The ethereal body is covered by sixteen elements, the five organs of perception, the five organs of action, the five objects of the senses, and the mind. This ethereal body is a product of the three attributes of material nature, virtue, passion, and ignorance. It consists of irresistible desires as they are powerful, so that it brings the individual being to transmigrate from one body to another among men, animals and celestial beings. When he obtains a body from a celestial being, he is certainly very happy about it, but when he takes the human form, he never ceases to lament; and when he is born with an animal body, he lives constantly in fear. However, whatever his situation, he is actually miserable because he must continue his material existence, transmigrating from one body to another.

Interested acts by the individual being, whether virtuous or impious, are the invisible cause of the way in which his desires will be satisfied. This invisible cause is at the origin of the different bodies clothed by the conditioned soul. Because of his intense desire, it is born in a particular family and receives a body similar to that of his mother or that of his father. The bodies of dense and ethereal matter are therefore created according to his desire. The body of dense matter is a product of the ethereal body.

God specifies for this purpose: "It is the thoughts, the memories of being at the moment of leaving one's body which determine one's future condition."

As for the thoughts that inhabit the ethereal body at the moment of death, they result from the activities of the body of dense matter. Thus, the body of dense matter acts in the course of our existence, and the ethereal body at the moment of death. The ethereal body, called the body of desire, serves as a backdrop to the development of a certain body of dense matter, which will resemble that of the mother or that of the father, human or animal. If at the moment of sexual union, the secretions of the mother are more abundant than those of the father, the child (the soul) will receive a female body; on the contrary, if the father's secretions are more abundant than those of the mother, the child will receive a male body. This is how the subtle laws of nature act, in accordance with the desires of the individual being. If a human being learns to transform his ethereal body by becoming conscious of Krishna, when the hour of his death comes, his ethereal body will produce a body of dense matter with which he will act as a devotee of God; even better, if he has reached a higher level of perfection, he will no longer take up a material body, but will immediately obtain a spiritual body and return to God in his original home. This is how transmigration of the soul takes place.