Gītā basics
What Happens After Death? The Bhagavad-gītā's Answer
According to the Bhagavad-gītā, the soul does not die with the body. At death it moves to a new body, as we change old clothes for new. What we think of at the end, shaped by how we lived, decides the next body; one who remembers Kṛṣṇa goes to Him and is not born again.
Short answer: The Bhagavad-gītā teaches that you are a soul, and the soul never dies BG 2.20. At death the soul leaves the worn-out body and enters a new one, just as a person puts on new clothes BG 2.22. Which body comes next depends on what we remember at the moment of death BG 8.6, and that is shaped by the way we lived. One who remembers Kṛṣṇa at the end goes to Him and does not take birth again BG 8.5, BG 8.15.
First: who is it that dies?
To understand death, we must first know who we are. Kṛṣṇa begins His teaching with this point.
dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.
Look at your own life. Your baby body is gone. Your childhood body is gone. Yet you are still here. The body keeps changing; the person inside does not. Death is one more change of this kind.
Śrīla Prabhupāda explained it with the example of clothes:
"Suppose I change my dress. In my boyhood I was in a different dress. In my youthhood I was in a different dress. In my old age, or as a sannyāsī, I am in a different dress. So dress may change. That does not mean the owner of the dress is dead or gone."
— Śrīla Prabhupāda, lecture on BG 2.13, London, 19 August 1973 (transcript)
How do we know a soul is present? Śrīla Prabhupāda explains it with the example of the sun behind clouds:
"Sometimes we do not find the sun in the sky owing to clouds, or for some other reason, but the light of the sun is always there, and we are convinced that it is therefore daytime."
— Śrīla Prabhupāda, purport to BG 2.20
"Similarly, since there is some consciousness in all bodies—whether man or animal—we can understand the presence of the soul."
— Śrīla Prabhupāda, purport to BG 2.20
The soul is never born and never dies
na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin
nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre
For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.
The body is born, stays for some time, grows, produces by-products such as children, slowly becomes weak and at last vanishes. The soul goes through none of these six changes (purport to BG 2.20). That is why an old person still feels like the same person he was as a child.
What happens at the moment of death?
Kṛṣṇa gives one of the most famous pictures in the Gītā:
vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya
navāni gṛhṇāti naro 'parāṇi
tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny
anyāni saṁyāti navāni dehī
As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.
When a shirt becomes old and torn, we put it aside and wear a new one. The soul does the same with bodies.
In a lecture he added a homely example:
"As our garment, coats and shirts, when they are old, rotten, no more usable, so we throw it away and get a new garment, shirt, coat, similarly, the soul is changing garment from childhood, from babyhood. Just like a baby has got a shoe, but when he gets the child's body, the shoe does not fit; you have to take another shoe."
— Śrīla Prabhupāda, lecture on BG 2.22, London, 26 August 1973 (transcript)
How does the soul "carry" its nature to the next body? Kṛṣṇa compares it to the wind carrying the smell of flowers:
śarīraṁ yad avāpnoti
yac cāpy utkrāmatīśvaraḥ
gṛhītvaitāni saṁyāti
vāyur gandhān ivāśayāt
The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas.
"At the time of death, the consciousness he has created will carry him on to the next type of body."
— Śrīla Prabhupāda, purport to BG 15.8
"It is a false claim that after the annihilation of this body everything is finished."
— Śrīla Prabhupāda, purport to BG 15.8
In a lecture he explained why a new body is needed:
"Therefore we make some plan in this life, and my this material body, this gross body, is finished; that is dead. But my idea, in the subtle body, in the mind, it remains. And because it remains in my mind, therefore to fulfill my desire I have to accept another body. This is the law of transmigration of the soul."
— Śrīla Prabhupāda, lecture on BG 2.20, Hyderabad, 25 November 1972 (transcript)
Why does the soul keep changing bodies at all? Śrīla Prabhupāda explains with a picture from the Upaniṣads: two birds sit on one tree. One bird, the soul, eats the fruits of the tree; the other, the Lord, simply watches as a friend (purport to BG 2.22).
"Although the two birds are in the same tree, the eating bird is fully engrossed with anxiety and moroseness as the enjoyer of the fruits of the tree. But if in some way or other he turns his face to his friend who is the Lord and knows His glories—at once the suffering bird becomes free from all anxieties."
— Kaṭha and Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣads, quoted by Śrīla Prabhupāda in the purport to BG 2.22
What decides the next body?
yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ
tyajaty ante kalevaram
taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya
sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ
Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.
The last thought is not an accident. It is the result of a whole life of thinking and acting. Śrīla Prabhupāda tells the story of King Bharata, a great king who became attached to a pet deer:
"Mahārāja Bharata thought of a deer at the time of death and so was transferred to that form of life."
— Śrīla Prabhupāda, purport to BG 8.6
"Of course the cumulative effect of the thoughts and actions of one's life influences one's thoughts at the moment of death; therefore the actions of this life determine one's future state of being."
— Śrīla Prabhupāda, purport to BG 8.6
The Gītā also explains the general direction, according to the three modes (guṇas) of nature we live in:
ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā
madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ
jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā
adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ
Those situated in the mode of goodness gradually go upward to the higher planets; those in the mode of passion live on the earthly planets; and those in the mode of ignorance go down to the hellish worlds.
| How we live | Where we go next | Verse |
|---|---|---|
| Mode of goodness | Higher, heavenly planets | BG 14.18 |
| Mode of passion | Back to earthly life | BG 14.18 |
| Mode of ignorance | Lower, hellish worlds and lower species | BG 14.18 |
| Worshiping Kṛṣṇa | To Kṛṣṇa Himself | BG 9.25 |
Is heaven the final goal?
No. The Gītā says that even the highest heavenly planet is a place of misery, where birth and death go on again and again. Those who rise there by pious work still have to take birth again.
ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ
punar āvartino ‘rjuna
mām upetya tu kaunteya
punar janma na vidyate
From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kuntī, never takes birth again.
The way out of birth and death
Kṛṣṇa promises a different destination for one who remembers Him:
anta-kāle ca mām eva
smaran muktvā kalevaram
yaḥ prayāti sa mad-bhāvaṁ
yāti nāsty atra saṁśayaḥ
And whoever, at the time of death, quits his body, remembering Me alone, at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.
"Anyone who quits his body in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is at once transferred to the transcendental abode of the Supreme Lord."
— Śrīla Prabhupāda, purport to BG 8.5
But we cannot suddenly remember Kṛṣṇa at the end if we never remembered Him in life. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains how to prepare:
"To remember Kṛṣṇa one should chant the mahāmantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, incessantly, following in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya…"
— Śrīla Prabhupāda, purport to BG 8.5
Those who reach Kṛṣṇa never return to this world of suffering, because they have reached the highest perfection BG 8.15.
When someone we love dies
Knowledge of the soul does not make us cold. It gives us strength. Kṛṣṇa told Arjuna, who was full of grief, that death is certain for one who is born, and birth is certain for one who dies BG 2.27. The person we love has not been destroyed. The soul goes on.
jātasya hi dhruvo mṛtyur
dhruvaṁ janma mṛtasya ca
tasmād aparihārye 'rthe
na tvaṁ śocitum arhasi
For one who has taken his birth, death is certain; and for one who is dead, birth is certain. Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty, you should not lament.
In grief, hearing the Gītā and chanting Kṛṣṇa's names give the heart something solid to hold on to. For more help with grief, see Gita for Life: death and loss.
How to prepare for death, starting today
- Learn who you are. Read Chapter 2 of the Gītā slowly; you are the soul, not the body BG 2.13, BG 2.20.
- Live in goodness. Clean habits, honest work and pure food lift the consciousness BG 14.18.
- Remember Kṛṣṇa daily. Chant His names and hear about Him, so that remembering Him becomes natural BG 8.5.
- Watch what you think about most. That is what you will think about at the end BG 8.6.
- Do not fear death. For the soul it is a change of clothes, not the end BG 2.22.
Frequently asked questions
What happens to the soul after death according to the Gītā?
The soul leaves the body and enters a new body, as a person changes clothes (2.22). The soul itself is never born and never dies (2.20). The next body depends on the consciousness at the time of death (8.6).
Do humans come back as animals?
The Gītā says the living being carries its conception of life from one body to another (15.8). Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that if one has made his consciousness like that of a cat or dog, he is sure to change to such a body (purport to 15.8). King Bharata, who thought of a deer at death, became a deer (purport to 8.6).
Why don't we remember our past lives?
Kṛṣṇa says that remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness come from Him (15.15). Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the living entity forgets everything of his past life, but the Lord in the heart directs him to continue his work (purport to 15.15).
Is going to heaven the goal?
No. All material planets, even the highest, are places of repeated birth and death (8.16). The goal is to reach Kṛṣṇa's abode, from which one does not return (8.15, 8.16).
Where is the soul in the body, and how big is it?
Śrīla Prabhupāda explains, from the Upaniṣads, that the soul is situated in the heart and is one ten-thousandth part of the tip of a hair in size, and that consciousness spread through the body is the sign of its presence (purport to 2.17).
Is it wrong to cry when someone dies?
Feeling sad is natural. Kṛṣṇa answers Arjuna's grief with knowledge, so that grief does not overwhelm him. Since the soul is eternal and death is certain for every body, the wise are not bewildered by this change (2.13, 2.27).
Read next
Verses cited
BG 2.20BG 2.22BG 8.6BG 8.5BG 8.15BG 2.13BG 15.8BG 14.18BG 9.25BG 8.16BG 2.27