21. veda 'vinansinam mtyam
ya enam ajam avyayam
katham sa purusah partha
kam ghatayati hanti kam
(21) He who knows that it is indestructible and eternal, uncreate and unchanging, how can such a person slay any one, O Partha (Arjuna), or cause any one to slay? When we know the self to be invulnerable, how can anyone slay it ?
22. vasamsi jirnam yatha vihaya
nav grhnati naro 'parani
tatha sariram vihaya jirnany
anyãni samyati navam dehi
(22) Just as a person casts off worn-out garments and puts on others that are new, even so does the embodied soul cast off worn-out bodies and take on others that are new.The eternal does not move from place to place but the embodied soul moves from one abode to another. It takes birth each time and gathers to itself a mind, life and body formed out of the materials of nature according to its past evolution and its need for the future. The psychic being is the jirnany which supports the triple manifestation of body (anna), life (prana) and mind (manias). When the gross physical body falls away, the vital and mental sheaths still remain as the vehicle of the soul. Rebirth is a law of nature. There is an objective connection between the various forms of life. Cp. Katha Up., I, 6. "Like corn a mortal ripens and like corn is he born again."Embodiments seem to be essential for the soul. Is it then right to kill the body? The world of concrete existence has a meaning.
23. nai 'nam chindanti sastram
nai 'nam dahati vakah
na cai 'nam kledayanty apo
na stosayati marutah
(23) Weapons do not cleave this self, fire does not burn him; waters do not make him wet; nor does the wind make him dry. See also Moksadharma, 174. 17.
24. acchedyo 'yam acintyo 'yam
avikaryo 'yam ucyate
tasmad evam viditvai nam
na nusocitum arhasi
(24) He is uncleavable, He cannot be burnt. He can be neither wetted nor dried. He is eternal, all-pervading, unchanging and immovable. He is the same for ever.
