Decoding Bhagavad Gita

Although what happens to SOUL during death is described in the Gita, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad explains it very nicely when Sage Yagnavalkya says,

"Now when that SELF having sunk into weakness, sinks, as if, into unconsicousness, then gather the senses around him and he taking with him the element of Light descends into the heart When that person in the eye turns away , then he ceases to know any forms. "He has become one," they say, "he does not see ." "He has become one," they say, "he does not smell." "He has become one," they say, "he does not taste." "He has become one," they say, "he does not speak." "He has become one," they say, "he does not hear." "He has become one," they say, "he does not think." "He has become one," they say, "he does not touch." "He has become one," they say, "he does not know." The point of his heart becomes lighted up, and by that light the Self departs, either through the eye, or through the skull, or through other places of the body. And when he thus departs, life (the chief prâna) departs after him, and when life thus departs, all the other vital spirits departs after it".


So, in short, the spirit moves along with the senses and moves out of the body at the time of death and when spirit moves out, so does the breath and so life.

Krishna says, "Like the wind carries scents from flowers, the Jivatma (SOUL) carries mind and the senses while leaving the body and migrates to the body which it acquires" (Chap 15- verse 8)


After DEATH:

In the GITA, chapter 2, Krishna explains this in the following verse:

"As a man shedding worn-out garments, takes other new ones, likewise the embodies soul, casting off worn-out bodies, enters into others which are new." (Chap 2- verse 22)


"Just as boyhood, youth and old age are attributed to the soul through this body, even so it attains another body. The wise men do not get deluded about this." (Chap 2 - verse 13)



In fact, because SOUL moves from one body to another and life goes on, Krishna says

"There was never a time when I was not, or when you or these kings were not present. Nor is it a fact that hereafter we shall all cease to be." (Chap 2 - verse 12)

"Wise men do not sorrow over the dead or the living." (Chap 2 - verse 11