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GĪTĀ, TRANSLATION & COMMENTARY, CHAP. II 877
न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः। अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे ॥ २० ॥
वेदाविनाशिनं नित्यं य एनमजमव्ययम् ।
कथं स पुरुषः पार्थ कं घातयति हन्ति कम् ॥ २१॥ वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि । तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णान्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ॥ २२ ॥
नैनं छिन्दन्ति शस्त्राणि नैनं दहति पावकः।
न चैनं क्लेदयन्त्यापो न शोषयति मारुतः ॥ २३ ॥ principle in terms of the Philosophy of Devotion when He says that He himself has already killed Bhisma, Drona, and the others in His form of Death, and that Arjura should
now become only the nominal implement (nimitta). ] (20) This (Atman) is never born nor does It ever die ; nor is it that It, having (once) existed, will not be again; It is unborn, ever-lasting, immutable, and primeval; and it is not killed, though the Body is killed. (21) O Pārtha ! that man who has Realised that It is indestructible, ever-lasting, unborn, and inexhaustible, how and whom can he cause to be killed, and how and whom can he kill ? (22) Just as a man, casting off old clothes puts on others and new ones, so the dehi, (that is to say, the Atman, which owns the Body), casting off old bodies, becomes united with others and new bodies.
[This simile of clothes is in ordinary use. In another place in the Mahābhārata, the illustration has been given of leaving one house (śālā), and going to another house (San. 15.56); and one American writer has expressed the same idea by giving the illustration of putting on a new cover on a book. The same argument is here applied to the Body, which was applied above in the 13th stanza to the states of infancy, youth, and old age.]
(23) Weapons do not cut It (that is, the Atman); fire does not burn It ; so also does water not moisten It; the wind
