Sanskrit
देहिनोऽस्मिन्यथा देहे कौमारं यौवनं जरा । तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुह्यति ॥
dehino'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṃ yauvanaṃ jarā tathā dehāntaraprāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati
Translation
As the dweller in the body experienceth in the body childhood, youth, old age, so passeth he on to another body; the steadfast one grieveth not thereat.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The analogy that anchors the whole argument in something Arjuna already accepts without difficulty: nobody grieves that the child they were has “died” to become the adult they are now. Krishna’s move is to extend that same acceptance to the transition between bodies at death — if passing from childhood to old age within one body doesn’t unsettle a steady mind, why should passing from one body to the next?
Concepts