Our material bondage is due to an illusion. What is that illusion? That, "I am this body." Dehātma-buddhi. "I am this body, and anything which is required for this body or which I possess for the comfort of this body, that is mine." Both of them are illusion, because I am not this body; I am soul, ahaṁ brahmāsmi.
But the illusion is everyone is thinking, "I am this body." "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am white," "I am black," "I am brahmin," "I am śūdra," "I am this," "I am that." So this is illusion. Therefore the Vedic system is, to save one from this illusion, the first stage of life is brahmacārī, to understand the value of life and strictly without any association with woman. That is called brahmacārī. Strictly.
So the whole Vedic system is to convince one that "You are not this body, and anything you possess in relationship with your body, they are all illusion. You are spirit soul, part and parcel of God, Kṛṣṇa. Therefore your duty is some way or other, come out of this entanglement of the bodily concept of life and bodily possession. Come out. Be free. Brahmā-bhūta (SB 4.30.20). Now your position is jīva-bhūta." Jīva-bhūta means you are thinking that "I am a product of this material world." All scientists, all philosophers, they are the same concept that, "I am this body. Beyond this body there is nothing." All big, big professors, scientists, that "After this body is finished, everything is finished."
But actually, that is not a fact. From Bhagavad-gītā you understand that na jāyate na mriyate. The spirit soul is never born, never dies. It is the body, material body, that takes birth and dies. But spirit soul remains. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). He transmigrates to another body, just like we are transmigrating from one body to another.
There are so many children here. Now they are doing so many things foolish, but we enjoy, because we know that this body is foolish body. Nobody grudges if a child does something which not to be done. Just like most children, they are chewing their thumb, but if you do that, that cannot be allowed—because your body is different, and his body is different.
So these rascals, they do not understand the simple truth, that this body is different from my . . . from the body of a youth or a boy. They are different bodies. They are thinking the body is growing. The body's not growing; body is changing. Just like in cinema, photograph, you see somebody is moving, but that is not moving. That is different body changing, the photographs. But because it is shown so swiftly, we see that one body. As soon as the machine is stopped, the body is stopped. Immediately. We have experience.
So these bodies are different bodies. Otherwise, a child does so many things foolishly, and the elderly boy or a youth, he does not do so. Because the body is different. Why do they not understand? This is called ignorance. The body is different. Similarly, as everyone has got past, present and future . . . you are all young men. You had your past. You had a child's body or boy's body. In future you will get a body like me, aged. Similarly, I had my past. I was . . . I had a youth's body. Now I have got aged body. Then why not future, another body? This is very common conclusion.
And it is given; it is confirmed. Not that we are imagining. It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā: tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. As the child is changing body to boyhood, boy is changing body to youthhood—dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13)—and the youth is changing body to old-age body, similarly, the old also will change the body, again will get a small baby's body and again, again. That is the way of nature.
So every one of us, spirit soul, part and parcel of God. Now we are embarrassed due to our ignorance. So when this ignorance is moved, we become enlightened, that is called brahma-bhūta, self-realization, spiritual realization.