Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 2, Verse 22
वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय
नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि।
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा
न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही।।
नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि।
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा
न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही।।
vāsānsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya
navāni gṛhṇāti naro ’parāṇi
tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇānya
nyāni sanyāti navāni dehī
also searched as "Vasansi jirnani yatha vihaya"
Translation
As a man casts off worn-out garments and puts on new ones, so does the embodied self cast off its worn-out bodies and enter into new ones.
Vāṇi's rendering
As you drop worn-out clothes and put on new, the self drops worn-out bodies and steps into new ones.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| वासांसिvāsānsi | garments, clothes |
| जीर्णानिjīrṇāni | worn out, old |
| यथाyathā | just as |
| विहायvihāya | having cast off, letting fall |
| नवानिnavāni | new ones |
| गृह्णातिgṛhṇāti | takes up, puts on |
| नरःnaraḥ | a man, a person (sandhi: naro before aparāṇi) |
| अपराणिaparāṇi | others |
| तथाtathā | so too |
| शरीराणिśarīrāṇi | bodies |
| विहायvihāya | having cast off |
| जीर्णानिjīrṇāni | worn out (sandhi: jīrṇāny before anyāni) |
| अन्यानिanyāni | other ones |
| संयातिsanyāti | goes into, enters |
| नवानिnavāni | new |
| देहीdehī | the one who wears a body, the embodied self |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 Verse 22 mean?
It means the body is worn, not owned. Krishna compares dying to changing clothes: the garment ages, thins, is set down, and another is taken up. The dehī — the one who wears the body — is untouched by the change. Ageing is real. Loss of the wearer is not.
What is the meaning of 'vasansi jirnani yatha vihaya'?
Vāsānsi jīrṇāni are worn-out garments; vihāya is the act of letting them fall. Krishna chooses the plainest household image in the Gītā. Nobody performs mourning over an old shirt. He is asking Arjuna to see death with that same steadiness — a change of covering, not the end of the one covered.
Does this verse mean grief for the dead is wrong?
No. Krishna never tells Arjuna the loss is imaginary. Clothes genuinely wear out, and the absence of a face is genuinely felt. What he corrects is the object of the grief. You are mourning a garment as though it were the person. Feel the loss fully — and stop burying the wearer with the cloth.
How can I use Bhagavad Gita 2.22 when someone I love has died?
Sit with the plainness of the image rather than the metaphysics. The body you held was something they wore. It aged as cloth ages. What wore it does not thin, does not tear, cannot be handed back. Let the tears come for the fabric. Do not let them decide what has ended.
Themes in this verse
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Notice that Krishna does not say the clothes don't matter. Worn-out is a real condition — the cloth thinned at the elbow, the body thinned by years. He grants the wearing out. What he denies is that you are the cloth. Arjuna is grieving garments, and grieving them as though they were the men inside. The image is domestic, almost casual: nobody weeps at a wardrobe. That casualness is the teaching. You have changed bodies before without remembering it, the way you changed clothes this morning without ceremony. Grieve the cloth if you must. Do not bury the wearer with it.