Bhagavad Gita 2.22

vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya

navāni gṛhṇāti naro ’parāṇi

tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny

anyāni saṁyāti navāni dehī

 

“As a person discards garments old,

And takes up new ones, fresh to behold,

So does the soul, its old body leave,

A new form ready to receive.”

 

My dear Lord, let me never pamper my body by seeking comforts that remove every small bodily inconvenience. Such pampering will become an obsession—both endless and fruitless—because the situations of the world will inevitably bring some bodily inconvenience that I need to learn to tolerate.

While I know I cannot afford to be obsessed with my body’s comforts, I also pray that I do not become careless about its needs. I am not my body, yet by your mercy, I live through it. Please help me remember that I need to take care of it as long as I have it, just as I need to stitch torn clothes as long as they are the only clothes I have. Just as a stitch in time can save nine, similarly, with your guidance, may I take timely care of this body to prevent many long-term health problems.

Bless me, O Lord, so that I can have a balanced view of this body. It is certainly not a source of pleasure for me, but neither does it have to become an object of torture through unnecessary deprivation. Let me see it as a tool for your service and care for it sufficiently so that it can help me do my service, yet never care for it so excessively that it distracts me from my service to you—who alone will be with me long after this body has fallen by the wayside.

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02.22 As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.