Bhashya
'यत्रास्य पुरुषस्य असम्यग्दर्शिनः शिरःपाण्यादिमतो मृतस्य- वाक् अग्निमध्येति, वातं प्राणोऽप्येति, चक्षुरादित्यमप्येति- इति सर्वत्र संबध्यते; मनः चन्द्रम्, दिशः श्रोत्रम्, पृथिवीं शरीरम्, आकाशमात्मेत्यत्र आत्मा अधिष्ठानं हृदयाकाशमुच्यते; स आकाशमप्येति; ओषधीरपियन्ति लोमानि; वनस्पतीनपियन्ति केशाः; अप्सु लोहितं च रेतश्च- निधीयते इति- पुनरादानलिङ्गम्; सर्वत्र हि वागादिशब्देन देवताः परिगृह्यन्ते; न तु करणान्येवापक्रामन्ति प्राङ्मोक्षात्; तत्र देवताभिरनधिष्ठितानि करणानि न्यस्तदात्राद्युपमानानि, विदेहश्च कर्ता पुरुषः अस्वतन्त्रः किमाश्रितो भवतीति पृच्छ्यते- कायं तदा पुरुषो भवतीति- किमाश्रितः तदा पुरुषो भवतीति; यम् आश्रयमाश्रित्य पुनः कार्यकारणसंघातमुपादत्ते, येन ग्रहातिग्रहलक्षणं बन्धनं प्रयुज्यते तत् किमिति प्रश्नः ।
In plain words
'When this person — someone who has never truly seen, who has a head, hands, and the rest — dies: his speech goes into fire, his breath goes into wind, his eye goes into the sun.' That pattern holds everywhere. 'His mind goes into the moon, his ear into the quarters of space, his body into the earth, his self into space' — here 'self' means the inner seat, the space within the heart; and that, too, dissolves into space. His body-hairs go into the plants, his head-hairs into the trees; his blood and semen are deposited in the waters — and this is exactly the sign that he will take up a body again. Wherever we say 'speech' and the rest, we really mean the deities standing behind them; the organs themselves do not actually leave before liberation comes — they simply lie there, no longer occupied by their deities, like a sickle someone has set down and walked away from. And this bodiless agent, the person, now with no power of his own — what does he depend on then? That is the question: does he depend on the body? What does the person depend on then? On what support does he lean, in order to take up once more this whole combination of cause and effect — the very machinery that sets in motion the bondage of the grasper and the over-grasper? That is exactly what is being asked.
Close to the Sanskrit
'When, of this person who does not see rightly, possessed of a head, hands, and so on, [who is now] dead — speech goes into fire, breath goes into wind, the eye goes into the sun' — thus it is connected in every case; 'the mind [goes] into the moon, the ear into the quarters, the body into the earth, the self into space' — here the self is called the substratum, the space of the heart; that, too, goes into space; the body-hairs go into the plants; the head-hairs go into the trees; and blood and semen are deposited in the waters' — this is the sign of a renewed taking-up [of a body]. For everywhere, by the word 'speech' and the rest, the deities are understood; but the organs by themselves do not depart before liberation; there, the organs, unoccupied by the deities, are comparable to a discarded sickle and the like, and the bodiless agent, the person, being without autonomy — on what does he then depend? — thus it is asked: does the person then depend on the body? — on what does the person then depend? — [the full question is:] relying on which support does he take up again the combination of effect and cause, by which the bondage characterized by the seizer and the over-seizer is set in motion — what is that? Such is the question.