In plain words
When the Lord of the body takes up a body and when it departs from one, it carries these with it, as the wind carries fragrances from their source.
Word for word
When the master obtains a body, and also when [he] departs, taking these [he] goes, as the wind [takes] fragrances from [their] seat.
शरीरं यदवाप्नोति यच्चाप्युत्क्रामतीश्वरःगृहीत्वैतानि संयाति वायुर्गन्धानिवाऽऽशयात्
Other commentaries
The commentators
▸Bhagavadgītābhāṣyam
कस्मिन् काले ? —
यच्चापि यदा चापि उत्क्रामति ईश्वरः देहादिसङ्घातस्वामी जीवः, तदा ‘कर्षति’ इति श्लोकस्य द्वितीयपादः अर्थवशात् प्राथम्येन सम्बध्यते । यदा च पूर्वस्मात् शरीरात् शरीरान्तरम् अवाप्नोति तदा गृहीत्वा एतानि मनःषष्ठानि इन्द्रियाणि संयाति सम्यक् याति गच्छति । किमिव इति, आह — वायुः पवनः गन्धानिव आशयात् पुष्पादेः ॥ ८ ॥
In plain words
But when does this happen? —
And also — whenever this lord, this owner of the whole body-and-its-parts, this jīva, departs — remember that 'he draws', from the verse before, actually belongs here too, first, by its very sense. And when he takes up another body in place of the old one, he carries these same six, mind and the five senses, with him as he goes, goes on, moves forward. Like what, you might ask? Kṛṣṇa answers: like the wind carrying fragrance away from its source, a flower.
Close to the Sanskrit
At what time? —
And also whatever — and also when the lord, the owner of the body-etc.-aggregate, the jīva, departs, then 'he draws' (karṣati), the second quarter of the verse, by force of meaning, is connected in the first instance [here as well]. And when he obtains another body from the former body, then, having taken these senses with mind as sixth, he goes forth, properly, goes, proceeds. Like what? — thus asked, he says — the wind, the breeze, [carries] scents, as from a receptacle, from a flower etc. || 8 ||