64 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 10, Ch. 1

dehantaram anuprapya
praktanam tyajate vapuh

dehe—when the body; paricatvam dpanne—turns into five elements;
dehi—the proprietor of the body, the living being; karma-anugah—
following the reactions of his own fruitive activities; avasah—spon-
taneously, automatically; deha-antaram—another body (made of ma-
terial elements); anuprdpya—receiving as a result; praktanam—the
former; tyajate—gives up; vapuh—body.

TRANSLATION

When the present body turns to dust and is again reduced to five
elements—earth, water, fire, air and ether—the proprietor of the
body, the living being, automatically receives another body of ma-
terial elements according to his fruitive activities. When the next
body is obtained, he gives up the present body.

PURPORT

This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita, which presents the beginning of
spiritual understanding.

dehino ’smin yatha dehe
kaumaram yauvanam jara

tatha dehantara-praptir
dhiras tatra na muhyati

“*As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to
youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The
self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.” (Bg. 2.13) A per-
son or an animal is not the material body; rather, the material body is the
covering of the living being. Bhagavad-gita compares the body to a dress
and elaborately explains how one changes dresses one after another. The
same Vedic knowledge is confirmed here. The living being, the soul, is
constantly changing bodies one after another. Even in the present life,
the body changes from childhood to boyhood, from boyhood to youth,
and from youth to old age; similarly, when the body is too old to con-
tinue, the living being gives up this body and, by the laws of nature,
