Answered from scripture
How does Hinduism view death and the soul?
In short
Hinduism sees death as a change of form, not an ending. The Bhagavad Gita (2.20) teaches that the soul is unborn and eternal — never slain when the body is slain. Death releases the deathless self from one body, as a person sets down worn clothes; what you truly are is never destroyed.
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The verse
“na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin”
Bhagavad Gita 2.20 · Chapter 2, Sankhya YogaThe soul is never born and never dies; eternal and ageless, it is not slain when the body is slain.
Spoken by Krishna to the warrior Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra — the Gita sits within the Mahabharata's Bhishma Parva — as Arjuna, overcome with grief and unwilling to fight his own kin, laid down his bow before the war.
In depth
In the Gita's vision, the atman (self) is beginningless and endless. Bodies come and go; the self that inhabits them does not. Death is therefore a transition, not an annihilation — which is why Hindu tradition can hold grief and hope together.
This shapes how many approach dying and mourning: with sorrow for the parting, but without the terror of erasure. The Upanishads add that this same self is one with the infinite (Brahman) — so what is essential in a being is never lost, only unclothed of a passing form.
Related questions
What happens to the soul after death in Hinduism?
The Gita teaches the soul is eternal and simply leaves one body — likened to changing worn clothes. It is never destroyed by death.
Which verse describes the soul as eternal?
Bhagavad Gita 2.20 — the self is unborn, undying, and is not slain when the body is slain.
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