Manava Dharmashastra 6.63

6.63

prāṇānāmutkramaṇamantarvicchedaḥ | duḥsahā ca sā pīḍā | garbhe ca saṃbhavaḥ | tatra nānāvidhaṃ duḥkhaṃ indriyāṇāmanudbhedāttamorūpatā kukṣisyasya mātṛsaṃbandhinā''hāreṇa atiśītoṣṇena hīnātimātreṇa vaiyoktā pīḍā | yonikoṭisahasreṣu sṛtīḥ saraṇāni prāptāstiryakpretakṛmikīṭapataṅgādyāḥ kṣetrajñasya | "nanu ca vibhurantarātmeṣyate nityaśca | tasya sakalajagadvyāpinaḥ kuta utkramaṇam, kva ca yonisaraṇam | saṃbhavo'pi garbhe nityasyānupapannaḥ" | ucyate | asti keṣāṃciddarśanam-yathā'yamantaḥśarīramaṃguṣṭhamātraḥ puruṣastiṣṭhati, tanmātramanobuddhyahaṃkārātmakaḥ sa yāvatsaṃsārameti dharmaḥ, tasya copacitasya caitanyaśaktirāvirbhavati | atastaddharmā antarātmana upacaryante | athavā tasya bhāvārthā ye prāṇādayasteṣūtkrāmatsu sa utkrāmatītyucyate | evaṃ 'saṃbhavo'pi' draṣṭavyaḥ | punaścaitaddvādaśe vakṣyāmaḥ | kiṃ bahunā |

There is for his Inner Soul departure from the body, then again birth in the womb, and transmigrations among millions of life-forms.—(63)

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
There is ‘departure’—going out—of the life-breaths; and this constitutes unbearable pain.

‘Birth in the womb’— where there are several kinds of pain: the organs are not yet developed, the child in the womb is in utter darkness, and it also suffers from diseases, described in the medical science, as proceeding from the extremely cold and hot foods eaten by the mother in varying quantities.

‘Transmigrations’— passing through—‘among millions of life-forms’;—the soul being born in the bodies of lower animals, worms, insects, dogs and so forth.

Objection—“The Inner Soul is held to be omnipresent and eternal; how can there be any ‘departure’ for it, when it is present everywhere? how again can there be any ‘transmigration’ among life-forms? how too can there be any ‘birth’ for it when it is eternal?”

Our answer is as follows:—The theory of some people is that there lies within the body the ‘personality’ of the size of the thumb, composed of rudimentary substances, mind and intellect; and it is this personality that goes on being born during the entire series of births and deaths; and when this becomes endowed with a certain merit, the faculty of consciousness becomes manifested in it; and it is through this faculty that the qualities of the said Personality come to be attributed to the Inner Soul.

Or, the explanation may be that the inner soul is related to certain entities in the shape of the life-breath and so forth; and when these depart, the soul is said to ‘depart.’ Similarly with ‘birth.’

All this we shall explain again under Discourse XII and we need not prolong the discussion here.—(63)

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 968);—and in Yatidharmasaṅgraha (p. 35).

Comparative notes by various authors
Viṣṇu (96.39).—‘On the agonies to be suffered in the passage of the soul through the bodies of animals and plants.’

Yājñavalkya (3.63, 64).—(See under 61.)