निषेकगर्भजन्मानि बाल्यकौमारयौवनम् ।
वयोमध्यं जरा मृत्युरित्यवस्थास्तनोर्नव ॥
एता मनोरथमयीर्हान्यस्योच्चावचास्तनू: ।
गुणसङ्गादुपादत्ते क्वचित् कश्चिज्जहाति च ॥
niṣeka-garbha-janmāni bālya-kaumāra-yauvanam |
vayo-madhyaṁ jarā mṛtyur ity avasthās tanor nava ||
etā manoratha-mayīr hānyasyoccāvacās tanūḥ |
guṇa-saṅgād upādatte kvacit kaścij jahāti ca ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.22.47–48)
“Impregnation, gestation, birth, childhood [up to five years], boyhood [up to sixteen years], youth [up to forty-five years], middle age [up to sixty years], old age, and death are the nine states of the body. Sometimes someone [i.e., a jīva] takes on these greater and lesser manifestations of another [i.e., of a material body], which are made of desire, as a result of attachment to the guṇas, and [sometimes someone] gives [them] up [as a result of Śrī Bhagavān’s grace].”
Commentary
Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartīpāda comments that the states of the material body being “made of desire” (manoratha-mayīḥ) means that they are undergone because of the mind’s contemplation [on particular material objects] brought out by [the jīva’s] karma (karma-prāpita-mano-dhyāna-prāptāḥ). He further comments that “as a result of attachment to the guṇas” (guṇa-saṅgāt) means because of ignorance (avidyā-hetukāt). Further, that someone gives up these states, that is, becomes liberated from them, means that someone is favored by Śrī Bhagavān (kaścid Bhagavad-anugṛhīto jahāti ca).