वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि ।तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा- न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ॥
vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya navāni gṛhṇāti naro’parāṇitathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇā- nyanyāni saṁyāti navāni dehī
The embodied soul casts away old and takes up new bodies as a man changes worn-out raiment for new.
Compiled rendering · Anilbaran Roy
AI translation
His translation
KRISHNA Thou grievest for whom thou shouldst not grieve and yet speakest wise-seeming words, but the wise grieve not whether for the dead or for the living. It is not that I was not before, nor thou nor these lords of the folk, nor yet that we all shall not be again hereafter. Even as the embodied spirit passes in this body to boyhood and youth and age, so also it passes away from this body to another; the strong man suffers not his soul to be clouded by this. But the things of material touch, O son of Coonty, which bring cold and warmth, pleasure and pain, they come and they pass; transient are they, these seek to abandon, O Bharata. The man whom these vex not, O lion of men, who is strong and receiveth sorrow & bliss as one, that man is ready for immortality. For that which is not, there is no coming into being and for that which is, there is no ceasing to be; yea of both of these the lookers into truth have seen an end. But That in which all this universe is extended, know to be imperishable; none hath force to bring to nought the One who decays not neither passes away. Finite and transient are these bodies called of the eternal, imperishable and immeasurable embodied Spirit; arise therefore and fight, O seed of Bharat. Who knoweth the Spirit as slayer and who deemeth Him to be slain, both of these discern not: He slayeth not neither is He slain. “He is not born nor dieth ever, nor having once been shall He not be again; He is unborn for ever and perpetual, He is the Ancient One who is not slain with the slaying of the body.” He who knoweth Him to be imperishable, eternal, unborn and undecaying, whom doth that man, O Partha, slay or cause to be slain? As a man casteth from him his worn out robes and taketh to him other & new raiment, so the embodied Spirit casteth away its worn out bodies and goeth to other & new casings. Him the sword cleaveth not, Him the fire cannot burn, Him water wetteth not and the hot wind withereth not away; indivisible, unconsumable, unmergible, unwitherable is He. He is for ever & everywhere, constant and moveth not, He is the One Sempiternal Being. If thou knowest Him as such, thou hast no cause to grieve.
Essays on the Gita
There is no such thing as death, for it is the body that dies and the body is not the man. That which really is, cannot go out of existence, though it may change the forms through which2·16–25 it appears, just as that which is non-existent cannot come into being. The soul is and cannot cease to be. This opposition of is and is not, this balance of being and becoming which is the mind’s view of existence, finds its end in the realisation of the soul as the one imperishable self by whom all this universe has been extended. Finite bodies have an end, but that which possesses and uses the body, is infinite, illimitable, eternal, indestructible. It casts away old and takes up new bodies as a man changes worn-out raiment for new; and what is there in this to grieve at and recoil and shrink? This is not born, nor does it die, nor is it a thing that comes into being once and passing away will never come into being again. It is unborn, ancient, sempiternal; it is not slain with the slaying of the body. Who can slay the immortal spirit? Weapons cannot cleave it, nor the fire burn, nor do the waters drench it, nor the wind dry. Eternally stable, immobile, all-pervading, it is for ever and for ever. Not manifested like the body, but greater than all manifestation, not to be analysed by the thought, but greater than all mind, not capable of change and modification like the life and its organs and their objects, but beyond the changes of mind and life and body, it is yet the Reality which all these strive to figure.
The Life Divine
Such a supramental being would, as we have seen, liberate the mind from the knot of its divided existence and use the individualisation of mind as merely a useful subordinate action of the all-embracing Supermind; and he would liberate the life also from the knot of its divided existence and use the individualisation of life as merely a useful subordinate action of the one Conscious-Force fulfilling its being and joy in a diversified unity. Is there any reason why he should not also liberate the bodily existence from the present law of death, division and mutual devouring and use individualisation of body as merely a useful subordinate term of the one divine Conscious-Existence made serviceable for the joy of the Infinite in the finite? or why this spirit should not be free in a sovereign occupation of form, consciously immortal even in the changing of his robe of Matter, possessed of his self-delight in a world subjected to the law of unity and love and beauty? And if man be the inhabitant of terrestrial existence through whom that transformation of the mental into the supramental can at last be operated, is it not possible that he may develop, as well as a divine mind and a divine life, also a divine body? or, if the phrase seem to be too startling to our present limited conceptions of human potentiality, may he not in his development of his true being and its light and joy and power arrive at a divine use of mind and life and body by which the descent of Spirit into form shall be at once humanly and divinely justified?
Other writings
What is this talk of slayer and of slain?
Swords are not sharp to slay nor floods assuage
This flaming soul. Mortality and pain
Are mere conventions of a mightier stage.
As when a hero by his doom pursued
Falls like a pillar of the huge world uptorn
Shaking the hearts of men and awe-imbued,
Silent the audience sits or weeps forlorn,
Meanwhile behind the stage the actor sighs
Deep-lunged relief, puts off what he has been
And talks with friends that waited or from the flies
Watches the quiet of the closing scene,
Even so the unwounded spirits of the slain
Beyond our vision passing live again.
Death wanders through our lives at will, sweet Death
Is busy with each intake of our breath.
Why do you fear her? Lo, her laughing face
All rosy with the light of jocund grace!
A kind and lovely maiden culling flowers
In a sweet garden fresh with vernal showers,
This is the thing you fear, young portress bright
Who opens to our souls the worlds of light.
Is it because the twisted stem must feel
Pain when the tenderest hands its glory steal?
Is it because the flowerless stalk droops dull
And ghastly now that was so beautiful?
Or is it the opening portal’s horrid jar
That shakes you, feeble souls of courage bare?
Death is but changing of our robes to wait
In wedding garments at the Eternal’s gate.
The Gita says that man is not a bundle of outward cares and griefs, of things that do not last. Man is a garment which is put off from time to time, but there is within us something which is omniscient and eternal and cannot be drowned.
Writings in Bengali
vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya navāni gṛhṇāti naro’parāṇi
tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇānyanyāni saṁyāti navāni dehī (22)
আমাদের পুলিস বন্ধুগণ রটনা করিয়াছেন যে, আবার নির্ব্বাসনরূপ ব্রহ্মাস্ত্র নিক্ষিপ্ত হইবে, এইবার নয়জন নহে, চব্বিশ জনকে মোটরকারে, রেলে, “Guide” জাহাজে গবর্ণমেণ্টের খরচে নানাপ্রদেশ ও বিবিধ জেল ঘুরিয়া আসিবার জন্য প্রস্থান করিতে হইবে। পুলিসের এই তালিকায় শ্রীযুক্ত অরবিন্দ ঘোষ নাকি প্রথম নম্বর পাইয়াছেন। আমরা কখন বুঝিতে পারি নাই, নির্ব্বাসন এমনকি ভয়ঙ্কর জিনিস যে লোকে নির্ব্বাসন নাম শুনিয়া ভয়ে জড়সড় হইয়া দেশের কার্য্য, কর্ত্তব্য, মনুষ্যত্ব পরিত্যাগ পূর্ব্বক কম্পিত কলেবরে ঘরের কোণে মুখ ঢাকিয়া বসিয়া পড়ে। চিদাম্বরম প্রভৃতি কর্ম্মবীর বয়কট প্রচার দোষে যে কঠিন দণ্ড হাসিমুখে শিরোধার্য্য করিয়াছেন, তাহার তুলনায় এই দণ্ড অতি লঘু, অতি অকিঞ্চিৎকর। বাহিরে পরিশ্রম করিতেছিলাম, নানা দুশ্চিন্তার মধ্যে দেশসেবা করিবার চেষ্টা করিতেছিলাম, না হয় ভগবান লর্ড মিণ্টো বা মরলীকে যন্ত্র করিয়া বলিলেন, যাও, নিশ্চিন্ত হইয়া বসিয়া থাক, নির্জ্জনে আমার চিন্তা কর, ধ্যান কর, পুস্তক পড়, পুস্তক লিখ, জ্ঞান সঞ্চয় কর, জ্ঞান বিস্তার কর। জনতায় থাকার রস আস্বাদন করিতেছিলে, নির্জ্জনতার রস আস্বাদন কর। এই এমন কি ভয়ানক কথা যে ভয়ে কাতর হইতে হয়? কয়েকদিন প্রিয়জনের মুখ দেখিতে পারিব না, – বিলাতে বেড়াইতে গেলে তাহা হয়, অথচ লোকে বিলাতে বেড়াইতে যায়। ধরুন, অখাদ্য খাইয়া, গ্রীষ্ম ও শীতে কষ্ট পাইয়া শরীর ভাঙ্গিয়া যাইবে। বাড়ীতে বসিয়াও রোগের হাত হইতে নিস্তার নাই, বাড়ীতেও অসুখ হয়, মরণ হয়, অদৃষ্ট-লিখিত আয়ুক্রম কেহ অন্যথা করিতে পারে না। আর হিন্দুর পক্ষে মরণে ভীষণতা নাই। দেহ গেল, পুরাণো বস্ত্র গেল, আত্মা মরে না। সহস্রবার জন্মিয়াছি, সহস্রবার জন্মগ্রহণ করিব। ভারতের স্বাধীনতা না হয় স্থাপন করিতে পারিলাম না, ভারতের স্বাধীনতা ভোগ করিতে আসিব, কেহ আমাকে বারণ করিতে পারিবে না। এত ভয় কিসের? সস্তায় ইতিহাসে অমর নাম লিখাইলাম, স্বর্গের পথ উন্মুক্ত, অথচ কষ্ট নাই, অথবা সামান্য শরীরক্লেশে মুক্তি ও ভুক্তি পাইলাম। এই ত কথা? ট্রান্সভালের কুলীদের মহৎভাব এবং ভারতের শিক্ষিত লোকের এই জঘন্য কাতর-ভাব দেখিয়া লজ্জিত হইতে হয়।
বাসাংসি জীর্ণানি যথা বিহায় নবানি গৃহ্ণাতি নরোঽপরাণি।
তথা শরীরাণি বিহায় জীর্ণান্যন্যানি সংযাতি নবানি দেহী॥২২॥
The Arya — text not in the CWSA
* Gita II. 1–38.
Evening talks
Of course, there are other than external pressures—for example, a psychic pressure—which may demand withdrawal from the body. But there too we must be free. Nothing should compel us. And we must be able to leave the body as we may leave a piece of clothing.
