| 13. Just as in
this body the embodied (Self) passes into childhood and youth and old age,
so does He pass into another body. There the wise man is not distressed.
We see how the embodied Self passes unchanged in the present body into the
three stages (avasthas) of childhood, youth or the middle age, and old age
or the age of decay, all distinct from one another. At the close of the
first of these stages the Self is not dead, nor is He born again at the
commencement of the second ; on the other hand, we see the Self passing
unchanged into the second and, third stages. Just so does the Self pass
unchanged into another body. Such being the case. the wise man is not troubled
(in mind) about it. Endurance is a condition of wisdom.Now Arjuna might
argue as follows: It is true that when one knows the Self to be eternal
there is no room for the distressful delusion that the Self will die. But
quite common among people, as we see, is the distressful delusion that the
Self is subject to heat and cold, pleasure and pain, as also to grief due
to the loss of pleasure or to the suffering of pain.as against the foregoing,
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