FolioCorpusBhagavad-gītā

Bhagavad-gītā 15.8

శరీరం యదవాప్‍నోతి యచ్చ‍ాప్యుత్క్రామతీశ్వర: । గృహీత్వైతాని సంయాతి వాయుర్గన్ధానివాశయాత్ ॥ ౮ ॥
śarīraṁ yad avāpnoti
[shareeram yad avaapnoti]
yac cāpy utkrāmatīśvaraḥ
[yach chaapy utkraamateeshvarah]
gṛhītvaitāni saṁyāti
[griheetvaitaani samyaati]
vāyur gandhān ivāśayāt
[vaayur gandhaan ivaashayaat]
Word-for-word
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 .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
śarīraṁ yad avāpnoti
śarīram
the body
yat
as
avāpnoti
gets
yac cāpy utkrāmatīśvaraḥ
yat
as
ca api
also
utkrāmati
gives up
īśvaraḥ
the lord of the body
gṛhītvaitāni saṁyāti
gṛhītvā
taking
etāni
all these
saṁyāti
goes away
vāyur gandhān ivāśayāt
vāyuḥ
the air
gandhān
smells
iva
like
āśayāt
from their source .
Important Words
  • śarīram — the body
    From śṝ — 'that which deteriorates.' The very noun for body confesses its perishability. Each new śarīram entered is already, etymologically, on its way out.
  • īśvaraḥ — the lord of the body
    A startling word for the conditioned soul. Within its tiny domain — this body — the jīva is the īśvara, the controller. But the controller does not control where it goes next; it only carries fragrances forward. The verse names the soul a lord in the very breath that strips the lordship bare.
  • vāyuḥ — the air
    The carrier of subtle traces — the upamāna of the verse. As vāyu moves invisibly while delivering very specific fragrances, so the soul transmigrates without being seen, depositing in its new home the precise scents it picked up in the old.
  • gandhān — smells
    Plural and specific. Not one perfume but many — the soul carries a layered scent-profile of accumulated saṁskāras. What you cultivate today becomes a top-note in tomorrow's body.
  • āśayāt — from their source
    Āśaya — also 'mental disposition, inner deposit.' The word does double duty: vāyu picks up gandha from the *source* (the sandal tree), and the soul picks up gandha from its own *interior* (its accumulated mind-state). The grammar invites you to find the next body inside your current disposition.
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.
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.

— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
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.
Commentary

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.

Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa Gauḍīya
Translation
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.
Commentary

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.

Bhūrijana Dāsa Gauḍīya
Commentary

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.

Study Notes — Gauranga Priya Dāsa
Gauranga Priya Dāsa Study
Bhakti-śāstrī Notes, ISKCON Chowpatty (2009)
Theme

Process of transmigration – The Living entity acquires a material mind and carries different

conceptions of life from one body to the next

Analogy: As the air carries aromas LINK BETWEEN TEXTS 15.8 & 15.9: The quality of the mind, as explained in the following verse, attracts its next gross body, like a magnet attracts an iron nail.
Classical Ācāryas
Śrī Śaṅkarācārya Classical
Translation
15.8 Yat, when; isvarah, the master of the aggregate of the body etc., the individual soul; utkramati, leaves the body, then he draws. Thus, the second arter of the verse is treated first for the sake of consistency. [When the soul leaves the body, then it draws the organs (see previous verses) from that body. In this way, the second arter of the present verse is treated first, because going to another body follows the leaving of the earlier one.-M.S.] Ca api, and even; yat, when; it avapnoti, assumes a body other than the earlier one; then, grahitva, taking; etani, these, the organs with the mind as their sixth; samyati, he leaves, goes away totally [Samyak, totally-without returning in any way to the earlier body.-M.S.] Like what? In reply the Lord says: iva, as; vayuh, the wind (carries away); gandhan, odours; asayat, from their receptacles-flowers etc. Which, again, are those (organs)?
Śrī Rāmānujācārya Classical
Translation
15.8 Whatever body It acires, and from whatever body It departs, the lord of the senses, i.e., the self, goes on Its way taking with It the senses with the subtle elements, just like the wind carrying scents from place to place. Just as the wind takes away scents with subtle parts from flower-garlands, sandal, musk and the rest from their places and moves elsewhere - so does the self. What are these senses? Sri Krsna explains:
Śrī Abhinavagupta Classical
Translation
15.8 Sariram etc. Attains to : seizes. Goes up : abandones along with them. Just as the wind, going everywhere reaches an abode of rest made of earth and carrying away thence an odour enters just with that into another place, in the same way does the individual Soul together with the octad of cities. So far the association of the individual Soul with them ( the sense organs etc.) at both the stages of creation and of withdrawal has been described. Now it is being decided that It acts only in association with them even at the stage of existence which consists of acts like standing, sitting, contemplating etc. and which is a stage of receiving objects-
Swami Sivananda Classical
Translation
15.8 When the Lord (as the individual soul) obtains a body and when He leaves it, He takes these and goes (with them) as the wind takes the scents from their seats (flowers, etc.).
Commentary

15.8 शरीरम् a body? यत् when? अवाप्नोति obtains? यत् when? च and? अपि also? उत्क्रामति leaves? ईश्वरः the Lord? गृहीत्वा taking? एतानि these? संयाति goes? वायुः the wind? गन्धान् the scents? इव as? आशयात् from (their) seats (the flowers).Commentary Here is a description of how the subtle body leaves the gross body.When the Jiva? the Lord of the aggregate of the body and the rest takes up this body he brings in with him the mind and the senses when he leavs the body at its dissolution he takes with him the senses and the mind? just as the wind carries with it the fragrance from the flowers. Wherever he goes and whatever form he assumes he again operates through these senses and the mind.Lord Jiva? the Lord of the aggregate of the body and the rest.The Self appears to be an agent or an enjoyer only when he possesses or assumes a body.

Swami Gambhīrānanda Classical
Translation
15.8 When the master leaves it and even when he assumes a body, he departs taking these, as wind (carries away) odours from their receptacles.
Shri Purohit Swami Classical
Translation
15.8 When the Supreme Lord enters a body or leaves it, He gathers these senses together and travels on with them, as the wind gathers perfume while passing through the flowers.
Related values & verses
Related values
Tyaga (Renunciation / Letting Go)Daksya (Resourcefulness / Skill)Abhaya (Fearlessness)
Related verses
BG 2.13 BG 2.22 BG 8.6 SB 3.31.1 SB 4.29.1a SB 10.1.39 CC Madhya 22.24 CC Madhya 20.118 CC Madhya 19.138 Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.3Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.5
Study Q&A referencing this verse
Sciences essays referencing this verse
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
When the soul leaves a body and takes another, he carries his conceptions and senses — as the wind carries fragrance from one place to another.
Practical Applications
  • Recognize that you carry your conceptions across bodies.
  • Cultivate conceptions worth carrying.
  • Don't accumulate conceptions you'd rather not transport.
Reflection Questions
  • What conceptions am I cultivating that I'd want carried forward?
  • What conceptions am I cultivating that I'd hate to carry?
Analogy

Wind passing through a sandalwood forest carries the fragrance miles away, depositing it in a stranger's nostrils far from the tree. The body is the forest, just one stand of sandal among many; the wind is the soul at the moment of leaving. The fragrances it carries — desires, conceptions, devotional impressions — are loaded into the next forest it enters, scenting the new body before the new body even knows it.

Stories
King Bharata's deer-fragrance

When Bharata Mahārāja died with his thoughts saturated by the orphan fawn, the 'fragrance' he carried was the conception of a deer — and the next body opened to receive that scent was that of a deer.

The Bhāgavatam (5.8) tells the story precisely to illustrate this verse: at the moment of leaving, whatever conception is dominant becomes the vāyu's cargo, and the next śarīra is selected to match it. He had not committed a single sinful act — only allowed a single attachment to scent him through.

Kṛṣṇa's metaphor is therefore not theoretical. The Bhāgavatam treats vāyur gandhān ivāśayāt as direct biographical mechanics.

📝 My note

Source: vedabase.io

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