When the soul leaves the body
Bhagavad-gita As It Is
BG Chapters 1 - 6
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 4
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Indian man (3): When the soul leaves the body does it go with the intelligence and ego and...
Prabhupāda: This material covering, that forces him to get another body according to the mind desires. At the time of death the mind's desire—he gets the similar body. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram [Bg. 8.6]. Therefore we have to practice how to remember Kṛṣṇa at the time of death. Then immediately we are transferred to the spiritual world.Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Guest (3): What he wants to know is, when the soul leaves the body completely, what happens after that?
Prabhupāda: This soul is eternal. It is... The soul is covered by two kinds of body. One is subtle body. Just like you have got your mind; I have got my mind. Do you see your mind? Do I see your mind? (second guest translates into French) So the soul is carried by two kinds of body. One body is this gross, made of earth, water, air, sky, like that. And the other... They are like shirt and coat. This is the coating, and there is another body, shirt, which is made of mind, intelligence, and ego. So when this gross body is finished, the subtle body is there. So at the time of your death the mental condition will carry you to a similar body. (Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa translates) [break] This mental body you do not see. Therefore you say that this man is dead. It is not dead. The gross body is changed, and the mental body carries him to another gross body.Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: Then if he accepts another body, then he has to accept transmigration.
Hayagrīva: No, he doesn't. Now here's, here's the point. Augustine believed that God elected some men to everlasting happiness and others to everlasting suffering. With the fall of Adam, or the first man, man was subjected to death. For Augustine, however, death is of two types: physical death—the soul leaves the body—and soul death—the death experienced by the soul when God abandons it. The damned face not only physical death but spiritual, soul death as well.
Prabhupāda: So it may..., it can be taken figuratively, that when one forgets his position, that is a kind of death also. One forgets himself. But actually soul is eternal, and what Augustine says as spiritual death, that is his forgetfulness. Just like in unconsciousness one forgets his identity, but if he is dead then he cannot revive consciousness. Similarly, it is little difficult for the bodily concept of life persons, but there are many proofs and understanding that soul is eternal. He, of course, until he gets his freedom from this material existence, he is spiritually dead. Even though he is working in this material form, because he has forgotten his real identity, that is also a kind of death. Yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī. This śloka explains how one is dead and how one is alive. When one is forgetful of his spiritual consciousness, God consciousness, he is supposed to be dead, and when he, one is alive to the spiritual consciousness or God consciousness, he is alive. In this sense, it is a question of two stages, awakening stage and forgetful stage, but actually a soul is eternal. He never dies, even after the annihilation of this body.Hayagrīva: He further writes on this... He says, "There is strictly speaking neither absolute birth nor complete death consisting in the separation of the soul from the body. What we call birth is development or growth, as what we call death is envelopment and diminution."
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is transmigration. That is transmigration. He hasn't..., he is not dead, but he has developed into another body. That is transmigration. Then why does he deny that?
Hayagrīva: So he says, in other words, as soon as the human soul leaves the body, it must immediately...
Prabhupāda: Enters another body.
Hayagrīva: ...enter another.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hayagrīva: But not nec..., but not in the case of ghosts.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Hayagrīva: With the exception of...
Prabhupāda: Ghost, he is already in the body.
Hayagrīva: Oh, uh huh, the subtle body.
Prabhupāda: The subtle body.Conversations and Morning Walks
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Brahmānanda: ...if the soul leaves the body...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Brahmānanda: It looks nice...
Prabhupāda: But as soon as gone, everything is finished. Why these rascals do not know? Why they cannot replace with chemicals to bring life again? Why these rascals are accepted, I do not know. If the matter is the cause of origin of life... Now one dead man, such a big man, such a Professor Einstein, big brain, he is dying. Put another chemical. Let him come back to life and work again. So why these rascals talk like this? You cannot protest? You should protest. Your protest will be accepted because our, they say that "You are not scientist. We cannot talk with you." That's all right. But here is a scientist. Talk with him. Where is your that material chemical by injecting which...? What do they say? What is wanting in the dead body that the body is dead?1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Devotee: ...in Time magazine yesterday, and the scientists are thinking now that man is his mind. They were talking about the brain.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Devotee: That if man only knew his mind he would know himself. What is actually the brain? And the mind?
Prabhupāda: Mind, that is also matter, material.
Devotee: They're saying that the mind or the brain is the source of man's consciousness.
Prabhupāda: No. Brain is the instrument for expressing consciousness. Otherwise, when the man is dead, why the brain does not work? Do you follow?
Devotee: Yeah.
Prabhupāda: Why the brain work stops?
Devotee: The soul leaves the body.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Body is also material. Spirit soul, so long there is within the body, it works. You cut this tree and it will dry, it will not work. So long the soul is there, it is very luxuriant, very beautiful.Deshimaru: But what do you know about the soul leaving the body? Maybe when the body leaves the soul, the soul also dies.
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: The point is that body and soul are two things.
Deshimaru: I think it is same thing.
Prabhupāda: You think, but how you can prove?
Deshimaru: How you can prove that the body...?
Prabhupāda: Yes, you cannot prove. When the soul is gone...
Yogeśvara: He's asking how can we prove our point?
Prabhupāda: Yes, I can prove that the body is dead because the soul is gone. (French)
Yogeśvara: He says, "Oh, I can also say that when the body is dead, the soul is dead."
Karandhara: No, but at the time of death the body is still there. Just like your body is there, at the time of death your body will still be there, but it won't be the same, something is missing. Something's gone away. What's the difference between a dead body and a living body?
Prabhupāda: How you can explain? Why the body's hand is there, leg is there, head is there, why it stopped working? (French)
Yogeśvara: He says that when there is no longer any movement in the cells, scientific explanation.
Prabhupāda: So why don't you... If you know that, then replace that cell.1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Ambarīṣa: When the spirit soul leaves the body, the body continues to change, it deteriorates?
Prabhupāda: No, no. Spirit soul is changing machine. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. So when this machine is finished, and another machine.
Ambarīṣa: The old machine continues to change after the spirit soul leaves, it deteriorates? The old machine deterior..., it breaks down.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. You give up one machine and you take another machine. [break]
Devotee (1): ...one goes into a subtle machine?
Prabhupāda: That example is given, vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya [Bg. 2.22]. Just like your dress, when it is useless, you throw it away and take another dress. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya gṛhṇāti naraḥ aparāṇi. You accept another set of dress. Clearly explained. [break] ...also very scientific. Just like according to your last life's desires, you have got this dress, this body. So it is going on, going on, going on. Now you are creating another set of desires in this life. So you require a different dress. Then you begin another satisfaction of your desires. This is going on.1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Rādhāvallabha: At the time of sleeping, when the soul leaves the body, why is the body not destroyed at that time?
Prabhupāda: Why? Suppose you have left the car; does that mean it is destroyed? You are going again.
Rādhāvallabha: But at the time of death it is destroyed when you leave it.
Prabhupāda: Death is different. When the car is no more usable, that is death. But we are returning to the car because we know that it is usable. And if we know that it is useless, we don't go to that car. That is death.Rāmeśvara: There's some connection still. When the soul is..., when the body..., when you are dreaming, and the soul leaves the body, but still there must be some connection between the soul...
Prabhupāda: Connection is there, just like you leave your car, you keep the engine going on—gug gug gug gug gug gug—but you are not there. The engine, you keep it started.
Rāmeśvara: Somehow the soul's influence is still there.
Prabhupāda: Yes. You make that engine keeping—gug gug gug gug. If you like you can stop.Prabhupāda: That is Darwin's theory. Motorcar is not developing to big motorcar. That is nonsense. Motorcar is motorcar, but I can change from this car to that car.
Hari-śauri: Yes, that's what he was wondering, whether the spirit soul leaves the atom to take another higher body.
Prabhupāda: Yes, it is always.... Transmigration means going on, simply changing.
Rāmeśvara: Is that counted as one of the 8,400,000 species? Is the atom counted among the different species?
Prabhupāda: Atom is not manifested. May be one of the species, but the total is 8,400,000. What is the difference between the small atom and this body? The same thing, material. It's very small; it is a little bigger. That's all. And similarly, the universe is still bigger. After all, it is matter.Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes we say, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that when the body is useless, then the soul leaves, just like giving up an old pair of clothes. But sometimes we see that someone in very good health, youthful, all of a sudden they give up their body.
Prabhupāda: You are very healthy. Is there any guarantee that you will not die?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No, there's no guarantee.
Prabhupāda: That is the life.(?) You may be very stout and strong. The death may take from so many causes. It does not depend on your healthy body.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: When you say that we are kicked out, is it literally that we are kicked out of this body?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Even if one is very attached.
Prabhupāda: Yes.Mike Robinson: Yes, I think I've got that far. Now if we could go on from there. And then we said, you said that it therefore made a difference in the life after death, how you lived, that there were natural laws that determined that.
Prabhupāda: Yes. The process is that the spirit soul is invisible in our material eyes, very small. So after the destruction of this gross body, there is another body, subtle body—mind, intelligence and ego. So at the time of death, when finishing this body, mind works. So, according to that process, the mind carries the small spirit soul to another body. Just like the air carries the flavor. Nobody can see wherefrom this rose flavor is coming, but it is being carried by the air, very subtle. You cannot see, but it is being done. Similarly, the soul is very subtle. It is being carried by the mind. According to the mind, he enters into the womb of another mother through the semina of the father, and then he develops a particular type of body given by the mother. It may be human being, it may be cat, dog or anything.
Mike Robinson: So we will come back in another body.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Then, that's when the body is developed, he comes out and his work begins.1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Page Title: | When the soul leaves the body |
Compiler: | Laksmipriya, Labangalatika |
Created: | 11 of Dec, 2008 |
Totals by Section: | BG=1, SB=1, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=7, Con=9, Let=1 |
No. of Quotes: | 19 |