Srimad Bhagavatam — Ekadasha Skandha, Shloka 39
Sāṅkhya Enumeration of Tattvas, Distinction of Puruṣa–Prakṛti, and the Mechanics of Birth and Death
विषयाभिनिवेशेन नात्मानं यत् स्मरेत् पुन: । जन्तोर्वै कस्यचिद्धेतोर्मृत्युरत्यन्तविस्मृति: ॥ ३९ ॥
viṣayābhiniveśena nātmānaṁ yat smaret punaḥ jantor vai kasyacid dhetor mṛtyur atyanta-vismṛtiḥ
Durch das Versenktsein in Sinnesobjekte erinnert das Lebewesen seine frühere Identität nicht mehr. Dieses völlige Vergessen der vorherigen körperlichen Identität, aus welchem Grund auch immer, nennt man „Tod“.
Depending on one’s karma, or fruitive activities, one may achieve a beautiful, wealthy or powerful body or be degraded to an abominable condition of life. Taking birth in heaven or in hell, the living entity learns to completely identify his ego with the new body and thus becomes absorbed in the pleasure, fear, opulence or suffering of the new body, completely forgetting the experiences of the previous body. Death occurs when the specific karma allotted to a physical body is finished. Since that particular body’s karma is used up, it can no longer act upon one’s mind; in that way one forgets the previous body. The new body is created by nature so that one can experience the karma currently in effect. Consequently one’s entire consciousness becomes absorbed in one’s current body in order that one can fully experience the results of his previous activities. Because the living entity falsely identifies himself as the body, bodily death is experienced as death of the soul. Actually, however, the soul is eternal and is never subject to creation or annihilation. This analytic knowledge of self-realization is easily understood in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
FAQs
This verse says that deep absorption in sense-objects makes one forget the self (ātmā), and that death is described here as the state of complete forgetfulness arising from such absorption.
In the Uddhava-gītā, Kṛṣṇa instructs Uddhava on liberation: He explains how material attachment covers self-knowledge and how the remedy is to turn awareness back to the soul and the Supreme.
Reduce compulsive sense-driven habits, practice daily remembrance (japa, śravaṇa, kīrtana), and regularly reflect on the difference between temporary experiences and the enduring self.