Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 15, Verse 8: Krishna to Arjuna — Puruṣottama-Yoga
When the soul takes on a new body or leaves an old one, it carries the mind and five senses along with it, the way wind lifts a fragrance from the place where it rests.
Bhāṣyakāra purports
- Śaṅkaraadvaita
The jiva (living self), who is the lord (ishvara) of the body-aggregate, carries the mind and the five senses when it departs from one body and enters another — just as wind carries subtle scent-particles from their source. Shankara reads the second half of the verse first by logical necessity: the dragging-away (karshati) precedes the arrival in a new body, so departure is primary, then arrival. The jiva is not truly independent; it moves under the force of karma, dragging these six (mind-as-sixth plus the five senses) not by sovereign choice but as apparent actor within the phenomenal order.
divergence: Shankara: 'yadaa cha poorvasmaac chhareeraat shareeraaantaram avaapnoti tadaa griheetvaa etaani manah-shashthaani indriyaani samyaati' — the second half of the shloka is logically prior by arthavasha (force of meaning).
- Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita
The jiva, who is the true lord (ishvara) of the senses, gathers both the senses and the subtle elements (bhuuta-suukshmah) of the body it is leaving and travels to its new embodiment — as wind picks up fragrance together with its subtle material particles from a garland or camphor and carries them elsewhere. For Ramanuja the jiva's relation to the senses and subtle matter is a real, substantial connection: these are the jiva's own body-as-mode (sharira), and the jiva as the indwelling self of Bhagavan carries them under His ultimate governance.
divergence: Ramanuja: 'etaani indriyaani bhuuta-suukshmaaih saha griheetvaa samyaati' — bhuuta-sukshma (subtle elements) are explicitly added, absent in Shankara's reading, reflecting Ramanuja's insistence on the reality of matter as Brahman's body.
- Madhvadvaita
Though the verse uses the word karshati (draws along), implying the jiva acts, Madhva immediately corrects this impression: it is Ishvara Himself who gathers and moves the senses — not the jiva by its own will. The jiva goes where the Creator (dhaataa) places it in the womb; it does not go where it itself wishes. Madhva cites Moksha-dharma and Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 4.3.35 as corroborating shruti: the self departs borne by the prajna-atman (the supreme Self), not under its own locomotion.
divergence: Madhva: 'yad yadaa shareeram avaapnoti utkraamati ca jeevas tad eeshvara evaataani griheetvaa samyaati' — the jiva's apparent agency is directly negated; Ishvara is the real mover, proven by three independent textual witnesses (Moksha-dharma verses, Brhadaranyaka, Chandogya 6.8.6).
- Vallabhaśuddhādvaita
The jiva, as lord of the senses, gathers the senses along with the subtle elements (bhuuta-sukshma) and moves on — exactly as wind carries fragrance from the resting-place of musk or garlands with their subtle material. Vallabha directly ties this verse to the Brahma-sutra sequence on departure and re-entry (2.3.1: utkraanti-gatya gateenaam), indicating that the movement of the jiva is addressed systematically in shruti and that the verse elaborates what those sutras establish about the soul's journey within Krishna's lila.
divergence: Vallabha: 'etad eva prapanchitam utkraanti-gatya gateenaam svaatmanaa cottarayoh (Brahmasutra 2.3.1) iti sutreshu' — the verse is explicitly indexed to the Brahmasutra discussion, grounding the lila-movement within canonical Vedantic authority.
- Śrīdharabhakti
When the jiva — who is the lord (ishvara) of the body and senses — obtains a new body by the force of karma or departs from its present body, it carries the previously described senses from that old body to the new one. Sridhara offers the wind-fragrance image carefully: wind takes the subtle portions (suukshmaan amshaah) of scent from the flower's location and carries them elsewhere — so too the jiva takes subtle sense-traces, not gross sense-organs. The metaphor clarifies mode of transport: invisible, subtle, yet real.
divergence: Sridhara: 'aashayaat svaasthaanaat kusumaaeh sakaasheet gandhaan gandhavatah suukshmaan amshaangriheevaa yathaa vaayur gacchati tadvat' — the gloss 'suukshmaan amshaah' (subtle portions) specifies the metaphor's doctrinal payload.
- Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti
Madhusudana clarifies when (kasmin kaale) the karshati of the previous verse occurs: at the very moment the jiva departs from a body it is already drawing along the six (mind-as-sixth plus five senses), and when it then arrives in a new body it carries them in fully — both movements are covered. He further specifies 'samyaati' as going in a way from which there is no return to the prior state (punar-aagama-raahitya), hinting at the soteriological edge: even this natural migratory act shadows the deeper question of final release. The simile — wind carrying subtle scent-particles from the flower's seat — is identical in structure to Sridhara and Ramanuja but given temporal precision.
divergence: Madhusudana: 'utkraamanaa-uttara-bhaavitvaad gamanasya' and 'samyaaty api samyak punar-aagama-raahityena' — the two-stage reading (departure-phase then arrival-phase) and the implication of irreversibility are his distinctive contributions.