Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Sanskrit word bhava means being, worldly existence, becoming, birth, production, and origin according to Monier Monier-Williams' 1898 dictionary published by Oxford University Press. The same source also lists habitual or emotional tendencies as a valid definition for the term.
Koeln University in Germany distinguishes bhāva with an accent mark to define it as emotion, sentiment, state of body or mind, disposition, and character. This version emphasizes internal psychological patterns rather than just physical existence.
In Buddhism, bhava functions as the tenth link within the twelve links of pratītyasamutpāda. This cycle describes samsara, the repeated pattern of responses to sensory impressions that leads to renewed jāti or birth in one of six realms including heaven, demi-god, human, animal, hungry ghost, or hell.
Hearers fail to remember these events due to bhava which explains why individuals cannot recall their previous existences after being reborn. Caroline A.F. Rhys Davids published selections from the Jātakas in 1989 through Dover Publications where the Buddha used these stories to remind followers of experiences they shared with him in past lives.
The Thai Forest Tradition offers a specific interpretation where bhava represents habitual or emotional tendencies leading directly to the arising of the sense of self as a mental phenomenon. Teachers in this tradition view the word not just as physical existence but as internal psychological patterns that shape daily habits and identity perception.