Text 41] The Advent of Lord Kṛṣṇa: Introduction
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TEXT 41
स्वप्ने यथा पश्यति देहमीदृशं 
    मनोरथेनाभिनिविष्टचेतनः । 
    दृष्टश्रुताभ्यां मनसानुचिन्तयन् 
    प्रपद्यते तत् किमपि ह्यपस्मृतिः ॥४१॥
svapne yathā paśyati deham īdṛśam 
    manorathenābhiniviṣṭa-cetanaḥ 
    dṛṣṭa-śrutābhyām manasānucintayan 
    prapadyate tat kim api hy apasmṛtiḥ
svapne —in a dream;  yathā —as;  paśyati —one sees;  deham —the kind of body;  īdṛśam —similarly;  manorathena —by mental speculation;  abhiniviṣṭa —is fully absorbed;  cetanaḥ —he whose consciousness;  dṛṣṭa —by whatever has been experienced by seeing with the eyes;  śrutābhyām —and by hearing a description of something else;  manasā —by the mind;  anucintayan —thinking, feeling and willing;  prapadyate —surrenders;  tat —to that situation;  kim api —what to speak of;  hi —indeed;  apasmṛtiḥ —experiencing forgetfulness of the present body.
TRANSLATION
Having experienced a situation by seeing or hearing about it, one contemplates and speculates about that situation, and thus one surrenders to it, not considering his present body. Similarly, by mental adjustments one dreams at night of living under different circumstances, in different bodies, and forgets his actual position. Under this same process, one gives up his present body and accepts another [tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ].
PURPORT
Transmigration of the soul is very clearly explained in this verse. One sometimes forgets his present body and thinks of his childhood body, a body of the past, and of how one was playing, jumping, talking and so on. When the material body is no long workable, it becomes dust: “For dust