नानुभूतं क्व चानेन देहेनादृष्टमश्रुतम् ।
कदाचिदुपलभ्येत यद्रूपं यादृगात्मनि ॥
तेनास्य तादृशं राजँल्लिङ्गिनो देहसम्भवम् ।
श्रद्धत्स्वाननुभूतोऽर्थो न मन: स्प्रष्टुमर्हति ॥
nānubhūtaṁ kva cānena dehenādṛṣṭam aśrutam |
kadācid upalabhyeta yad rūpaṁ yādṛg ātmani ||
tenāsya tādṛśaṁ rājan liṅgino deha-sambhavam |
śraddhatsvānanubhūto’rtho na manaḥ spraṣṭum arhati ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 4.29.64–65)
“Sometimes a form which is of such nature that it has never been perceived with this body [i.e., perceived with the external senses in the physical environment during one’s present lifetime], and is [otherwise] unseen and unheard of, is perceived in the mind [i.e., it is perceived in a dream, in one’s imagination, or elsewhere]. O King! Because of this, be confident that such [i.e., such an object of perception, which is apparently unprecedented,] is a product of a body of this bearer of the liṅga [i.e., that it is a product of an experience in a prior body borne by the jīva, that is, the ātmā enveloped in a subtle body (liṅga) that transmigrates through a series of gross bodies], since an unperceived object is unable to touch the mind [i.e., no object which has not been previously perceived by the mind can manifest within the mind].”
Commentary
nanu sthūla-deha-nāśe’pi liṅga-deho yan na naśyatīty etat kathaṁ pratīmaḥ? tatrāha—nānubhūtam iti dvābhyām | … tasmād bālye dṛṣṭa-śrutaṁ vastu yathā vārdhakye sphurati, tathaiva pūrva-pūrva-sthūla-deha-gatam etad deha-sthe manasi sphurati cet tad evedaṁ mano nānyad iti jānīyād iti bhāvaḥ |
(Excerpt from the Sārārtha-darśinī-ṭīkā)
“‘Well, how can we perceive the subtle body (liṅga-deha), which is not destroyed even when the gross body is destroyed?’ To this [question], the two verses beginning nānubhūtaṁ … are spoken. … Therefore, if, just as an object seen or heard of in childhood appears [in the mind] in old age, so this [i.e., an object] perceived in previous gross bodies appears in the mind situated in this [i.e., one’s present] body, then know that that indeed is this mind and nothing else [i.e., know that the mind you have now, where you are experiencing objects you perceived in past lives, is the same mind you had in all those past lives]. This is the purport.”