Mahabharata 6.26.22 — Bhishma Parva, Adhyaya 26, Shloka 22
कर्मयोग–ज्ञानयज्ञ–अवतारोपदेश
Karma-Yoga, Jñāna-Yajña, and Avatāra Instruction
सम्बन्ध-- यहाँ यह शंका होती है कि आत्माका जो एक शरीरसे सम्बन्ध छूटकर दूसरे शरीरसे सम्बन्ध होता है
vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya navāni gṛhṇāti naro 'parāṇi | tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny anyāni saṁyāti navāni dehī ||
മനുഷ്യൻ ജീർണ്ണമായ വസ്ത്രങ്ങൾ ഉപേക്ഷിച്ച് പുതിയത് ധരിക്കുന്നതുപോലെ, ദേഹി (ജീവാത്മാവ്) പഴയ ശരീരങ്ങൾ വിട്ട് മറ്റുപുതിയ ശരീരങ്ങൾ പ്രാപിക്കുന്നു।
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The self (dehī) is not destroyed when the body perishes; it merely leaves an old body and takes a new one, like changing clothes. Hence sorrow centered on bodily loss is ethically and philosophically misguided.
In the midst of the Kurukṣetra crisis, the teaching addresses the fear and grief tied to death. The speaker uses a simple everyday analogy—changing garments—to reframe death as a transition of embodiment rather than the end of the self, supporting steadiness in one’s duty.
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