Gita 2-13
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मूलम्
देहिनोऽस्मिन् यथा देहे कौमरं यौवनं जरा |
तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुह्यति ||२-१३||
Meaning
शब्दार्थाः (Word for word)
देहिनः -- of the embodied self; अस्मिन् -- in this; यथा -- just as; देहे -- in the body; कौमारम् -- childhood; यौवनम् -- youth; जरा -- old age; तथा -- similarly, so too; देहान्तर-प्राप्तिः -- obtainment of another body; धीरः -- steadfast person (here, used in the sense of wise person); तत्र -- there; न -- not; मुह्यति -- deluded;
अन्वयः (Word order)
देहिनः यथा अस्मिन् देहे कौमारं यौवनं जरा तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिः । तत्र धीरः न मुह्यति ।
अनुवादः (Translation)
Just as for the embodied self in this body (there is) childhood, youth and old age, so too is the obtainment of another body. A wise person is not deluded in this.
Notes
Bhagavad Ramanuja says that just as a person does not grieve thinking that the self is lost on maturing from childhood to youth etc, so too one should not grieve at the passing away of a body under the delusion that the self is lost.
Swami Ramsukhdasji says that through all these stages one passes through the feeling of "I am" does not change even while everything else changes. He says that if one notices this clearly, one understands that this is proof that we really have no relationship with the body. Till we implicitly or explicitly assumes a relationship with the body, we will keep looking for the next body to continue this relationship. This, according to him, is the reason for transmigration.
Practice Notes
The triad of verses 2.11-2.13 are about understanding the truth of the difference between the changing body and the eternal self. The present verse seemed to me to be the one that nearest to everyday experience. Mulling about this verse and thinking of the elderly people around me as experiencing a stage that "I" will pass through brings out a very strange feeling in me. The seemingly banal questions --Who is this "I" who passes through all these stages? Is there even such an "I"? -- become far more visceral.
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