vaasaamsi jeernaani yathaa vihaaya navaani grihnaati naroparaani |
tathaa shareeraani vihaaya jeernaanyanyaanisamyaati navaani dehee || 22 ||

Just as an individual will discard old clothes and wears new one, so does the body-dweller discard old bodies and obtain other new bodies.

vaasaamsi : clothes
jeernaani : old
yathaa : just like
vihaaya: discard
navaani : new
grihnaati : wears
naraha :  individual
aparaani: other
tathaa : so does
shareeraani : bodies
vihaaya : discard
jeernaani : old
ayanyaani : other
samyaati : obtains
navaani : new
dehee : body-dweller

This is an oft-quoted shloka, and has several aspects and interpretations, just like many shlokas we have seen in this chapter. For our purposes, the main point here is that the eternal essence, or the body dweller, is separate from the human body. When the human body has outlived its purpose, the body dweller discards it and subsequently inherits a new body.

If we have followed the line of reasoning so far, a doubt emerges. How does the eternal essence, which is all-pervading and infinite, enter and leave human bodies? Shouldn’t there just be one eternal essence, one body dweller? This question will be answered later in subsequent verses. For now, we should still consider the eternal essence as one but know that the one eternal essence gets attached to this body or that body, and perceives itself to be that body out of an error.

Note the change of meter in this verse.