Devanagari
शरीरं यदवाप्नोति यच्चाप्युत्क्रामतीश्वर: ।
गृहीत्वैतानि संयाति वायुर्गन्धानिवाशयात् ॥ ८ ॥
Verse text
śarīraṁ yad avāpnoti
yac cāpy utkrāmatīśvaraḥ
gṛhītvaitāni saṁyāti
vāyur gandhān ivāśayāt
Synonyms
śarīram
—
the body
;
yat
—
as
;
avāpnoti
—
gets
;
yat
—
as
;
ca api
—
also
;
utkrāmati
—
gives up
;
īśvaraḥ
—
the lord of the body
;
gṛhītvā
—
taking
;
etāni
—
all these
;
saṁyāti
—
goes away
;
vāyuḥ
—
the air
;
gandhān
—
smells
;
iva
—
like
;
āśayāt
—
from their source.
Translation
The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another, as the air carries aromas. Thus he takes one kind of body and again quits it to take another.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
8. Whenever the jīva accepts or leaves a body, he takes these senses with him in the subtle body, just as air takes fragrances from objects and goes elsewhere.
Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)
8. Whenever the jīva accepts or leaves a body, he takes these senses with him in the subtle body, just as air takes fragrances from objects and goes elsewhere.
Purport
Here the living entity is described as īśvara, the controller of his own body. If he likes, he can change his body to a higher grade, and if he likes he can move to a lower class. Minute independence is there. The change his body undergoes depends upon him. At the time of death, the consciousness he has created will carry him on to the next type of body. If he has made his consciousness like that of a cat or dog, he is sure to change to a cat’s or dog’s body. And if he has fixed his consciousness on godly qualities, he will change into the form of a demigod. And if he is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he will be transferred to Kṛṣṇaloka in the spiritual world and will associate with Kṛṣṇa. It is a false claim that after the annihilation of this body everything is finished. The individual soul is transmigrating from one body to another, and his present body and present activities are the background of his next body. One gets a different body according to karma, and he has to quit this body in due course. It is stated here that the subtle body, which carries the conception of the next body, develops another body in the next life. This process of transmigrating from one body to another and struggling while in the body is called karṣati, or struggle for existence.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
In dragging around the senses, what does the jīva do? When the jīva, the master of his senses (īśvaraḥ), accepts a body and leaves the body, he goes away, taking these senses along with the subtle body. This is like the wind taking the fragrances with its subtle elements from the receptacles of fragrance (āśayāt), such as garlands or sandalwood, and going elsewhere.
Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)
The previous verse mentioned that the jīva situated in the material world is carrying the senses. This verse elaborates this point.
Whenever (yad) the jīva enters another body, giving up the previous one, and whenever he leaves the body he has attained, the master of the senses and body (īśvaraḥ), the jīva, takes those senses along with the subtle body, wandering from body to body, just as the wind, taking fragrance from the flower bud (āśayāt), travels elsewhere.
Surrender Unto Me
This is such a nice example. The air has nothing to do with the aroma, but when it passes over a fragrant garden, the air smells so nice and when it passes over the garbage pit where the stools and pigs are, the air smells terrible. But that good or bad smells are not the quality of the air, that is the quality of that which it is in contact with. Similarly as the soul, according to what his mind contacts (the modes of mat nature) creates its attachments. And whatever the mind is attached to, it carries the soul to his next situation. The soul has nothing to do with the particular situation, maybe a fragrant mood of goodness, maybe stincky mode of passion, but the soul has nothing to do with that. The mind is the m that has attracted the different situations. All depends on the mind and that is what will be explained in the next verse.