Vedic Q&AAnswered according to Bhaktivedanta Siddhānta
What happens to the soul at the moment of death according to the Bhagavad Gita?
✨Vedic Scholar Answer
Verified against Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā As It IsIn Bhagavad-gītā (BG 2.13 and BG 2.20), Lord Kṛṣṇa reveals the fundamental truth of immortality: the soul (ātmā) is never born and never dies. It is primeval, eternal, and indestructible. Just as the embodied soul continuously passes from boyhood to youth to old age, it similarly passes into another body at death; a sober person is not bewildered by such a change.
In BG 2.22, death is compared to changing old, worn-out garments for new clothes. In BG 8.6, Kṛṣṇa explains the exact scientific law of transmigration: whatever state of consciousness one remembers at the moment of leaving the body, that very state one will attain without fail in their next life. Therefore, by always remembering Kṛṣṇa (BG 8.7), one attains His eternal spiritual abode and transcends the cycle of rebirth entirely.
Canonical Verse Citations (3)
BG 2.13Read Full Verse & Purport →
“As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.”
BG 2.20Read Full Verse & Purport →
“For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.”
BG 2.22Read Full Verse & Purport →
“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.”
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