Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2, Verse 22

वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि | तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णान्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ||

vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya navāni gṛhṇāti naro 'parāṇi tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny anyāni saṁyāti navāni dehī

Just as a person casts off worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, so too the soul casts off worn-out bodies and enters new ones.

Krishna offers his most memorable teaching: just as you discard worn clothes (jīrṇāni vāsāṁsi) without grief, the soul (dehī) sheds old bodies and enters new ones. The metaphor is precise—you have a body, you're not the body. This makes death less terrifying for Arjuna: he's not annihilating his relatives, just their current form before they take another. The word dehī (embodied one) captures this: the soul inhabits bodies like you wear clothes. Whether you accept literal reincarnation or not, the practical insight remains: identify with the wearer, not what's worn.