The scriptures say saints are free from death. How can this be, since their bodies do perish?

Chapter 43 addresses this apparent contradiction by explaining that for a saint, the physical body is merely an adjunct or a temporary vessel. The text uses the analogy of a solar eclipse: observers on Earth may say the sun has been eclipsed, but this is merely a defect of their vision, as the sun itself is unchanged. Similarly, the death of a saint's body is just an illusion from a worldly perspective. For the saint, who is one with the Supreme Brahman and free from bodily impulses, there is no real birth or death. Their essential self remains untouched, just like the sun during an eclipse.