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A baby has got a shoe, but when he gets the child's body the shoe does not fit. You have to take another shoe. Similarly, when the same child grows or changes body, he requires another shoe

Expressions researched:
"a baby has got a shoe, but when he gets the child's body the shoe does not fit. You have to take another shoe. Similarly, when the same child grows or changes body, he requires another shoe"

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Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

The soul is changing garment from childhood, from babyhood. Just like a baby has got a shoe, but when he gets the child's body the shoe does not fit. You have to take another shoe. Similarly, when the same child grows or changes body, he requires another shoe. Similarly, the soul is changing his body exactly as we change our garments.


Lecture on BG 2.21-22 -- London, August 26, 1973:

Pradyumna: Translation: "O Pārtha, how can a person who knows that the soul is indestructible, unborn, eternal and immutable kill anyone or cause anyone to kill?"

"As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones."

[...]

Prabhupāda: So this is another way of convincing that... Very simple thing. Anyone can understand. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). As our garments, coats and shirts, when they are old, rotten, no more usable, so we throw it away and get a new garment, shirt, coat. Similarly, the soul is changing garment from childhood, from babyhood. Just like a baby has got a shoe, but when he gets the child's body the shoe does not fit. You have to take another shoe. Similarly, when the same child grows or changes body, he requires another shoe. Similarly, the soul is changing his body exactly as we change our garments. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni. Jīrṇāni means when it is old enough, not fit for use, yathā vihāya, as we give it up... Vihāya means give it up. Navāni, new garment. Naraḥ aparāṇi gṛhṇāti. Now the body has been compared herein as the garment. Just like coat and shirt. The tailor cuts the coat according to the body. Similarly, this material body, if it is shirt and coat, then this is cut according to the spiritual body. The spiritual body is not nirākāra, without form. If it is without form, then how the garment, the coat and shirt, has got hands and legs? It is common sense. The coat has got hand or the pant has got legs because the person who is using the coat, he has got hands and legs.

So this proves that the spiritual body is not impersonal. It is not a zero, it is, it has got form. But the form is so minute, aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān: one form is lesser than the atom. Aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān. Two forms are there spiritual. One is the Supreme Lord's form, virāḍ-rūpa, mahato mahīyān, and our form, aṇor aṇīyān, lesser than the atom. That is stated in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad. Aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān ātmāsya jantor nihito guhāyām. Nihito guhāyām, guhāyām means in the heart. Both of them are there. Now find out modern science. Both the soul and the Supersoul, they are situated within the heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe (BG 18.61). It is not said that "Anywhere in the body it is sitting." No. Hṛd-deśe, in the heart. And actually, by medical science, the heart is the center of all activities of the body, office. And the brain is the manager. The director is there, Kṛṣṇa. He says also in another place, sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ (BG 15.15). Everything is clear.