Bhagavad Gita 15.8

[Paramananda das]

Text 8

sariram yad avapnoti yac capy utkramatishvarah grhitvaitani samyati vayur gandhan ivasayat

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.

Commentary by Srila Prabhupada

Here the living entity is described as ishvara, 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 Krishna consciousness, he will be transferred to Krishnaloka in the spiritual world and will associate with Krishna. 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 karshati, or struggle for existence.

Commentary by Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur

In dragging around the senses, what does the jiva do? When the jiva, the master of his senses (isvarah), 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 (asayat), such as garlands or sandalwood, and going elsewhere.

Sridhara Swami's Commentary Now the science of transmigration of the atma or immortal soul from jiva to jiva or embodied being is explained. When the postive and  negative karma or reactions to actions that one has performed has been  calculated and tabulated along with the types of food one has eaten throughout  their life a jiva obtains birth in an appropriate womb and acquires a new  body taking along with it in a subtle body the mind and the senses from the  previous body. This can be understood by the analogy Lord Krishna gives of a  breeze transporting to another location the fragrances of the flowers it has  come into contact with. So the subtle body of the jivacontaining the  mind and the senses transports itself from body to body.

Brahma Vaisnava Sampradaya: Madhvacarya Madhvacarya's Commentary When a jiva or embodied being due to the mercy of the Vaisnava  spiritual master, attains the auspiciousness of bhakti or exclusive  loving devotion unto the Supreme Lord Krishna at that time the Supreme Lord  Himself as paramatma the Supreme Soul inconceivably resides  simultaneously within the etheric heart of every jiva or embodied being  commences to direct the actions of that blessed disciple of His servitor, the  Vaisnava spiritual master, who guides and instructs through his words and  actions. Although the Supreme Lord is continuously entering and departing each  and every womb along with every jiva and atma, he does not desire  any recompense for this. In the Moksa Dharma known also as the Mahabharata it is  stated: Even though the jiva witnesses the temporal emotions, merits and  demerits and knows what is ultimately beneficial it is powerless to oppose them.  Even though moving hither and thither to the four corners of the planet,  enjoying here and suffering there, all actions are actually energised by the  Supreme Lord. Even when conquering and winning if one considers themselves a  great personality, factually they are only performing as ordained by the Supreme  Lord. Even as a vehicle controlled by someone moves a passenger from one  location to another. In the same manner the jivatransmigrates from one  body to another controlled by the potency of the Supreme Lord.

Sri Vaisnava Sampradaya: Ramanuja Ramanuja's Commentary Whatever body a jiva or embodied being is subjected to reside in and  whatever body they depart from; the atmaor immortal soul is  automatically accompanied by the five senses and the mind. Lord Krishna explains  this process as similar to a breeze which picks up the scents of flowers  carrying them through through the air from one location to another.

Kumara Vaisnava Sampradaya: Nimbaditya Kesava Kasmiri's Commentary When and how the mind and senses accompany the jiva or embodied being  in the process of transmigration from one body at the time of death to another  at the time of conception is clarified by Lord Krishna. The purport is that  wherever the jiva departs from a body and whenever it is compeled to  accept another body the atma or immortal soul migrating from one body to  another, arrives with the subtle forms of the mind and senses in tact to perform  their functions through the physical body which has been allotted due to karmaor reactions to previous actions. The Supreme Lord clarifies this  with the analogy of the wind carrying the scents of flowers to various  locations.

COMMENT:I like to add  Srimad Bhagavatam 3.31.1

sri-bhagavan uvaca

karmana daiva-netrena

jantur dehopapattaye

striyah pravista udaram

pumso retah-kanasrayah

SYNONYMS

sri-bhagavan uvaca -- the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; karmana -- by the result of work; daiva-netrena -- under the supervision of the Lord; jantuh -- the living entity; deha -- a body; upapattaye -- for obtaining; striyah -- of a woman; pravistah -- enters; udaram -- the womb; pumsah -- of a man; retah -- of semen; kana -- a particle; asrayah -- dwelling in.

TRANSLATION

The Personality of Godhead said: Under the supervision of the Supreme Lord and according to the result of his work, the living entity, the soul, is made to enter into the womb of a woman through the particle of male semen to assume a particular type of body.

PURPORT

As stated in the last chapter, after suffering different kinds of hellish conditions, a man comes again to the human form of body. The same topic is continued in this chapter. In order to give a particular type of human form to a person who has already suffered hellish life, the soul is transferred to the semen of a man who is just suitable to become his father. During sexual intercourse, the soul is transferred through the semen of the father into the mother's womb in order to produce a particular type of body. This process is applicable to all embodied living entities, but it is especially mentioned for the man who was transferred to the Andha-tamisra hell. After suffering there, when he who has had many types of hellish bodies, like those of dogs and hogs, is to come again to the human form, he is given the chance to take his birth in the same type of body from which he degraded himself to hell.

Everything is done by the supervision of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Material nature supplies the body, but it does so under the direction of the Supersoul. It is said in Bhagavad-gita that a living entity is wandering in this material world on a chariot made by material nature. The Supreme Lord, as Supersoul, is always present with the individual soul. He directs material nature to supply a particular type of body to the individual soul according to the result of his work, and the material nature supplies it. Here one word, retah-kanasrayah, is very significant because it indicates that it is not the semen of the man that creates life within the womb of a woman; rather, the living entity, the soul, takes shelter in a particle of semen and is then pushed into the womb of a woman. Then the body develops. There is no possibility of creating a living entity without the presence of the soul simply by sexual intercourse. The materialistic theory that there is no soul and that a child is born simply by material combination of the sperm and ovum is not very feasible. It is unacceptable.

These chapters of the 3th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam like 3. chapters 28.29,30 and 31 are essential reading