Text 1311
Contents of the City Summarized
80
dehinaḥ —of the embodied;  asmin —in this;  yathā —as;  dehe —in the body;  kaumāram —boyhood;  yauvanam —youth;  jarā —old age;  tathā —similarly;  dehāntara —transference of the body;  prāptiḥ —achievement;  dhīraḥ —the sober;  tatra —thereupon;  na —never;  muḥvati —deluded.
TRANSLATION
As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.
PURPORT
Since every living entity is an individual soul, each is changing his body every moment, manifesting sometimes as a child, sometimes as a youth, and sometimes as an old man. Yet the same spirit soul is there and does not undergo any change. This individual soul finally changes the body at death and transmigrates to another body; and since it is sure to have another body in the next birth—either material or spiritual—there was no cause for lamentation by Arjuna on account of death, neither for Bhīṣma nor for Droṇa, for whom he was so much concerned. Rather, he should rejoice for their changing bodies from old to new ones, thereby rejuvenating their energy. Such changes of body account for varieties of enjoyment or suffering, according to one's work in life. So Bhīṣma and Droṇa, being noble souls, were surely going to have either spiritual bodies in the next life, or at least life in heavenly bodies for superior enjoyment of material existence. So, in either case, there was no cause of lamentation.
Any man who has perfect knowledge of the constitution of the individual soul, the Supersoul, and nature—both material and spiritual—is called a  dhīra  or a most sober man. Such a man is never deluded by the change of bodies. The Māyāvādī theory of oneness of the spirit soul cannot be entertained on the ground that spirit soul cannot be cut into pieces as a fragmental portion. Such cutting into different individual souls would make the Supreme cleavable or changeable, against the principle of the Supreme Soul being unchangeable.
As confirmed in the  Gūtā , the fragmental portions of the Supreme exist eternally ( sanātana ) and are called  kṣara ; that is, they have a tendency to fall down into material nature. These fragmental portions are eternally so,