Bhagavad Gita · Chapter 2: The Path of Understanding
Bhagavad Gita 2.22
वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय
नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि ।
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा-
न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ॥
vāsāṃsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya navāni gṛhṇāti naro'parāṇi | tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇā- nyanyāni saṃyāti navāni dehī ||
As a person casts off worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, so the embodied self casts off worn-out bodies and enters new ones.
Modern context
The most famous image in the Gita is also the most ordinary: changing clothes. No one mourns a worn-out garment or confuses it with the wearer. The image makes death an event in the life of the self, not the end of it, and gives the body its due as something to be used well and laid down without horror.