Bhagavad Gita 6.43

tatra taṁ buddhi-saṁyogaṁ

labhate paurva-dehikam

yatate ca tato bhūyaḥ

saṁsiddhau kuru-nandana

 

“There he regains the wisdom past,

From former lives that held it fast.

Then strives again with renewed determination,

To reach and relish the ultimate perfection.”

 

My dear Lord, what exactly is carried over from one life to another that enables a soul to continue its spiritual journey? Generally, it is not conscious, articulated knowledge. When the turbulent transition of the soul happens from one body to another through death, the transmigratory journey and the subsequent birth, almost all of what we normally call memory is lost.

But what remains, my Lord, is a subconscious, embodied attraction for the spiritual. This attraction doesn’t usually manifest right from birth—although that is possible in exceptional cases.  

The dormant spiritual attraction is usually awakened by some spiritual stimulus in the current life. That stimulus, my Lord, may come in many forms: the sight, sound, fragrance and so forth of something spiritual. For some, the awakening happens early in life—a small child may demonstrate an extraordinary interest and delight in spiritual songs and music. For others, the stimulus may come later in life. Despite such differences, a wonderful common feature, my Lord, is that though the stimulus may be extremely small, yet the resulting attraction to the spiritual is often disproportionately high—delightfully high.

O Lord, let me cherish every spiritual stimulus as your mercy, knowing that through them all, you are constantly and mercifully awakening me to my real and eternal life with you.

***

06.43 On taking such a birth, he revives the divine consciousness of his previous life, and he again tries to make further progress in order to achieve complete success, O son of Kuru.