is the net total of all karmas from all its births for a jeeva. If the jeeva has to acquire a physical body for his subtle body, an amount of papa and punya should have been fructified. This fructified papa and punya that leads a jeeva to acquire a physical body is called the prarabdha karma. A jeeva cannot exhaust all his sanchita karma in one physical body alone. He requires multiple bodies to do the same. Hence he has to drop a physical body once the papa and punya related to it are exhausted and acquires another body through the fructification of another set of papa and karma. While in a physical body a jeeva performs various new karmas. These are called agami karma. Hence once the prarabdha karma is complete, the physical body drops dead, which explains deaths of people at various stages of their lives.

Even though the bodies come and go, atma remains unaffected and continues to be as a witness. Atma does not perform any action including dying. The inert subtle body performs this action with the blessings of atma but it looks as though atma performs the very action. But even when the subtle and physical bodies die, atma does not undergo any change.

The physical body is subject to destruction. It dies one day. Everyday it continues to die. But the dehi, the one who dwells in the body does not die. If one understands this truth he will have no reason to grieve. Asochyan anvasocha:tvam. Krishna’s explanation -you are grieved on things that are not worth grieving - continues.