śhrotraṁ chakṣhuḥ sparśhanaṁ cha rasanaṁ ghrāṇam eva cha
adhiṣhṭhāya manaśh chāyaṁ viṣhayān upasevate
śhrotram — ears;
chakṣhuḥ — eyes;
sparśhanam — the sense of touch;
cha — and;
rasanam — tongue;
ghrāṇam — nose;
eva — also;
cha — and;
adhiṣhṭhāya — grouped around;
manaḥ — mind;
cha — also;
ayam — they;
viṣhayān — sense objects;
upasevate — savors
This verse explains how the kind of body a person receives in their next life is influenced by their current thoughts and experiences. Imagine that our true self, which is pure and clear like water, can change when we mix it with different colors. When a person spends time thinking and behaving like an animal, like a dog or a cat, their consciousness gets affected by those experiences. So, in their next life, they might be reborn as an animal.
Think of it like this: If someone only pays attention to physical pleasures and material things, their mind gets used to those things. When they die, their mind takes those habits and thoughts into their new life. This means that if they have acted with a lot of selfishness or lived life focused only on their desires, they might end up in a less advanced body. This could be the body of a cat, dog, or even less favorable creatures like pigs, or they could come back as a human again, depending on their accumulated thoughts and actions.
On the flip side, if someone focuses on higher, purer thoughts and lives with awareness of higher consciousness, like devotion to God (in this case, Krishna), they create a link to a better existence. This connection, which we refer to as Krishna consciousness, keeps the soul aligned with its pure nature. The more a person strives to maintain this pure consciousness, the better their next life will be.
The idea is that our current life choices and how we think and feel determine what type of life we will lead next. If we cloud our genuine consciousness with negative thoughts and worldly attachments, we will likely take on a body that reflects that – potentially one far less developed than a human form. There are many forms in the cycle of life, and they are not limited just to humans. Depending on our actions and mental state throughout our life, we could find ourselves in one of 8,400,000 different forms of life. Thus, it's important to reflect on our actions and thoughts regularly.