Bhashya
तमेवं जिगमिषुं के सह गच्छन्ति ; ये वा गच्छन्ति, तेकिं तत्क्रियाप्रणुन्नाः, आहोस्वित् तत्कर्मवशात् स्वयमेव ग-च्छन्ति — परलोकशरीरकर्तृणि च भूतानीति ।अत्रोच्यतेदृष्टान्तः-- तद्यथा राजानं प्रधियासन्तम् प्रकर्षेण यातुमि-च्छन्तम्, उग्राः प्रत्येनसः सूतग्रामण्यः तं यथा अभिस-मायन्ति आभिमुख्येन समायन्ति, एकीभावेन तमभिमुखाआयन्ति अनाज्ञप्ता एव राज्ञा केवलं तज्जिगमिषाभिज्ञाः,एवमेव इममात्मानं भोक्तारम् अन्तकाले मरणकाले सर्वेप्राणाः वागादयः अभिसमायन्ति ।यत्रैतदूर्ध्वोच्छ्वासी भव-तीति व्याख्यातम् ॥
In plain words
Who actually travels with you when you are ready to go? Do your faculties follow only because your own past actions push them, or do they come entirely on their own — and what about the elements that will build your next body: are they pulled the same way? Here is how to see it: picture a king about to set out on a journey, eager to be gone. His guards, his officers, his charioteers and headmen all converge on him at once, facing him, moving as one — and no one had to order them there; they simply know he is leaving, and they come. That is exactly how it is for you. At the moment of death, every one of your faculties — speech and all the rest — converges on you, the one who has been experiencing through them all along. What it means for the breath to start pulling upward has already been explained.
Close to the Sanskrit
Who goes along with this one thus desiring to depart? Or, do those who go, go driven by that action of his, or do they go entirely of their own accord — and are the beings that are to form his body in the next world likewise driven? To this it is replied — here is an illustration: just as, when a king, intending eagerly to go, is about to set out, the ugras, the pratyenas, the charioteers and headmen come toward him — 'they converge facing him' meaning they come together as one, facing toward him — not commanded by the king, but simply knowing his intention to depart — in exactly the same way, at the time of the end, at the time of death, all the vital faculties, speech and the rest, converge upon this self, the experiencer. [The phrase] 'when this one becomes one whose breath goes upward' has already been explained.