At the time of death it is decided what kind of body you are going to have next. That is decided by superior authority. You cannot dictate that "Give me this body," or "I don't want this body"

Expressions researched:
"At the time of death it is decided what kind of body you are going to have next"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

At the time of death it is decided what kind of body you are going to have next. That is decided by superior authority. You cannot dictate that "Give me this body," or "I don't want this body. I want a body..." No. That is not in your hand.

Lecture on BG 2.12 -- Hyderabad, December 12, 1976:

So so long we are materially contaminated, we require this material body for enjoying senses. And the spiritual world, we get our spiritual body developed. So there is no question of becoming ghost or... Individual, there is. The person is always existing. That is the purport of this verse. Na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ sarve vayam ataḥ param. Ataḥ param, "after this," means after this body is ended the individuality continues; simply we change our body. This is the version, and it is explained in the next verse, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). We are individual always, but we are changing this body from one type of body to another body according to our karma. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha-upapatti (SB 3.31.1). By superior examination we get a body, karmaṇā. So at the time of death it is decided what kind of body you are going to have next. That is decided by superior authority. You cannot dictate that "Give me this body," or "I don't want this body. I want a body..." No. That is not in your hand. You can do, you are given freedom. In the human form of life you are given freedom to act although there is direction that "You act like this." But if you don't like, you can act. Yathecchasi tathā kuru. (BG 18.63) You can act, but you become implicated with your karma because you have to act according to the modes of nature.