Sanskrit
शरीरं यदवाप्नोति यच्चाप्युत्क्रामतीश्वरः । गृहित्वैतानि संयाति वायुर्गन्धानिवाशयात् ॥
śarīraṃ yad avāpnoti yac cāpy utkrāmatīśvaraḥ gṛhitvaitāni saṃyāti vāyur gandhān ivāśayāt
Translation
When the Lord acquireth a body and when He abandoneth it, He seizeth these and goeth with them, as the wind takes fragrances from their retreats.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Continuing the psychology of the transmigrating self, this verse gives the mechanics: when the “Lord” — here the embodied jiva as owner of its own faculties, not Krishna in the third person — takes up or drops a body, it carries mind and senses along the way wind carries scent away from its source. The simile does double duty: it explains why personality and disposition seem continuous across a single life, since the senses travel with the self, while also implying the same portability applies at death, which chapter 8’s teaching on the dying thought (8.5-6) will make explicit.