Chapter 15: Purushottama-yoga: / Verse 7

Explanation of verses 15.7 and 15.8 –

First, Krishna pointed out that the supreme Brilliance reigns within the body as the source of all outer brilliances. Now he explains its function, enabling seekers to grasp it further.

The spiritual brilliance called the soul residing in the body is a part of the supreme Reality itself. Called jiva, to begin with, it is the one that draws from Nature all the powers to the senses, which are but parts of the material body.

Inner splendour alone instils into the senses the power to cognize.

Likewise, the same inner sentience takes away the cognitive powers of the senses while leaving the body (making the body non-functional), just as the wind draws away fragrance from flowers.

The soul or jiva in the body alone holds the powers of cognition. See, the cornea from a dead body when grafted to a living body, begins to see. It is true of other organs also, proving that the ultimate cognition of sensory functions depends on the inner spirit.

This soul or jiva is really not different from the divine Purusha, existing within us as the immortal Soul. But its real unchanging identity remains hidden from us by the variegated changeful appearance projected by Nature.

Birth marks the commencement of the sensory functions and death denotes the dysfunction of the same senses. Birth and death are not to the Soul, but only to the body and senses. This is what Krishna said in the 2nd chapter also. Death is no extinction but only a transition (2.13).