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Chapter 15 · The Yoga of the Supreme Person · 20 verses

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How to study this verse, in six steps
  1. 1Remember who is speaking. Kṛṣṇa is speaking. Take the verse as He directs.
  2. 2Say the verse and its words. Read the Sanskrit, then each word with its meaning.
  3. 3Read the translation as it is. Let the translation say what it says, without adding your own meaning.
  4. 4Read the purport. Hear the verse through the disciplic succession.
  5. 5Bring your own question. Ask: where does this verse meet my life, my trouble, my doubt?
  6. 6Act on it, remembering Kṛṣṇa. Carry one instruction into your work today.
Read the full guide: how to read the Bhagavad-gītā ›
Soul & knowledgeChapter 15 · The Yoga of the Supreme Person
15.715.9

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is · Text 15.8

The jīva as Krishna’s eternal fragmental part

Jīva · The soul

शरीरं यदवाप्‍नोति यच्च‍ाप्युत्क्रामतीश्वर: ।

गृहीत्वैतानि संयाति वायुर्गन्धानिवाशयात् ॥ ८ ॥

śarīraṁ yad avāpnoti

yac cāpy utkrāmatīśvaraḥ

gṛhītvaitāni saṁyāti

vāyur gandhān ivāśayāt

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.

Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.io
1

Understand it

What this verse is saying, and where it sits in the story.

3 study points

Consciousness Shapes the Next Life

  1. 1

    The living entity carries his ideas of life from one body to another, as air carries aromas.

  2. 2

    Prabhupāda explains that the soul continues after death, taking another body according to his developed consciousness and karma.

  3. 3

    Develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness to reach Kṛṣṇaloka in the spiritual world and associate with Kṛṣṇa.

Key points from the purport

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

a

Importance of ‘Isvara’ — Refers to living entity as the controller of the body

Can decide his body – higher grade or lower grade

Indicates the minute independence

Change depends on his consciousness at the time of death

Godly qualities – transfer to demigods

Consciousness like cat and dog – similar bodies

Krishna consciousness – Go to Krsna-loka

b

Refutes the false claim that after annihilation of body everything is finished

Present body and present activities are background of the next body

On the basis of ‘Karma’

‘Subtle body’ carries the conceptions

c

Meaning of ‘Karsati’ — This process of transmigration from one body to another and struggling for existence while in the body

Connected verses · 2

Texts 15.7 & 15.8

This verse hints at the mind’s power to determine the living entity’s future, and the next verse continues that thrust, explaining how, determined by his thoughts, a soul attains his next body.

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.

Further reading

Transmigration

Goal should be to leave material world and return to spiritual world

All living entities are eternally part and parcel of Krishna, yet they struggle from body to body in search of pleasure

Transcendentalists can see this clearly, but the blind materialists cannot see this

Chapter 15, section II: Transmigration
2

Word for word

Learn the Sanskrit words of the verse.

  1. śarīramthe body
  2. yatas
  3. avāpnotigets
  4. yatas
  5. ca apialso
  6. utkrāmatigives up
  7. īśvaraḥthe lord of the body
  8. gṛhītvātaking
3

Key ideas in this verse

The spiritual concepts this verse connects to.

Key ideas: ātmā, jñāna.

4

Live it

Take one thing from this verse into your day.

Ask yourself

What does BG 15.8 establish in Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport, and how does it connect to soul & knowledge?

Practice

Spend five minutes reflecting on what in you does not change.

5

The story behind it

Mahābhārata episodes and stories from the purports that shed light on this verse.

All stories for chapter 15 ›
6

Related verses

Keep going: verses that carry this teaching further.

BG 15.7The living being belongs to KrishnaBG 15.9The jīva as Krishna’s eternal fragmental partBG 2.13The self endures bodily changeBG 4.34The humility of real inquiry
Live this todayThe Consciousness We Carry ForwardOne practice from this verse

Study notes are editorial summaries, not the translation. Confirm them in the original text and purport.

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