Mantra Seventeen
87
remember;  kṛtam —all that has been done by me;  smara —please remember;  krato —the Supreme Beneficiary;  smara —please remember;  kṛtam —all that I have done for You;  smara —please remember.
TRANSLATION
Let this temporary body be burnt into ashes, and let the air of life be merged with the totality of air. Now, O my Lord, please remember all my sacrifices, and because You are the ultimate Beneficiary, please remember all that I have done for You.
PURPORT
This temporary material body is certainly a foreign dress. In the  Bhagavad-gītā  it is clearly said that after the destruction of the material body, the living entity is not annihilated, nor does he lose his identity. The identity of the living entity is never, therefore, impersonal or without form; but on the contrary, it is the material dress which is formless, and which takes a shape according to the form of the indestructible person. No living entity is originally formless, as is wrongly supposed by persons with a poor fund of knowledge. Here also in  Mantra  Seventeen of  Śrī Īśopaniṣad , the principle is supported that the living entity exists after the annihilation of the material body.
In the material world there is wonderful workmanship by material Nature in the matter of creating different varieties of bodies for the living beings, in terms of their propensities for sense gratification. The one who wanted to taste stool is given a material body which is quite suitable for eating stool—that of a hog. Similarly, the tiger has such a body that it can live by enjoying the blood of other animals, and by eating their flesh.
The human being is not meant for eating stool or flesh, because the shape of the teeth is different. Nor does he have any desire to taste stool, even in the most aboriginal state of life. Human teeth are so made that they can chew and cut fruit and vegetables, with two canine teeth so that one can eat flesh also.