The Great Epic of the Bhārata dynasty 1.85.17

1.85.17

aṣṭaka uvāca |
yaḥ saṃsthitaḥ puruṣo dahyate vā nikhanyate vāpi nighṛṣyate vā |
abhāvabhūtaḥ sa vināśametya kenātmānaṃ cetayate purastāt || 17 ||

"Ashtaka asked, 'After death, the body is burnt, or otherwise destroyed. Reduced to nothing upon such dissolution, by what principle is one revived?' Yayati said, 'O lion among kings, the person that dies assumes a subtil form; and retaining consciousness of all his acts as in a dream, he enters some other form with a speed quicker than that of air itself. The virtuous attain to a superior, and the vicious to an inferior form of existence. The vicious become worms and insects. I have nothing more to say, O thou of great and pure soul! I have told thee how beings are born, after development of embryonic forms, as four-footed, six-footed creatures and others with more feet. What more wilt thou ask me?'