One has to move on to the next body – until one fully attains the Divine.

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verse 22

 

vāsānsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya 

navāni gṛhṇāti naro’parāṇi 

tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny 

anyāni sanyāti navāni dehī

 

The embodied soul casts away old bodies and takes up new bodies, as a  

man changes worn-out clothes for new.

 

Here Lord Krishna says, “When one’s clothes get old, one changes them for new ones. Like that, when your body becomes old – but you still have karma to work out, and you are not yet fully realised – you will take another body. You will come back again into this material field to continue to advance, until the full Realisation awakens.” But then, one will ask, “What is the full Realisation?” Is it the Realisation of the Atma or of the mind? It is the Atmanivedam: the Atma Itself surrenders to the Supreme. Krishna refers to the body as old worn-out clothes. The body will go through the same cycle of birth, life, and death, again, again and again. This kind of suffering is because you are trapped in the game of Maya. But, you are meant for something greater.

 

When the body gets old and it is time to take a new body, it is like when a mother changes the clothes of her child and the child cries. I have seen this with my niece. She cries crazily when her clothes are dirty; but afterwards, when she has new diapers, she is relaxed. Isn’t it like this? A baby will cry when he has dirty diapers, but when the mother changes them, the baby is again happily quiet. When the body gets old, when you have finished with the changes, this means that you are advancing towards a new body, which will be even better! This is preparing you for a better life in the next body, where you will be free from certain dirt and be fine.

 

The mother stays indifferent through the cries of her child because the mother is concentrating on the welfare of the child. Even so, God, for the good of the Atma, for the good of the Jiva, cares little for the tears of the body, because He knows what is best for each person. That is what Christ also means when He says that when one asks the Father for something, will the Father deny it? The Father will give, but according to what is needed to be given. Death can be very terrible sometimes for someone and one will ask, “Oh my goodness! Why this and that?” But the Eternal Father knows that when life has come to an end, when the game of life in this body is finished, one has to move on to the next body – until one fully attains the Divine.

Bhagavad Gita