Gita 08.06 – Our emotional disposition becomes our physical position
yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ
tyajaty ante kalevaram
taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya
sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ
(BG 08.06)
Word-for-Word
yam yam — whatever; vā api — at all; smaran — remembering; bhāvam — nature; tyajati — gives up; ante — at the end; kalevaram — this body; tam tam — similar; eva — certainly; eti — gets; kaunteya — O son of Kuntī; sadā — always; tat — that; bhāva — state of being; bhāvitaḥ — remembering.
Translation
Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail.
Explanation
Whatever bhāva we remember—whatever nature or disposition occupies our consciousness—is significant. The word bhāva appears three times, and the first two occurrences simply refer to “nature.” Bhāvitaḥ means “to become” or “to attain that nature.”
In essence, whatever is our inner emotional disposition eventually becomes our external position. Position here means that we take our place in a corresponding physical body. This is part of the Lord’s merciful arrangement.
While living in this world, we choose activities according to our psychophysical nature, and everything we do shapes our disposition. Our actions don’t just affect the external world; they also create impressions within our inner world. From a long-term perspective, these inner impressions can be far more consequential than the outward results of our actions.
For example, when we repeatedly indulge in selfish, self-centred sensual gratification, we create impressions that bind us to the body and condition our sense of enjoyment. Even if the pleasure gained is small, the very experience of it leaves an imprint on the mind. That imprint forms an attraction to the particular sense object that provided even that little pleasure, and thus we become drawn toward it.
Similarly, whenever we indulge in sensual enjoyment, we become attracted not only to the sense object but to the entire process of sense gratification. Sense gratification requires both the senses and their objects.
Once we develop a certain conception of enjoyment, our consciousness naturally becomes drawn to the arrangements that facilitate that kind of enjoyment—namely, the appropriate sense objects and the corresponding senses.
Thus, according to the desires we cultivate, the indulgences we repeatedly engage in, and the impressions formed by those enjoyments, our next body is shaped. The body provides the senses through which we experience sense objects. Krishna elaborates on this in the fifteenth chapter of the Gītā (15.9):
śrotraṁ cakṣuḥ sparśanaṁ ca
rasanaṁ ghrāṇam eva ca
adhiṣṭhāya manaś cāyaṁ
viṣayān upasevate
Here Krishna lists the five senses:
– śrotram — ears
– cakṣuḥ — eyes
– sparśanam — sense of touch (skin)
– rasanam — tongue
– ghrāṇam — nose
All of these function adhiṣṭhāya manaḥ—centered upon, and operating through, the mind. They are grouped around the mind just as fingers are grouped around the palm. In the embryo’s development within the womb, an initial limb-bud appears first, and from that bud, the fingers gradually form. Similarly, the senses develop outward from the subtle mind.
In the same way, depending on the state of mind we cultivate now, we are simultaneously cultivating the type of body we will receive in our next life. Krishna explains further:
śarīraṁ yad avāpnoti
yac cāpy utkrāmatīśvaraḥ
gṛhītvaitāni saṁyāti
vāyur gandhān ivāśayāt
Just as air carries fragrance, the soul leaves one body and carries the subtle senses and impressions into the next. This subtle process of transmigration operates according to our inner disposition.
Ultimately, bhakti determines whether we receive an eternal spiritual body and attain Krishna’s abode. Yet even this depends on the principle of bhāva-bhāvitaḥ—that whatever mental disposition we cultivate becomes our eventual physical situation. Thus, if we nurture desires for material sense gratification, material nature arranges an appropriate body through which those desires can be experienced.
For example, if a person cultivates a strong desire to eat flesh, that desire begins shaping their future embodiment. In the human body we have a limited facility for this—our canine teeth exist, but they are not suited for tearing flesh from a carcass, let alone catching and ripping apart a live animal. If such desires intensify, our consciousness gravitates toward a body that fully facilitates them—one equipped with the appropriate senses and biological systems to enjoy the objects we crave. In this way, desires drive embodiment, and embodiment perpetuates our movement through the cycle of birth and death.
This verse therefore illustrates a general principle that culminates in the well-known teaching: if we remember Krishna, we attain Krishna. It is not an exception to the rule but the highest expression of it. Just as remembrance shapes our next material life, remembrance of Krishna—when cultivated with devotion—determines our eternal spiritual destiny.
Thank you.
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