“The self is never born and never dies. It did not begin, and it will not end. Unborn, eternal, ancient, it is not destroyed when the body is.”

The self is never born and never dies

This is one of the Gita’s most important teachings, and one of its most comforting.

Lord Krishna is telling Arjuna that who we really are, the ātman (self), is not the body. Bodies are born, grow, age and end. The self does none of these things. It is aja (unborn), nitya (eternal), śāśvata (everlasting), purāṇa (ancient, yet ever new).

A few verses later (2.22), Lord Krishna gives the famous image: just as we take off worn-out clothes and put on new ones, the self leaves a worn-out body and takes on a new one. That is the foundation of the Hindu understanding of rebirth.

The verse is almost word-for-word the same as one in the much older Katha Upanishad, where a boy named Nachiketa asks Death himself what happens after we die. The Gita is drawing on a teaching that was already ancient.

Talking with children about loss: many families find this verse helps. A simple version: “Grandpa’s body was very old and tired, so he left it, like taking off an old coat. But the real Grandpa, the part that loved you, can never be destroyed.” Let children ask questions, and it’s okay to say “I wonder too.”