Leaving this body (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
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Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Introduction to Gitopanisad (Earliest Recording of Srila Prabhupada in the Bhaktivedanta Archives):

The modern scientists, they are trying for years and years together for reaching the moon planet, and they have no approach as yet. But here in the Bhagavad-gītā, here is a suggestion. Suppose a man lives for another fifty years and he... So nobody tries to elevate himself in the spiritual ideas for fifty years. That's a very good idea. But even for ten years or five years one sincerely tries for this practice, mayy arpita-mano-buddhir... (BG 8.7) It is simply a question of practice. And that practice can be very easily possible by the devotional process, śravaṇaṁ. Śravaṇaṁ. The easiest process is to hear.

śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ

smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam

arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ

sakhyam ātma-nivedanam

(SB 7.5.23)

These nine processes. So the easiest process is simply hearing. Hearing of this Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the realized person, that will train up oneself, one, into the thoughts of the Supreme Being twenty-four hours, which will lead one ultimately, anta-kāle, to remember the Supreme Lord, and thus leaving this body, he will have a spiritual body, a spiritual body, just fit for association with the Lord.

Lecture on BG 2.8-12 -- Los Angeles, November 27, 1968:

Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). "After giving up this material tabernacle, one comes to Me." Just like after leaving this room, you have to enter another room. You cannot say that "After leaving this room, I shall live in the sky." Similarly, after leaving this body, if you go to Kṛṣṇa in the spiritual kingdom, your individuality will be there, but you'll have that spiritual body. When there is spiritual body there is no perplexities. Just like your body is different from the body of the aquatics. The aquatics, they have no disturbance in the water because their body is made like that. They can live there peacefully. You cannot live. Similarly, the fishes, if you take them out of the water, they cannot live. Similarly, because you are spirit soul, you cannot live peacefully in this material world. This is foreign. But as soon as you enter into the spiritual world, your life is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge, real peace. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). Kṛṣṇa says, "After leaving this body, he does not come to this perplexities of material world." Mām eti, "He comes to Me." "Me" means His kingdom, His paraphernalia, His associates, everything.

Lecture on BG 2.9 -- Auckland, February 21, 1973:

Kṛṣṇa is first of all trying to remove this bodily concept of life. He said therefore, aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase (BG 2.11). "My dear Arjuna, you are talking like a very intelligent man, but you are lamenting on the subject matter which is not at all lamentable." What is that? Gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ. Paṇḍitāḥ means one who is learned. This body, either in living condition of dead condition, it is not the subject matter of lamentation. This is the first education of spiritual life, that this body is actually dead body already. So long the soul is there, it is moving. So when the soul leaves this body and accepts another body, the body was already dead, a lump of matter, and now it is left aside, and the soul has gone to another body. So it is a lump of matter at the present moment, then, after death or after leaving, after the soul has gone from the body, it is the same lump of matter. So lump of matter, where is the cause of lamentation or jubilation? It is a lump of matter. This understanding is first required.

Lecture on BG 2.9 -- Auckland, February 21, 1973:

As soon as you've accepted this body, then you must accept death. Anything which is born must meet death also. Birth, death. And in the via media there is old age and disease. This body... I have got, you have got, everyone. There is a death of getting this body, and there will be a death of leaving this body. And between these two deaths there are so many other miserable conditions. They are summarized: old age and disease. But the real science is that "I am the soul. I am the part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. So Supreme Lord, God, is eternal. I am also eternal."

Lecture on BG 2.11 -- Edinburgh, July 16, 1972:

If we have to prepare ourself in this life for the next body, why not prepare yourself for a body back to home, back to Godhead. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We are teaching every man how he can prepare himself so that after leaving this body, he can go directly to God. Back to home, back to Godhead.

Lecture on BG 2.11 -- Rotary Club Address -- Hotel Imperial, Delhi, March 25, 1976:

This body, when it is living condition... Living condition means so long the soul is there, it looks like very bright, beautiful, moving here and there. And when the soul leaves this body, then what it is? It has no value, a lump of matter. Just like a motorcar. So long it is moving, it is worth one lakh, and so long it does not move, it is simply lump of iron and copper and something. Who cares for it? It is thrown away. Same thing. The body has no value. It has value so long the soul is there.

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- New York, March 11, 1966:

As the soul is within the body and the body is changing every moment, similarly, the last stage of change is called death. Death is nothing but the final change of this present body. That's all. And our death condition is for seven months only. As soon as I leave this body, at once I am injected into other's mother's body according to my karma. I may be injected to a queen's womb; I may be injected to a dog's mother. You see? That is due to my karma.

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Manila, October 12, 1972:

Suppose in this life you earn lots of money, make a big balance, and have a very nice skyscraper building and good ladies and friends and position. That's nice, but when you leave this body, you do not know what you are going to become. Suppose, theoretically, you become next life a cat in the same skyscraper building, then what is your value? And there is possibility, because your next body will be awarded by nature according to your work, according to your mind, intelligence. So you may have a very good bank balance and skyscraper building and dozens of motorcar, but you have created your mind just like cats and dog, then you are getting the body of a cat and dog.

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Manila, October 12, 1972:

So the material energy is external energy, and we are trying to become happy by adjusting this external energy. That is illusion. Suppose in this life you earn lots of money, make a big balance, and have a very nice skyscraper building and good ladies and friends and position. That's nice, but when you leave this body, you do not know what you are going to become. Suppose, theoretically, you become next life a cat in the same skyscraper building, then what is your value? And there is possibility, because your next body will be awarded by nature according to your work, according to your mind, intelligence.

Lecture on BG 2.13-17 -- Los Angeles, November 29, 1968:

If we discharge our duties faithfully, then in due course of time, Kṛṣṇa will give the desired result. Don't be hesitant. Don't be doubtful. It is sure. Kṛṣṇa says that tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). Anyone who is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness perfectly, for him, after leaving this body, he's coming to Me. This is His assurance. So we haven't got any doubt, Kṛṣṇa has assured. So let us do our duty perfectly, as far as possible. We cannot execute anything perfectly in presence of Kṛṣṇa because He is infinite, we are finite. Our energy, our talent, everything is finite. But if we try our best, then bhāva-grāhī-janārdana. Kṛṣṇa sees only how much sincere I am, how much sincerely I'm executing the duties entrusted upon me. That's all. Otherwise it is not in our power to serve Kṛṣṇa perfectly. That is not... Because we are very teeny. But be assured that the desired result will come if we act sincerely to the point. Yes.

Lecture on BG 2.14 -- Germany, June 21, 1974:

What is that common? Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). To take birth either as a dog or as a king, the distress is the same. There is no difference because the dog has to keep itself within the womb of the mother in an airtight condition for so many months, and the man, either he is king or anything, he has also undergo that tribulation. There is no excuse. Because you are taking birth in a king's family, it does not mean that to remain compact within the mother's womb the distress is less, and because he is taking birth in a dog's mother's womb, therefore his is great. No. That is the same. Similarly, at the time of death, the distress... At the time of death there is great distress. It is so strong that one has to leave this body. Just like when the distress becomes very strong, one commits suicide. He cannot tolerate: "Finish this body."

Lecture on BG 2.14 -- Germany, June 21, 1974:

So nobody wants to leave this body, but the distress is so strong that one is forced to leave this body. That is called death. In the Bhagavad-gītā you will find that mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś ca aham. Kṛṣṇa says that "I am death." And what is the meaning of death? Death means "I take everything from him. Finished. I take his body, I take his association, I take his country, I take his society, I take his bank balance, and everything finished." Sarva-haraḥ. Sarva means everything. Everyone is trying to accumulated big bank balance and big house, big family, big motorcar... But with the death, everything is finished. So that is great distress. Sometimes one cries. You will find at the time of death, in coma, his eye drops are coming out.

Lecture on BG 2.17 -- Hyderabad, November 22, 1972:

So the distinction between the living soul and the dead body—anyone can perceive. What is the distinction between a living body and the dead body? When a man is dead, he, his relatives cry, lament: "Oh, my father has gone," "My son has gone." But the father, as we have seen, he's lying on the floor. Where he has gone? He's lying on the floor. Why you are crying: "Oh, my father has gone away"? That means the person who has gone away, who has left this body, you have not, never seen. You have seen this body. So the body is lying there, and why you are crying, "My father has gone away"?

Lecture on BG 2.40-45 -- Los Angeles, December 13, 1968:

So here in this verse, Kṛṣṇa says that some way or other if you begin your activities in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even one percent, not cent percent, it will never be destroyed. All other things, whatever you acquire in this present life, with the end of this body everything is finished. Your education, your degree, your opulence, your skyscraper building, your bank balance—everything will remain where you kept and you have to go, even leaving this body also. You have to go alone and to accept another body. But if you cultivate spiritual consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that will go with you. And if you have finished in this life, say, ten percent, then next life you begin eleven percent. The best thing is that why not finish cent percent in this life? Why should we indulge in materialistic way of life, sense gratification? That we have tried in many lives.

Lecture on BG 2.40-45 -- Los Angeles, December 13, 1968:

In the beginning it has been said that you make your determination that "In this life I shall execute Kṛṣṇa consciousness in such a way that after leaving this body I enter into the spiritual world and go directly to Goloka Vṛndāvana, Kṛṣṇaloka." This is called vyavasāyātmikā buddhiḥ. Niścayātmikā means determination. But He says that persons who are attached, bhoga, material enjoyment, aiśvarya, material opulence: bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānām (BG 2.44). Those who are too much attached to material enjoyment and material sense gratification, material opulence, tayāpahṛta-cetasām, and those who have become bewildered or mad after it, tayāpahṛta-cetasām, vyavasāyātmikā buddhiḥ, they cannot have such determination.

Lecture on BG Lecture Excerpts 2.44-45, 2.58 -- New York, March 25, 1966:

Suppose we are accumulating so many knowledge. Somebody is chemist, somebody is politician, somebody is metaphysist, somebody is artist, somebody is something. Everyone knows something of everything and everything of something. That is knowledge. But this knowledge, whatever knowledge you acquire, as soon as you leave this body, whole knowledge is void. Just imagine in your previous lives you had been a great man of knowledge, but in this life, since your childhood, you had to go to school, college, and acquire knowledge. The knowledge which you had in your previous lives is now forgotten. Therefore we are seeking eternal knowledge, but that eternity of knowledge is not possible with this temporary body.

Lecture on BG 2.46-47 -- New York, March 28, 1966:

Utsāhāt. Utsāhāt means you must be very much enthusiastic that "In this life, in this human form of life, I must complete my spiritual consciousness, or God consciousness, so that in the next life I may not have this material body. That is called utsāhāt. Utsāhāt means very much enthusiastic. Just like a man is very much enthusiastic that "In this life I must accumulate ten millions dollars in the bank," and he does work with great enthusiasm; similarly, we must have also similar enthusiasm that "In this very life, in this very human form of life, I must make my spiritual life perfect so that after leaving this body I may not come again to this material world." That is called utsāhā, enthusiasm. Utsāhād dhairyāt. Dhairya means patience.

Lecture on BG 2.51-55 -- New York, April 12, 1966:

Or, say, seven months. Death means forgetfulness. Just like at sleep, we forget everything, what I am, where I am sleeping, who I am, what is my identity, identification, everything forgotten. Then again, as soon as I rise up in the morning, I remember, "Oh, I am such and such officer. I am such and such father, such and such husband, and I have got to do such and such things." Everything remembered. But during your sleep, you forget everything. Similarly, death means from the time of your leaving this body and entering into the womb of another mother, and so long another body is not developed, you remain unconscious. And as soon as another body's developed within the womb of the mother and the time is up to come out, then again you remember.

Lecture on BG 2.55-58 -- New York, April 15, 1966:

Suppose I have passed my M.A. examination, and in the, in the university, in the convocation meeting, I get the degree and people applauses me; but if one is situated in consciousness, he will understand, "What is this degree? This degree is due to my this body. As soon as this body finishes, all these degree will finish. Because, if it is a fact that vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22), if I have to take another body after leaving this body, then everything in bodily connection will finish as soon as I give up this body and take up another body. That is my position." Therefore, one who is convinced, one who knows actually that "I am not this body; I am pure consciousness," so these degrees... Or some good, palatable foodstuff.

Lecture on BG 4.7-10 -- Los Angeles, January 6, 1969:

Nine: "One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not upon leaving the body take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna."

Prabhupāda: This is very nice. If one can understand the principles of appearance and disappearance of God, His activities, so simply by understanding these principles he will be liberated. It is said here that after quitting this body, he is no more coming to take birth again in this material world. So just like a layman does not know how the sun appears and disappears, but an astronomer, he knows very well the movements of the sun, moon, and other planets' appearance and disappearance. This is a science, astronomy. Similarly, there is a science of God by which you can understand how God appears, disappears, how He acts, how He works. Everything is there, but if you are not interested that does not mean that the science of God is false or there is no such science. There is. You must be interested to know; then you can understand. And if you simply understand this science, then you become liberated. It is open order. Simply by understanding, even not engaging yourself in transcendental service of the Lord, simply by understanding the process of appearance and disappearance. So why don't you try that? Go on. Purport.

Lecture on BG 4.9 -- Montreal, June 19, 1968:

So Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so nice, so perfect, that if you take to this in your practical life you become perfect immediately in this life. As it is stated here, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). Simply understanding. You have got enough time. You are all young men, young girls. Please try to understand the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and your life will be perfect. So perfect that after leaving this body, tyaktvā deham, this body, punar janma naiti, no more birth in this miserable condition of material existence. Then what is the result? Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9), "He comes to Me." So it is very easy to finish all the problems of life within this short period of our life. Simply to understand Kṛṣṇa. Thank you very much. (break)

Lecture on BG 4.9 -- Bombay, March 29, 1974:

Pradyumna: (leads text chanting) Translation: "One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities, does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna."

Prabhupāda:

janma karma ca me divyam

evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ

tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma

naiti mām eti so'rjuna

(BG 4.9)

This is very important verse. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti. Our problem is this transmigration of the soul, one body to another. This is going on. Because you do not know how to get out of it, modern education they do not know even what is soul, what is this body, how the transmigration of the soul taking place. All blunt.

Lecture on BG 4.9-11 -- New York, July 25, 1966:

Just like Lord Kṛṣṇa says here, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9), that anyone who understands Kṛṣṇa's appearance, disappearance and activities, all these transcendental things, he goes back to the kingdom of Godhead after leaving this body. Now this fact should be clearly understood. So I am trying to make you understand it clearly, how it can be possible. This is possible in this way, that you have to think of Kṛṣṇa always, "How is that that Kṛṣṇa appears in His transcendental body and how He disappears?" So everything, scrutinizingly we have to understand.

Lecture on BG 4.9-11 -- New York, July 25, 1966:

We are counting where, that day when we have to give up this body. Just like I am now seventy years old, so... I am now seventy years old. So my days are counted. So I have to give up this body. The warning is already there. So we have to prepare ourself. Just like when going from outer station, from New York to California, if you wanted to go, you have to make your preparation, say, fortnight before, reserving the seat and making all arrangement. Similarly, we must know that we have to leave this body and we must prepare for that. Unless we don't prepare for that, all of a sudden, if death comes, then our whole life is spoiled. That is the whole system. So we have to think of Kṛṣṇa. This is the very easiest process, that how, what are the activities, how Kṛṣṇa appears, how Kṛṣṇa disappears, what are the nature of Kṛṣṇa's activities. So we must try to understand these things.

Lecture on BG 4.10 Public Meeting -- Rome, May 25, 1974:

Just like you give up your one dress, you accept another dress; similarly, when this body, dress, is no more useful, you accept another dress. That you have got experience at night. You leave this body, and you take another body, and you roam in dreamland. That is experienced, everyday experienced. You give up this body; you accept another body, subtle body. So when this gross body is destroyed, the subtle body carries you to another gross body. That is called death.

Lecture on BG 4.10 Festival at Maison de Faubourg -- Geneva, May 31, 1974:

Death means to leave this body and carried by the subtle body to another gross body. That is called death. We are carried by the mind, intelligence and ego, subtle body. Just like we can experience a good scent of rose flower is carried by the air. We cannot see, but we know that the flavor is being carried by the air. Similarly, although we do not see how the spirit soul is being carried by the subtle body, but it is being carried, and it is being put into the womb of another mother to develop another gross body. So this body is offered by nature. This body is given by the material nature. Similarly, we, or I, the spirit soul, being carried by the subtle body, and the nature is giving me another gross body. In this way we are transmigrating from one body to another. This is called evolution. And there are 8,400,000's of bodies, and we are going through one after another.

Lecture on BG 4.11-12 -- New York, July 28, 1966:

You are merged in matter; still, you have got your individual existence. What is your body? This is matter. Is it not? Then are you not merged with matter? Then still you have got your individual existence. Don't you agree? Similarly, I may merge in the spiritual existence, but still, my individuality will be there. You are merged already in this matter. Just like when you leave this body, your body will be transformed into earth. That means it is already merged. Still, you have got separate existence. And what is that separate existence? Due to that spirit. So even in the matter, if the spirit can maintain separate existence, don't you think in spirit it cannot maintain its separate existence?

Lecture on BG 4.12-13 -- New York, July 29, 1966:

So just believe it. It is standard. It is accepted by all the great stalwart scholars and ācāryas of repute. Just like Śaṅkarācārya, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, great scholars and ācāryas. They have accepted it. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). We have to follow the footprints of great saints and sages, those who have achieved success by this indication of Bhagavad-gītā. Don't follow your whims. Take the standard advice. Just try to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Just try to understand Kṛṣṇa, what is Kṛṣṇa. And the result is that after leaving this body, you are no more going to accept any material body, but you enter into the spiritual kingdom and you have your spiritual body which is eternal, full of knowledge and blissful. This is the chance.

Lecture on BG 4.13 -- Bombay, April 2, 1974:

Therefore we have to study Bhagavad-gītā very seriously. In the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā it is said by Kṛṣṇa, tathā dehāntara-prāptir. There is dehāntara. After leaving this body, I have to accept another body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Dhīraḥ means those who are sober, intelligent, they know that what is death. Death means giving up this body and accepting another, transmigration of the soul. That is death. So dhīras tatra na muhyati. A dhīraḥ who is learned, he knows, but others, adhīraḥ...

Lecture on BG 4.13-14 -- New York, August 1, 1966:

So Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya: (BG 4.9) "After leaving this body, no more birth in this miserable world. He comes unto Me." We should stick to that point. And that will make us successful in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Anything, any more questions? (break) ...very ideal prayer to follow.

Lecture on BG 4.13-14 -- New York, August 1, 1966:

Suppose if I decided, or anyone of you have decided, that "I shall leave this place, New York. I have no fascination for this city." Then anything you offer him, "Oh, I give you such-and-such thing. You remain here for such-and-su..." No. He doesn't care for anything. Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate. He has got some information, some other place. He has decided to go there. So he has no, I mean to say, anxiety or desire for anything. So our desire should be—that is perfect desire—that we must leave this body. We must leave this material existence. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). Unless you understand this fact, that this material existence is... (end—incomplete)

Lecture on BG 4.14 -- Vrndavana, August 6, 1974:

That is stated here. Iti māṁ yo 'bhijānāti. In this way, if one understands Kṛṣṇa, karmabhir na sa badhyate, he does not become entangled with the karma. In another place it is also confirmed: janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ. If one understands Kṛṣṇa's activities, Kṛṣṇa's birth and Kṛṣṇa's form, Kṛṣṇa's attributes, if one can understand tattvataḥ, in truth, not by mental speculation. In truth, as it is, then what happens? Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). He does not get any more material body after leaving this body.

Lecture on BG 4.14-19 -- New York, August 3, 1966:

So this work, good work or bad work from the material point of view, may be superficially very good. But what, how long I shall remain a rich man? How long I shall remain a beautiful man? This is not my permanent life. Suppose if my life is for hundred years, say. I can remain a rich man, I remain a learned man, I can remain a beautiful man, say, for fifty or sixty or hundred years, but your life is not for hundred years or sixty years or thousands years or millions of years. You are eternal. You have to attain your eternal life. That is the whole problem. So that problem you have to solve. That problem can be solved when you are Kṛṣṇa conscious so that by Kṛṣṇa conscious, when you leave this body, you will no more have to come to this material world and accept this material body or suffer and enjoy thereof. That is the point. The point is very difficult for common man, but this is the point. This is the point. I have to avoid this material existence altogether. That is the point. It is... It is not the question of improving my material condition. That is not the solution.

Lecture on BG 4.37-40 -- New York, August 21, 1966:

We take economic development as the most important thing, forgetting that how long I shall live here in this material world? So fifty or sixty or hundred years. So economic development or no economic development, my life will be finished. Suppose I develop my economic life in a very... I accumulate millions of dollars. But when I leave this body I'll leave everything. Then again I take my birth according to my reaction, either in poor family or old, I mean to say, rich family or even animal life. There is no guarantee.

Lecture on BG 4.37-40 -- New York, August 21, 1966:

The thing is that we want. That is our nature. We want to travel. People are coming from India to America, from America to India. So we want to travel freely. That is my right because as spirit soul, there is a word... You'll find in the Bhagavad-gītā, sarva-ga. Sarva-ga means a spirit soul has the potency of going anywhere he likes, anywhere he likes. There are... Actually, those who have attained perfection in yoga... Of course, that is not the highest perfection. Even persons, those who have attained perfection in yoga, they can travel in any planet. And the perfection of yoga is indicated like this, that a yogi dies according to his own will. He is not, I mean to, pressed to leave this body just like ordinary people. They leave this body under the pressure of nature's law. So they get so much power. When they find that "Now I shall leave this body," they fix up in which planet they will go, and they transfer their soul into that planet. That is the highest yogic perfection. And hardly you'll find such a yogi.

Lecture on BG 5.14-22 -- New York, August 28, 1966:

If actually we can advance in the spiritual knowledge of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then tad-buddhayaḥ, by that intelligence, tad-ātmānaḥ, being identified with Kṛṣṇa, tan-niṣṭhāḥ, having faith, good faith, tat-parāyaṇāḥ, and just a surrendered soul to that Supreme Personality of Godhead, gacchanty apunar-āvṛttim, then the result will be that after leaving this body he is not coming back again. Punar-āvṛtti means this repeated birth and death is stopped altogether. Gacchanty apunar-āvṛttim. Gacchanti means he goes to that place wherefrom he hasn't got to return back. Gacchanty apunar-āvṛttim. Punar-āvṛttiṁ jñāna-nirdhūta-kalmaṣāḥ. How that position can be attained? Now, jñāna-nirdhūta-kalmaṣāḥ. Kalmaṣāḥ means reactions of sinful activities has been washed completely, then, by that knowledge, by advancement of spiritual knowledge, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we are eligible now to enter into the kingdom of God from where we need not come back again.

Lecture on BG 5.17-25 -- Los Angeles, February 8, 1969:

Madhudviṣa: Prabhupāda, when the living entity, when the jīva leaves the body at death, is there any interim period before it takes up another body or does it happen immediately?

Prabhupāda: Immediately. This body, just like it is bursting. The bursting and the real soul particle comes out. Now he is placed according to his karma, or work. That is under this superior management. That is not in your hands. So if you are not Kṛṣṇa conscious, then you are under the control of this nature. So nature will put you into the semina of a particular father. That means the body which you actually deserve by your activities, so which you are..., that body will be given to you. And if you have desired always Kṛṣṇa, you will have a body where you can enjoy Kṛṣṇa, your spiritual body.

Lecture on BG 5.17-25 -- Los Angeles, February 8, 1969:

So therefore it is upon me, what we want. So we have to simply pray to Kṛṣṇa, as Lord Caitanya has taught us, ayi nanda-tanuja patitaṁ kiṅkaraṁ māṁ viṣame bhavāmbudhau: "This material atmosphere is a big ocean of nescience. Some how or other I am put into this, fallen. Please pick me up. Please pick me up and make the one dust of Your lotus feet." That should be the only prayer, "Please pick me up." Then He will pick up. And tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). Immediately after leaving your body, you will go to Kṛṣṇa. Yes.

Lecture on BG 5.22-29 -- New York, August 31, 1966:

Śaknoti. Śaknoti means one who is able to tolerate. Ihaiva. Ihaiva means in this body. And soḍhum. Soḍhum means to tolerate. Prāk. Prāk means before. Śarīra-vimokṣaṇāt. Before leaving this body, if one practices that... What is that practice? Kāma-krodhodbhavaṁ vegam. Vegam means urge. Just like sex urge. Everyone has got sex urge. Or so many things, we have got some urge. That Kṛṣṇa advises, that before quitting this body... The example is that suppose a man is diseased, is suffering from a type of disease. And doctor has asked him not to take solid food. Now, if he is thinking that... Because he is practiced to take solid food, he is thinking, "I must take solid food. I must take solid food..." But if he can tolerate—"No, doctor has advised not to take solid food"—if he can tolerate, then he becomes very easily cured. Similarly, sense perception, sense pleasure, is reserved for us in our spiritual life. That is actual sense pleasure. Here we are having sense pleasure artificially through this body. Before leaving this body, if we practice to stop sense pleasure as much as possible... There is training, of course. Without training, nothing can be done.

Lecture on BG 6.40-42 -- New York, September 16, 1966:

Now how it is said that vināśa? Vināśa means when we are in the whirlpool of this material transmigration of soul from one body to another and we do not know where we are going. Either we are going, I am going to become an elephant or I'm going to become an ant, I do not know. After leaving this body, I'm in the wilderness of different species of life. So I forget myself. I forget myself. That is called vināśa. Vināśa means that living entity is not annihilated but he does not know where I am. Just like you are thrown to the Pacific Ocean and by the waves... Or you are thrown into the middle, you don't see any land, so you do not know... That is vināśa. That is annihilation. Although we are living there. Similarly, if we meet this... We do not know what I am going to be in my next life but my life, next life is a fact. Next life is fact. Suppose if you drive me away from this room, so I must take shelter of another room. So you do not know where I am gone. So this is called vināśa. This is called vināśa.

Lecture on BG 6.40-42 -- New York, September 16, 1966:

Govinda dasi: You said that after leaving this body, this body is gone, you'll part with Kṛṣṇa consciousness and go to a higher place? (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: No. If you make perfection of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then after leaving this body you go directly to Kṛṣṇa. But if you are not perfect, if you have simply executed a certain percentage only then you'll get the chance of another human body either in this planet or any other planet to execute the balance. That is... According to percentage of advancement, one is given birth in a rich family or in a pious family or in a yogi's family. That depends on the percentage of advancement. But one who has completed his spiritual consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he's at once transferred.

Lecture on BG 6.40-43 -- New York, September 18, 1966:

You gentlemen, boys, who come here—that is an urge from within, that you want. This urge is due to your past, previous, spiritual culture. This should be understood if we believe Bhagavad-gītā. So we should not make any more fall down. We should finish this business in this life so that, according to Bhagavad-gītā, as it is said, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya: (BG 4.9) "Then, after leaving this body, then he does not take birth again in this material world, where janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9), repeated birth, and death, diseases, are there, but he comes back to Me, Kṛṣṇa." Samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ. Mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ. Murāri. Murāri means Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Los Angeles, March 12, 1970:

In the Fourth Chapter it is said that "My appearance, disappearance, and activities are all transcendental. Anyone who can understand this transcendental nature of My activities, appearance, disappearance, the result is," tyaktvā deham, "after leaving this body," punar janma naiti, "he does not take birth again in this material world." That is stated in the Fourth Chapter. That means immediately liberation achieved. This is a fact. This is Bhagavad-gītā study, not that to interpret in your own way. Bhagavad-gītā says like that. Therefore we present Bhagavad-gītā as it is, without any nonsense interpretation. There cannot be any chance of nonsense interpretation. You have to take fact as it is; then you study. But they are not inclined to study Bhagavad-gītā as it is. They want to study Bhagavad-gītā as they are. So how you can study Bhagavad-gītā? Your mentality, your situation, is completely different.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Bombay, January 13, 1973:

God is personally canvassing here, Kṛṣṇa. How you can say God is not there? God is there. God must be there. Otherwise, how things are going on? Just like because you are within this body, although you cannot see yourself. We cannot see ourself, where I am in this body. But I am in this body. As soon as I go away from this body, this body's useless. Not even worth farthing. The such nice brain, such nice dress, such nice activity, as soon as I go away, I leave this body... Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). As I leave this body and accept another body, this body's useless, immediately. Similarly you are seeing the whole cosmic manifestation, the gigantic body of this material world. So there is something, soul.

Lecture on BG 7.2 -- San Francisco, September 11, 1968:

Not that because Kṛṣṇa came here, He has left some instruction, we shall stick here. You must give up this idea. Kṛṣṇa gives you opportunity how you can live peacefully here. But that does not mean that you make your permanent settlement here. Then you are doomed. You take the advantage of Kṛṣṇa's instruction and prepare yourself so that tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti: (BG 4.9) after leaving this body, no more coming here. Bas. You go. You are transferred to Kṛṣṇaloka. We should prepare in that way. That is the solution of problem. Otherwise, if you want to live in this material world, this nature is like that. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). It is manifested at a certain period, again it is destroyed. And there is destroying, I mean to say, process. So Kṛṣṇa comes, He sets right everything. But the nature of this world is like that. It becomes again deteriorated. Deteriorated. So? Let us have saṅkīrtana. Govinda jaya jaya gopāla jaya jaya. Let that girl come here. Come on, come on. (end)

Lecture on BG 7.4 -- Nairobi, October 31, 1975:

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.

Lecture on BG 7.15-18 -- New York, October 9, 1966:

So therefore Kṛṣṇa says here, priyo hi jñānino 'tyartham. The man who is actually in knowledge of the science of God is very dear to God. Priyo hi jñānino 'tyartham ahaṁ sa ca mama priyaḥ. That is the personal relationship with the devotee and God. The devotee, he does not know anything beyond God, and God also does not know anything beyond His devotee. So sweet relation. God is always after me, as we have discussed many times, that He is sitting in the same tree, in this heart. I am sitting, and my friend, God, is also sitting, Supersoul, eternally. Wherever I am taking my transmigration, when I leave this body and enter into another body, God also goes there just to see what I am doing. When I shall turn my face towards Him—He is simply waiting.

Lecture on BG 7.18 -- New York, October 12, 1966:

So this is the process. We are trying to, I mean, to introduce in the modern society Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and that will make us all-perfect, happy, and after leaving this body we shall enter into the kingdom of God, where there is eternal life, bliss and full knowledge.

Lecture on BG 7.28-8.6 -- New York, October 23, 1966:

That's all. This body is left, and we enter into a particular womb of mother, and just to develop another body it takes about seven months. Then, after seven months, when the body is fit, then our consciousness comes back. Then we want to come out of the womb. And at the tenth month we come out. That is a very miserable condition. That is the miserable condition of birth. "But one who leaves his body in Kṛṣṇa consciousness," anta-kāle, "at the point of death," Kṛṣṇa says, yaḥ prayāti, "who leaves his body in this way," sa mad-bhāvaṁ yāti (BG 8.5), "he at once attains the perfection like Me, like My nature. His nature is transcendental. Therefore one attains at once, transcendental." Yāti nāsty atra saṁśayaḥ: "These things are to be taken up."

Lecture on BG 8.1 -- Geneva, June 7, 1974:

So that mad-bhāva, here it is said, yaḥ prayāti. Anyone who is passing away, who is leaving this body, thinking of Kṛṣṇa at the time of death, yaḥ prayāti sa mad-bhāvaṁ yāti (BG 8.5). Mad-bhāvam means spiritual nature, this spiritual world. This is also Kṛṣṇa's world, but this is not the spiritual world. This is material world. We have already discussed that He has got two energies, material and spiritual. This material world is the manifestation of Kṛṣṇa's material energy. Similarly, He has got a spiritual world also. Because He, His spiritual energy's also one of the energies. So mad-bhāvam yāti means that spiritual energy... Because Kṛṣṇa remains in that spiritual world, therefore He says mad-bhāvam, "the spiritual nature."

Lecture on BG 8.12-13 -- New York, November 15, 1966:

So kṛṣṇa yei bhaje sei baḍa catura: "Those who are persons in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are very intelligent." They are not interested to get promotion in any planet where there is death, never mind the long duration of life there is. They want, just like God, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). The God's body is sac-cid, sac-cid-ānanda. Sat means eternal, and cit means full of knowledge, and ānanda means full of pleasure. We have got our pamphlet—most of you might have seen—Kṛṣṇa, the Reservoir of all Pleasure. Similarly, if we transfer our body, our self, leaving this body to the spiritual world, in the Kṛṣṇa planet, or any other spiritual planet, then we get the similar body, sac-cid-ānanda: eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss.

Lecture on BG 8.12-13 -- New York, November 15, 1966:

Now, any way, either you concentrate your mind like imagination or you see factually, you have to concentrate your mind in the Viṣṇu form. Here mām. Mām means "unto the Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu." Yaḥ prayāti. "Anyone who leaves this body," tyajan deham, "after quitting this body," sa yāti paramāṁ gatim, "he enters into the spiritual kingdom." Unless he desires... Those who (are) actually yogi, they do not desire to enter any other planet because they also know that temporary planets, temporary life. They are not interested. That is the intelligence. Antavat tu phalaṁ teṣāṁ tad bhavaty alpa-medhasām (BG 7.23).

Lecture on BG 8.12-13 -- New York, November 15, 1966:

So for the yogi, those who are impersonalists, for them, this process is recommended. What is that? Om ity ekākṣaraṁ brahma vyāharan: "Just vibrating this transcendental sound, om, and leave this body." Then yaḥ prayāti: "Anyone who is able..." (aside:) Where is the watch? That's all right. "Anyone who is able to quit this material body in these circumstances, simply by uttering this transcendental sound, om, with full consciousness of the Supreme Lord, then he's sure to be transferred, to transmigrate in the spiritual world."

Lecture on BG 8.22-27 -- New York, November 20, 1966:

Now Kṛṣṇa is explaining that "My dear Arjuna, there are different time indication of passing away from this material world. That I am explaining to you." Yatra kāle, the time. Now suppose at a particular... There are different... Of course, in your country I do not know what is the astronomical almanac, but in India there is very minute calculation of astronomical situation. When a man is born, his horoscope is made, and when a man dies, how does he go, where he is going, what is his situation, by astronomical calculation they can say. So Kṛṣṇa also, accepting that principle, and He's confirming herewith that yatra kāle tu anāvṛttim. If some, at some particular time I leave this body, then I may become liberated. That means no more my birth in this material world. Similarly, if I die at a particular moment, I may..., I'll have to come back again in this material world. It is all chance. But that chance, accidentally or by some way or other one may have. But, for the devotee, there is no such chance. He is surely, he is surely. Because devotee... Sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ (BG 8.6). A devotee is always in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So there is no question of chance. He does not give any chance to think otherwise. Therefore he is guaranteed. But for others there are some chances like that, that in particular moment if he dies, if he leaves this body, then he can enter into the spiritual kingdom.

Lecture on BG 9.7-10 -- New York, November 25, 1966:

If you take to this, if you practice this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, eternal occupation, then, as we have already explained in the previous chapters, that at the time of your death when you leave this body, as soon as you think of these three eternals—Kṛṣṇa eternal; I am eternal; I want to be engaged in the eternal—you are at once transferred. It is very easy thing. You don't require any sputnik; artificially, for years together, 25,000 miles you go up. What is 25,000... Panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyaḥ (Bs. 5.34). If you try for millions and billions of years with the force of air and mind, with your sputnik to reach... (incomplete) (end)

Lecture on BG 9.27-29 -- New York, December 19, 1966:

But adurlabham ātma-bhaktau: He is very cheap to the pure devotee. So our duty is to become pure devotee by practice of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and this is not at all difficult. This chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare, if you chant, you will realize how you are making progress, and gradually... Kṛṣṇa is within you; God is within you. He will give you intelligence that "You do this way. You do that way." Everything will be clear, and the result will be tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya: (BG 4.9) "After leaving this body you will come to Me." Then your human life is perfected. Follow this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Thank you very much. (end)

Lecture on BG 13.17 -- Bombay, October 11, 1973:

Avibhaktaṁ ca bhūteṣu, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). This is another statement of Bhagavad-gītā, that the Lord, Supreme Lord, he is situated in everyone's heart, hṛd-deśe, particularly pointed out. Hṛd-deśe means "in the heart". Hṛt means heart. So modern medical science, they see that the energy is coming from the heart and as soon as the heart stops to work, it is said that the body is dead. So here also the same thing is confirmed. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). They cannot say, explain, why the heart stops, but here we get the explanation that as soon as the soul, both the soul and the Supersoul, leave this body, then it is only a lump of matter only. "Dust thou art; dust thou beist." It is developed from these material elements, five gross elements and three subtle elements, but so long... It works as long as the soul, the spirit soul and the Supersoul, remains.

Lecture on BG 13.26 -- Bombay, October 25, 1973:

They may know something, but Kṛṣṇa says, kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor jñānaṁ yaj jñānaṁ tad mataṁ mama. Unless you know the kṣetra and kṣetra-jña both, then your knowledge is imperfect. The medical man, very experienced medical man, attending a man on the deathbed, oxygen gas, injection, everything is supplied, but the man dies. And when he dies, the medical man says, "We cannot say what has happened. We have tried our best with the modern medical appliances, but we do not know what has happened." Therefore their knowledge is imperfect. They cannot say. They do not know that there is the soul, kṣetra-jña, who has now left this body. Therefore it is nothing but a lump of matter.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.1.1 -- New York, July 6, 1972:

So you European, American students, you take full advantage of this Vedic culture. I am therefore so much laboring hard that we, before my leaving this body, I may give you some books who you can enjoy after my death. So utilize it. Utilize it. Read every śloka nicely, try to understand the meaning, discuss amongst yourselves. Nityaṁ bhagavata-sevayā. That is our mission. Naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhagavata-sevayā (SB 1.2.18). Abhadra, we have got so many dirty things within our heart. So these dirty things can be cleansed simply by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no other method.

Lecture on SB 1.2.5 -- Visakhapatnam, February 20, 1972, At Ladies Club:

Every one of us had a body like a child, baby, but that body is now missing; we have got a different body. Young man has got a different body, old man has got a different body. So this is a fact, that the soul is there, but body is changing. Therefore the natural conclusion should be that when we leave this body, I take another body.

Lecture on SB 1.2.5 -- Melbourne, April 3, 1972, Lecture at Christian Monastery:

Why not? Just like I had my small body. Then I had greater body, another body, another body. So every moment there is incarnation, reincarnation, every moment. That is medical science opinion. We are changing our bodily condition, material condition, but I am existing. Therefore, as I have passed over my childhood body to be incarnated into boyhood body, from boyhood I have reincarnated in a youthhood body. From youthhood body I reincarnated my old body. Similarly, after leaving this body I must have to accept another body. That I have already explained.

Lecture on SB 1.2.11 -- Tirupati, April 26, 1974:

The aim of life is tattva-jijñāsā. That Sanātana Gosvāmī did when he approached Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He inquired from Him, ke āmi kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya: "My dear Lord, kindly let me know who am I and why I am put into the threefold miserable condition of life." Then one can say, "You are minister. You know what you are." Then he says, "No, actually I do not know what I am." Grāmya-vyavahāre paṇḍita tāi satya māni: "Some neighborhood men, they call me I am very big man, I am very learned man, and when I study myself," āpanāra hitāhita kichui nā jāni, "I do not know what I am, wherefrom I have come, where I have to go after leaving this body, why I am put into the tribulation of threefold miseries. I do not want to die. Why death is enforced upon me? I do not want to take birth. Why that is also enforced upon me? I do not want old age. Why it is enforced upon me? I do not want disease. Why it is enforced upon me? And what is the purpose of my coming in this material world, and where I shall go after my death? Or this is the finish?" There are so many things to inquire. That is called tattva-jijñāsā. This is called tattva-jijñāsā. Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā.

Lecture on SB 1.2.17 -- San Francisco, March 25, 1967:

The consciousness is the symptom of the spirit soul. So the whole process now we are trying from the Bhagavad-gītā is to bring one to get him on the platform of consciousness. And if we act from the platform of consciousness, then we may not be pushed again into the platform of this bodily conception. And if we can continue that platform, if we continue to act on that platform of consciousness, then, at the end of this body, not even at the end of this body, even in the presence of this body, we shall be free. We shall be free from material contamination. Our spiritual life will be revived and the result will be that in our next life, next life, after leaving this body, we shall have our full spiritual life eternally.

Lecture on SB 1.2.17 -- San Francisco, March 25, 1967:

At the time of death, if our consciousness is pure, then it is sure that next life is not material. Next life's pure spiritual life. But if our consciousness is not pure at the point of the verge of death, just leaving this body, then we have to take again this material body. That is the process going on by nature's law. We have got our finer body. This is gross body. The body which you are seeing, which I am seeing, this is gross body. Just like shirt and coat. Within your coat, there is shirt, and within your shirt, there is a body. Similarly, the pure soul is covered by shirt and coat. The shirt is mind, intelligence and false ego. Mind, intelligence and false ego. False ego means that the wrong conception that "I am matter. I am something, product of this material world." This wrong conception makes me localized. Just like because I have taken my birth in America, therefore I think myself American. Because I have taken my birth in India, therefore I think myself as Indian. But as pure soul, I am neither Indian nor American. I am pure soul. Because this is designation. This American, or Indian, or German, or Englishman, or cats and dogs and this and that, black and white, all these are designations. Spiritual consciousness means to become free from all these designations.

Lecture on SB 1.2.22 -- Vrndavana, November 2, 1972:

So here Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). If the living entity does not enter into another gross body, then where does he go? So Kṛṣṇa says, mām eti. "He comes to Me." Now just imagine what is the speed of spirit soul, just after leaving this body after death, he immediately goes to Goloka Vṛndāvana, or at least where Kṛṣṇa is there. Mām eti. Kṛṣṇa's nitya-līlā, that has been described in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, how Kṛṣṇa's nitya-līlā is going on. Kṛṣṇa is present in a bhauma-līlā in one of the universes every time. The Lord Caitanya has given the example as the movement of the sun. The sun is moving, and the twenty-four hours into sixty minutes, into sixty seconds... The... All these time changes are there, every time. Just like our sunrise was, say, at six-thirty, or six. This six thirty, passed here, but somewhere else it is now six-thirty. Again when it will pass six-thirty there, in somewhere else there will be six-thirty. Similarly Kṛṣṇa is passing from one universe to another, and when He's visible in this universe, we find Kṛṣṇa's appearance.

Lecture on SB 1.5.9-11 -- New Vrindaban, June 6, 1969:

So simply by understanding Kṛṣṇa, janma karma me divyaṁ tattvataḥ (BG 4.9), in truth, not whimsically. Not by your fertile brain, speculation: "Like this," "like that," "maybe," "perhaps..." Not this nonsense. Just try to understand Kṛṣṇa. So simply by understanding Kṛṣṇa, janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ tyaktvā deham, that person, after leaving this body, mām eti, he goes to Kṛṣṇa. And who can go to Kṛṣṇa unless he has got a spiritual body, the same sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1)? Unless one has the same vigrahaḥ... Just like we can understand that when we take birth in a particular place, say in Greenland, which is always full with ice, or some other place. So you have got a particular type of body, you get. There the animals, there the man, they have got a particular type of body. They can bear the severe cold. We cannot. Similarly, when you go to Kṛṣṇaloka you'll have a particular type of body.

Lecture on SB 1.8.19 -- Chicago, July 5, 1974 :

Govinda, because He has entered within this universe, therefore the cosmic manifestation is possible. Otherwise it is not. Just like I am the soul, you are the soul. Because you have entered this body or I am entered this body, therefore the movement of the body is possible. As soon as I or you leave this body, it is dull, no more, no movement. It is very easy to understand. Similarly, how the movement of the cosmic manifestation is going on, the so-called scientist, philosopher, rascals, they do not understand, because Kṛṣṇa has entered. It is very easy to understand.

Lecture on SB 1.8.48 -- Los Angeles, May 10, 1973:

Pradyumna: This King Yudhiṣṭhira is lamenting that the body, this material body, does not actually belong to us. We can even see relatively that the material body belongs, while we are inside this material body, it belongs to the family. We have debts to pay to so many living entities—to our forefathers, our family. It belongs to our country. Our country takes it and says, "You take your body and you fight in Vietnam," or "You do this kind of work" or "You don't do this." It is subject to the religion we are born in. It is subject to so many rules and regulations beyond ourselves. This body, even while we are in it, does not belong to us, and before we came into this body, it was matter, belonging to someone else, and after we leave this body, as it says in the purport, "While there is life in the body it is meant for the service of others, and when it is dead it is meant to be eaten by dogs and jackals or maggots." So after death the body is disposed of in different ways. Some people bury the body; in that case the worms take the body. Some people burn the body; in that case it is consumed by fire and becomes ashes.

Prabhupāda: This one word, pārakyasya is very important. If you work... Somebody is working very hard, nobody is interested to work very hard for others. That is not the material philosophy. Everyone wants his own satisfaction, means sense gratification. So those who are in the bodily concept of life, they are working for their bodily sense gratification. But if we consider philosophically, we'll see that even this body does not belong to me. Therefore it is a very important word, pārakyasya. From the very beginning. The body was given by father and mother. So if anyone creates something, so that thing belongs to the creator. If the father and mother has created this body, then from the very beginning the body belongs to the father and mother. And actually, in the childhood, as the father and mother says, "Sit down here, eat this, don't go there," everything is controlled by the father and mother, and originally given by the father and mother. So how we can claim, "This is my body"? From the very beginning.

Lecture on SB 1.9.40 -- New York, May 22, 1973:

Now I am healthy. I am quite in good health so let me die immediately, thinking of You, because my whole purpose is to think of You, of Your pastimes, at the time of death. So generally, at the time of death, kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ, the whole system becomes disarranged. There are coughing, there are headache, there is some pain, this is general system. Sometimes they are so intolerable that the man who is going to die, he cries. The system within the body is so complicated that at any time it can be disarranged, and it becomes a great source of pain. So, at the time of death means, the arrangement becomes so dangerously painful, that one leaves this body, "No more." This is death. This bodily arrangement becomes so painful. Just like one commits suicide. When the situation is too much painful he wants a rescue by committing suicide. Similarly, when the bodily pains are too severe, then the living entity can not live in this body. Tyaktvā deham, he gives up this body. So we have to give up this body, that we forget.

Lecture on SB 1.13.10 -- Geneva, June 1, 1974:

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, it is the desire of Kṛṣṇa that these people who have no information practically about Bhagavān, so they should learn something from this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. And therefore we have published so many nice books. It is the desire of Kṛṣṇa they should read these books and try to understand the Kṛṣṇa philosophy, the science of Kṛṣṇa, the science of God. Then their life will be perfect. Otherwise, this one-sided civilization, material comforts, that will not help them. Because however you may create your city, home, very nice, clean, materially comfortable, you will not be allowed to stay. That defect, they do not understand. And after you leave this body, there is no certainty what kind of body you are going to have. There is certainty according to the material laws. There is certainty, but they do not know it.

Lecture on SB 1.15.36 -- Los Angeles, December 14, 1973:

So we have to understand what is Kṛṣṇa. And as soon as you understand Kṛṣṇa, janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ, in truth, if you understand Kṛṣṇa, then you become liberated. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). So we have to understand Kṛṣṇa like that. Sva-tanvā: He left this body not as we leave our body. No. We are leaving and accepting our body by the force of nature, material nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Our business is going on being forced, enforced by the laws of nature. Kṛṣṇa is not under the laws of nature; neither He has got distinction between His self and body. This is to be understood. Sva-tanvā. If somebody thinks that "Kṛṣṇa left His body and died like us..." There are a party, they think like that, "Kṛṣṇa also died like us." But that is not the fact. Kṛṣṇa left His so-called body just to befool the rascals.

Lecture on SB 1.15.41 -- Los Angeles, December 19, 1973:

So it appears that Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira knew how to practice the yoga. Not only Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, practically any high-class man, especially the brāhmaṇas and the kṣatriyas, every one of them knew this practice, yoga practice. So at the time of death they could utilize, how to give up this body. That is perfection of yoga. The yogis, they can give up the life or give this, relinquish this body, according to his own desire, not compelled by the material condition. That is yoga system. Generally, a man dies under the obligation of material laws. But a yogi, he controls in such a way that he leaves the body...

Lecture on SB 1.15.49 -- Los Angeles, December 26, 1973:

Pradyumna: Translation: "Vidura, while on pilgrimage, left his body at Prabhāsa. Because he was absorbed in thought of Lord Kṛṣṇa, he was received by the denizens of Pitṛloka, where he returned to his original post." (SB 1.15.49)

Prabhupāda: This Vidura was Yamarāja. So he was cursed by one muni to go down and take birth in śūdra family. Yamarāja was very exalted post, but still... Yamarāja means the superintendent of death. There is Pitṛloka, Yamaloka, different planets. And where each planet is situated, how many miles, yojana... The Sanskrit is called yojana. Yojana means eight miles. So how many yojana is one planet situated from another planet, that is all described in the Bhāgavata, Fifth Canto.

Lecture on SB 1.15.49 -- Los Angeles, December 26, 1973:

So Vidura's history was like that. He was a dāsī-putra, brother, a step-brother, not exactly step-brother, but brother, of Mahārāja Dhṛtarāṣṭra. But he was a very saintly person, because formerly, in the previous life, he was Yamarāja. So he was not ordinary man. So he cultivated spiritual consciousness. Now, after leaving this body, he returned again, pitṛbhiḥ sva-kṣayaṁ yayau. He again returned to his original post. Temporary, he got the life of a śūdra; again he returned back by his pious activities. Similarly, there are many narrations in the Purāṇas. Sometimes Indra, the king of heaven, he was also cursed by Bṛhaspati to become a hog in this planet.

Lecture on SB 1.15.49 -- Los Angeles, December 26, 1973:

So viduro 'pi parityajya prabhāse deham ātmanaḥ. Deha, parityajya deham. So we give up this body. I am not lost; I am transferred to another body. We give up this body. Just like I give up one kind of dress; I take another kind of dress. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). These are all stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. As we change our dress, similarly, we change our body. And this way, transmigration is going on. So this human life should be engaged in such knowledge and cultivation of knowledge, that after leaving this body, we are not going to accept another material body, but we be transferred directly to the spiritual world, and we are situated in one the spiritual planets, as I desire. There are many millions of spiritual planets also. So far we are concerned, we are concentrating our mind to be transferred to the spiritual world, in the highest topmost planet there, Kṛṣṇa-loka, Goloka.

Lecture on SB 1.16.23 -- Hawaii, January 19, 1974:

Pradyumna: (reads Sanskrit) "One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna."

Prabhupāda: Purport?

Pradyumna: "The Lord's descent from His transcendental abode is already explained in the sixth verse. One who can understand the truth of the appearance of the Personality of Godhead is already liberated from material bondage..."

Prabhupāda: He's already liberated. If one understands this fact, that why God comes, if he is fully aware of the fact, he's already liberated, immediately. Go on.

Lecture on SB 1.16.23 -- Hawaii, January 19, 1974:

Prabhupāda: Yes, immediately after giving up this body. The example is given in the śāstras that if, when you walk... Just like the steps, like this. So this step is secure, the another step, when you feel it is secure, then you get up, get up this step. This is our practical experience. Similarly, unless our next birth is fixed up, we do not leave this body. At the time of death, by superior authority, what body I'm going to take next, that has to be decided. Then, when it is decided, if he takes little... Because that is for the most sinful person. And for the devotee, it is already decided. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9)— immediately transferred to the spiritual world. Immediately. There is no question of decision; it is already decided. Kṛṣṇa's decision. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). Therefore it is said, "A devotee..." Jīvo vā māro vā: "A devotee, either you live or die, the same thing." Why? "You are living, you are serving Kṛṣṇa. When you die, you go to serve Kṛṣṇa. That's all."

Lecture on SB 2.1.1 -- Vrndavana, March 16, 1974:

Here in this material world we are busy in questioning and answering, or hearing. Question, hearing, and answering. This is the whole world. Even in the material field. You go to the market, you inquire, "What is the price of this thing?" and you hear the description of the thing and the price of the thing. So the praśnaḥ, the question was made by Mahārāja Parīkṣit just at the point of his death, "What I have to do now?" This is very intelligent. Only intelligent man can understand what is the value of this question, "What I have to do now?" Because intelligent person knows that "I am going to leave this body."

Lecture on SB 2.1.2 -- Mombassa, September 13, 1971:

The next life is there. The next life will depend on your work in this life. You may become very rich nation's son, you may have very good asset, but you are not allowed to stay here. Suppose in America, you have got so many nice cities. But we sometimes come to see your cities and opulence but the fact is that in spite of your development of this national asset, you will not be allowed to stay here. That we forget. And after I leave this place, leave this body, I do not know what is going to happen to me, we are in ignorance. Apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ (SB 2.1.2), because we are blind.

Lecture on SB 2.1.5 -- Los Angeles, August 13, 1972:

Now, if at the ultimate end of this body, if we can remember Kṛṣṇa, then our life is successful. What? How is that? Now as soon as we remember Kṛṣṇa, immediately we are transferred to the spiritual world, the abode of Kṛṣṇa or Goloka Vṛndāvana. It does not take even a second's time. Spirit soul is so forceful that anywhere... The yogic success is like that. Yogic, those who are successful yogis, they, at the..., they do not die by nature's law. They control even their death. How is that? They make yoga practice, and when they think that one is perfect now, so he leaves this body and he transfers himself to any planet he likes. There is no need of sputnik. Similarly, the bhakta-yogī, he does not like to stay in any one of the planets within the material world, because he knows from the authoritative description of Bhagavad-gītā and Vedic literature.

Lecture on SB 2.3.1 -- Los Angeles, May 19, 1972:

Therefore Upaniṣad says, Gargopaniṣad, etad viditvā yaḥ prayāti sa brāhmaṇaḥ. "One who leaves this body after knowing everything, he is brāhmaṇa." And etad aviditvā yaḥ prayāti sa kṛpaṇaḥ. "And anyone who dies without knowing the value of life, he's kṛpaṇa, miser, cripple-minded." Because he could not utilize the opportunity given to him by nature. Such nice beautiful body, you American boys and girls-nice country, good facilities, no poverty—everything is very nicely given to you. But, if in spite of all these facilities, if you don't take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you are kṛpaṇa, miser. "Miser" means one who has got money, but he cannot utilize it. He is miser. And one who knows how to utilize money... There are many merchants. They get a few thousands of dollars from their father, but due to intelligence he increases to millions of dollars. That is intelligence. And miser, or foolishness, is that "I get some money from my father, but I spend it for nothing." So this human form of life is specially meant for becoming brāhmaṇa.

Lecture on SB 2.3.17 -- Los Angeles, June 12, 1972:

Actually, we spiritual soul, we have no death. It is due to this infection. This infection is called dirty things. Actually it is dirt. "Dust thou art, dust thou beist." That's a fact. Because as soon as I, the soul, will leave this body, it will be immediately decomposed, and after a few days it will be earth, dust. So actually it is dirt. So we have to cleanse this dirt from my real identity, spiritual life. This is the process. And this cleansing process is very nicely done simply by hearing the message of Uttama-śloka, or Kṛṣṇa. You haven't got to scratch it with some machine. No.

Lecture on SB 2.4.2 -- Los Angeles, June 25, 1972:

Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaun... (BG 4.9). Kṛṣṇa says, anyone who can understand Kṛṣṇa as He is, then after leaving this body he comes to home, back to home, back to Godhead. Mām eva. So saintly persons, their life is so pure that in this living condition, they are in Vaikuṇṭha, and after leaving this body, they are going to Vaikuṇṭha. So jīva vā māra vā. Both ways they are benefited. And the hunter was said, mā jīva mā māra, "You don't live, don't die." What is that? "Now you are hunter, butcher. So nasty life you are living.

Lecture on SB 2.9.4-8 -- Tokyo, April 23, 1972:

That is yoga, not that showing some gymnastic without any rules and regulation, without following any principles. These are all bogus. Actual yoga practice is to control the air within this body. Then, by mechanical means, he can control, and at the perfection, the yogi can leave this body according to his will. That means unless he thinks that "I am now perfect; I can transfer to any planet," he does not leave the body. Therefore yogis... Still there are yogis who are seven hundred years old, three hundred years old, four hundred years. You see just like young man. Still in India you'll find such yogis. They can give complete history which happened two hundred years here. Simultaneously, history they can give. "This happened. This Englishman was here. He did..." like that.

Lecture on SB 2.9.13 -- Melbourne, April 12, 1972:

Buddha theory is like that, varieties, varieties—the earth, water, air, fire. So if this body is made of all these varieties, so you make it nirvāṇa; you kill it or dismantle it to the varieties. Just like when anything in this material world, when it is annihilated, it goes. This, our body... Just like when we leave this body, the matter remains there, lump of matter. Gradually it becomes decomposed, and some water comes out. The water goes to the water, the earthly part goes to the earth, the fiery part goes to the fiery. In this way, this combination of matter becomes dismantled.

Lecture on SB 3.22.21 -- Tehran, August 10, 1976:

Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane (SB 9.4.18). There is one instance of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, how the devotee does not lose a single moment without thinking of Kṛṣṇa. Satataṁ kīrtayanto mām (BG 9.14). Kīrtaniyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). This instruction we get. So, sadā tad bhāva-bhāvitaḥ (BG 8.6). If you practice like that, then there is chance of being transferred to Kṛṣṇa just after leaving this body. So somehow or other you should be absorbed in the thought of Kṛṣṇa. We get all these examples from authorities. Just like Ambarīṣa Mahārāja, he was emperor, very responsible man. But sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor: he kept his mind always on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor (SB 9.4.18). So although great emperor, so responsibility, still it was possible for him to keep his mind on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. In South India there is a class of professional dancer. They take a big jug on the head and without any, what is called? Bira?

Lecture on SB 3.25.4 -- Bombay, November 4, 1974:

So I am proprietor. Not proprietor, I am occupier. Just like in a house, the tenant and the landlord. The landlord is the occupier, tenant, and the landlord is the proprietor. Similarly, we ātmās, we are simply occupier of this body. We are not proprietor. The proprietor is Paramātmā. Sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata. So if the proprietor says that "Get out of this house," or some, by law... Similarly, when the Paramātmā says, "Now you have to leave this body," you have to leave this body. So this is Vedic knowledge.

Lecture on SB 3.25.27 -- Bombay, November 27, 1974:

Although he's a prisoner, he can be also good citizen. There is no hopelessness. Similarly, we are now prisoner in this material world, and we have got this material body. Therefore we are changing: sometimes young, sometimes old, sometimes these boys, some But tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9), if you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then, after leaving this body, you're not any more getting this material body. That is stated. tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). Then what happens? Mām eti. He comes to back to home, back to Godhead. And as soon as you go, you get your original, spiritual body, same beautiful body as Kṛṣṇa has, as Nārāyaṇa has. This is the opportunity.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Johannesburg, October 20, 1975:

Eight millions. And human being, 400,000 species form, there are. So out of that, the civilized man, the best form of human body, that is meant for this purpose, tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyed sattvam (SB 5.5.1), that: "My dear boys, you should not waste your time simply for finding out the necessities of this body and work very hard day and night and forget your own business." What is that own business? Self-realization, "What I am." This is called own business. "Am I this body or something else?" We can understand it that "I am not this body," because as soon as I, you, leave this body, the spirit soul, it is nothing but lump of matter. That we can understand. That is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā lesson, to understand that "I am not this body." If we live under the conception that "I am this body," then, the śāstra, Vedic literatures, condemns, "Then you are no better than the cats and dogs, because they also live under the bodily concept of life." And if you do not understand that you are not this body, you are spirit soul and you are changing different forms of body for realization of the higher, the highest goal of life... That you should understand. That is called tapasya.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- London, September 17, 1969:

So the Śrīmad-Bhāgavata says that if you want to be free... Free means just like you are trying to go to the moon planet by so many mechanical arrangements, but if you are free spiritually, then you can go any planet you like, immediately. The yogis, those who are perfect yogis... Not these nonsense yogis. Those who are perfect yogis, they can go at their will any planet they like. That is yogic perfection. When a yogi becomes perfect, he does... He does not die. "Die," this word is not actually applicable. When he leaves this body... Actually, nobody will die. We simply quit this body and accept another body. We are forced by the laws of nature according to karma. By practice of yoga system we can avoid the forcible nature's law, but we can leave this body according to our sweet will, not being forced by the nature's law. Just like Bhīṣmadeva. Bhīṣmadeva, he knew this yoga practice. Therefore he was not to be killed.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- London, September 17, 1969:

There are still yogis. They are yogis. They have practiced yoga. Still they consider they are not perfect. The perfection will be when a yogi at his sweet will can leave this body and can go any planet he likes. Not only within this material universe, but also even, if he likes, he can go to the spiritual planet also. That is yoga.

Lecture on SB 5.5.3 -- Boston, May 4, 1968:

Yes. So yoga system is very difficult for this age. But if you think that this fractional practice of yoga, a hundredth, one percent... That is not possible to reach to the perfectional stage. The perfectional stage is that if one is perfect in the yoga practice, he shall die at his will. Material laws cannot act upon him. He'll be practiced to control the inside air in such a way that whenever he thinks fit, that "Now I shall leave my body for such and such planet. I shall go to such and such planet," the yoga system will help him—if he is perfect. But who is such perfect man in the yoga system? It is not possible.

Lecture on SB 5.5.3 -- Stockholm, September 9, 1973:

Therefore, if you are intelligent, within this short duration of life, you make your Kṛṣṇa consciousness perfectly done and go back to Kṛṣṇa. Don't live here, don't come here again. Take that philosophy. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). If one becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, then after leaving this body, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti, punar janma naiti, no more birth in this material world. Then were does he go? So? Finished? No: mām eti, "He comes to Me." So Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is so important. Just try to understand. Don't waste your time. Finish your business of Kṛṣṇa consciousness perfectly. Whatever little duration of life you have got... That is stated here: nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti na sādhu manye (SB 5.5.4). In this way, to waste time, is not at all good. Na sādhu manye. Why it is not good? Yata ātmano 'yam asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ: Because we have got this miserable condition of life, this body... This is due to our past action. Now if you create again the same action, then you'll have to accept another body. Then your, this miserable condition of life will continue. Will continue. Just finish it.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- London, August 3, 1971:

Therefore, this human form of body is especially meant for creating a favorable situation so that when we pass through this body or we leave this body and we accept another body, we'll get exact a body like Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We are trying to change the consciousness of the people so that this preparation will help him to get exactly a body like Kṛṣṇa in next life, and he may dance with Kṛṣṇa in rasa dance. That is our propaganda. Body you'll get. That's a fact. Just as you are getting one body after another in this life, similarly, tathā dehāntara-prāptir, similarly another change of body. Dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Those who are in the knowledge, they're not surprised. They know what kind of body. "My father left this body; now he has accepted another body." He can understand what kind of body he has. How? Just like when you see a friend going away to other place by plane, you know, "This plane is meant for..." Just like I came from New York yesterday to London.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- New York, August 1, 1971:

So we should not wait for next life. We should try to fulfill the mission of Kṛṣṇa consciousness in this life so that, as assured by Kṛṣṇa, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti: (BG 4.9) "After leaving this body, he does not come again to this material world." Mām eti: "He comes to Me."

Lecture on SB 6.3.18 -- Gorakhpur, February 11, 1971:

...rakṣanti tad-bhaktimataḥ parebhyo mattaś ca martyān atha sarvataś ca (SB 6.3.18). So invisible Viṣṇudūtas, they are always traveling. Just like Viṣṇu, Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is all-pervading, He is everywhere, but our present eyes cannot see Him, material eyes. Just like we cannot see even the living entity when he is passing through this body, leaving this body aside, very small. We cannot see. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136). By the dint of your..., by the strength of your senses, the present material senses, it is not possible to appreciate śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi. Beginning from Kṛṣṇa's holy name. (dog barking) (aside:) Where is this dog? No, your dog. Your dog? This is your dog?

Lecture on SB 6.3.18 -- Gorakhpur, February 11, 1971:

So invisible Viṣṇudūtas, they are always everywhere. Just like police constables, Yamadūtas are there, and Viṣṇudūtas are there. Civil guard and the police constables, both are there. So Yamadūtas' business is to arrest the sinful. That is their... Here everyone is sinful. Nobody is free from sin. That is the position of this material world. So Yamadūtas are searching or taking away. Just after leaving this body, one is taken away by Yamadūta to the place of Yamadūta. There is a planet described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So those who are very sinful, they are dragged through hot desert. They cannot... They fall down. Such persons fall down, but still, he is dragged through the desert. These descriptions are there. Sometimes we feel like that. So there is a planet. So sinful persons are arrested and taken to Yamadūtas. Similarly, Viṣṇudūtas are there. Bhūtāni viṣṇoḥ sura-pūjitāni. Sura means demigod. The residents of the higher planets, they also respect, show their obeisances, respectful obeisances, to these assistants of..., Viṣṇudūtas, sura-pūjitāni. Durdarśa-liṅgāni. Durdarśa, very rarely seen. Because the Ajāmila was practically the only case who was taken from the clutches of the Yamadūta. Otherwise there is no need of their coming. But there are still devotees. Just like Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti: (BG 4.9) "After leaving this body they do not come again to take birth in this material world, but they come to Me." So those who are eligible to go back to Godhead, they are taken by Viṣṇudūta as guides. But durdarśa-liṅgāni, they are very rarely to be seen because directly going to Vaikuṇṭha after leaving this body, such persons are also very rare. Durdarśa-liṅgāni mahādbhutāni. Adbhuta, wonderful. Certainly they must be wonderful because they are spiritual body—four hands, with different weapons, just like Viṣṇu.

Lecture on SB 6.3.18 -- Gorakhpur, February 11, 1971:

Yes. Just see how much good exercise it is. Huh? Just like I fall down in this way, flat. Then I make a line. And I stand again in that line; again fall down. Make a line. Again that line. In this way, round. Tapasya. This is called tapasya, austerity. We should not take very leniently that we are going back to Godhead. Of course, there is so many concession for the... But at the same time, we should be very much aware of the responsibility that we have decided to go back to Godhead after leaving this body, so we have to perform some austerities. The austerity in our Gauḍīya-sampradāya is very simple: following the four principles, restriction, avoiding the offenses, and chanting regular beads. That's all. And hearing. Chanting and hearing, both things. Not only chanting; we have to hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way we should engage twenty-four hours' business.

Lecture on SB 7.5.30 -- Mauritius, October 2, 1975:

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. (second guest translates) Any other question? That's all right. (end)

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- San Francisco, March 3, 1967:

There is a competitor, another. But here the definition is the richest. Nobody can compete with Him, the richest. Then, aiśvaryasya samāgrasya vīryasya. Vīryasya means strength. You have got some strength, I have got some strength, but another man may be stronger than you and me. Another man is stronger than he. So nobody can say that "I am the strongest," and nobody can say, "I am the richest." So aiśvaryasya samāgrasya vīryasya yaśasaḥ. Yaśasaḥ means fame. Lābha-pūjā-pratiṣṭhaḥ. This materialistic life means we want some profit, we want some fame, and we want some good name. If I see that my name is stamped in the history, I think, "Oh, I am My life is successful." But what is the history? Your name means your body, your photo of this body. But as soon as you leave this body, what you will do with this name? You are going to another body, another name.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Montreal, June 10, 1968:

Prabhupāda: After seven months he gets consciousness.

Haṁsadūta: And from that time to that ninth month when he leaves the body, what's his experience? Or what's his understanding, spirit soul.

Prabhupāda: So many understanding, experience. Just like we have got so many experiences in different types of body.

Haṁsadūta: He doesn't know his position.

Prabhupāda: No. That position, unless he goes to a spiritual master, tad-vijñānarthaṁ sa gurum evābhiga... (MU 1.2.12), how can he know? Just like a diseased man, he'll say he does not know what is his disease, but as soon as he goes to a physician, he says, "My dear sir, you are suffering from this disease." Just like Arjuna. Arjuna, he was suffering from this material disease, he was thinking about his relationship with this body and Kṛṣṇa treated him, that "You are not this body." Similarly, everyone wants to be treated, that he is not body, he's spirit soul. Then he'll understand his real position.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Montreal, June 10, 1968:

So the result will be that janma karma ca me divyam evam yo vetti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). Tattvataḥ means truth, scientifically. Two plus two equal to four. This is called tattvataḥ, truth. Similarly anyone who understands the science of God, then the result will be tyaktvā deham. By quitting this body... We have to quit, leave this body, that is a fact. You'll also not remain in this body, I'll not also remain in this body. But before quitting this body, before leaving this body, if we can simply understand what is God, doesn't matter whatever you are doing. You remain occupied in your duties, you remain what you are. It doesn't matter. Simply try to understand what is God and what are His activities. Then you'll become liberated.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Montreal, June 10, 1968:

So science of God. Then, after leaving this body, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma na eti (BG 4.9). He does not come back again to take this conditional material body. Then, he's finished? No. He says, mām eti so 'rjuna. "My dear Arjuna, that person comes to Me." That means you are transferred to the spiritual kingdom or God's kingdom.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Montreal, June 10, 1968:

That formula I've already explained that tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). If you simply understand what is God, simply by this understanding, tyaktvā deham, after leaving this body, punar janma naiti, you don't get any more this material body. Simply try to understand what is Viṣṇu, then you become as good as that Viṣṇu. First of all you understand Viṣṇu, that He is all-pervading. So Viṣṇu, because He has got spiritual body, similarly, when you get your spiritual body How you can get? By understanding Viṣṇu.

Lecture on SB 7.6.3 -- Montreal, June 16, 1968:

In this way. "He is not a husband." Who? "Who cannot protect his ward from the impending death." That means the father, the spiritual master, the husband or the protector should be so spiritually advanced that he will teach, he will protect his ward in such a nice way that no more birth, no more death. In this life Kṛṣṇa consciousness education is finished so that after leaving this body, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9), after quitting this body, no more birth again. Then what is that? Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti ma eti kaunteya: (BG 4.9) he goes back to Godhead. This should be the, I mean to say, objective of human life: how to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness and how to get away from this uncongenial atmosphere of material existence.

Lecture on SB 7.7.25-28 -- San Francisco, March 13, 1967:

The material seed that "I want to lord it over everything, all resources." This is struggle. Everyone is trying. What is economic development or, what is called, the exact technical word? In a country... Undeveloped. Undeveloped country, and to develop. So what is this development? Development means to lord it over these material resources. That is the seed. That is the seed. Everyone is thinking that "I am the monarch of all I survey. Whatever I am seeing, I shall be the monarch. I shall be a Rockefeller. I shall be a Ford. I shall be this. I shall be that." But what is this "I shall be"? For few years I shall be like this, and then, according to my karma, according to my work, I'll leave this body here. I take another body, the "I shall be" finished.

Lecture on SB 7.9.8 -- Mayapur, February 28, 1977:

So ugra-jāteḥ means demonic family, passionate. Ugra. There are three qualities within this material world. Therefore it is said guṇa-mayī. Daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī (BG 7.14). Guṇa-mayī means three guṇas, three modes of material nature: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa. So our mind is jumping. Everyone knows the nature of the mind, sometimes accepting one thing, again rejecting it, saṅkalpa-vikalpa. This is the quality of the mind or nature of the mind. Sometimes the mind is jumping over sattva-guṇa, sometimes on the rajo-guṇa, and sometime on the tamo-guṇa. In this way we are getting different types of mentality. In this way, at the time of death the mentality which is just at the moment of leaving this body will carry me to a different body of sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. This is the way of transmigration of the soul. Therefore we have to train up the mind until we get the another body. That is the art of living. So if you train up your mind simply to think of Kṛṣṇa then you are safe. Otherwise there is chance of accidents. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6). At the time of leaving this body, if we have not practiced the mind to fix up at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, then there is... (break) A particular type of body we get.

Lecture on SB 7.9.10 -- Montreal, July 12, 1968:

You may remain a very proud man, full of pride so long this body is there. That's all. As long the body is finished, your designation as Rockefeller finished. Your degree, M.A., Ph.D., finished. Your beautiful body finished. Your aristocratic family finished. Then you have to take another platform according to your work. If you have done works like again aristocratic or learned activities, then you get similar body. But in spite of all your acquisitions, you have played the part of a dog, then you are going to become a dog. Because after leaving this body we are completely in the hands of material nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). The Bhagavad-gītā says that the material nature is acting.

Lecture on SB 7.9.12 -- Montreal, August 19, 1968:

If you want śānti-śānti means peace—then you should simply understand that everything belongs to God. That's all. Actually it is. Nothing belongs to you. If you are intelligent, if you scrutinizingly study, everything belongs to God. Nothing belongs to me. Even this body does not belong to me. I have come with this body given by God, open-handed, without any asset. And I shall pass away from this world leaving this body open-handed.

Lecture on SB 7.9.12 -- Montreal, August 19, 1968:

Simply by bhakti-yoga. Simply by engaging yourself cent percent, without any deviation, in the devotional service of the Lord, you immediately become freedom or liberation from this material bondage. And if you keep yourself in that position, then you are liberated in this life, and after leaving this body, you get your liberated body. That is mukti. Mukti means hitvā anyathā rūpam. Mukti means when you give up your material contaminated life. Hitvā anyathā rūpaṁ sa guṇena avasthiti. To be, I mean to say, situated in the constitutional position, that is called mukti.

Lecture on SB 7.9.49 -- Vrndavana, April 4, 1976:

Devānām means beginning from Brahmā, then Śiva, then so many other demigods, Indra, Candra, Varuṇa. Aham... Even Viṣṇu. The Viṣṇu, Kṣirodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, He is also partial expansion of Kṛṣṇa, and from Kṣirodakaśāyī Viṣṇu the Viṣṇu is all-pervading. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati: (BG 18.61) the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is staying in everyone's core of heart, hṛd-deśe. It is... There is no hide and seek. Hide and seek. It is clearly stated that "This Paramātmā, Viṣṇu, is staying, hṛd, hṛd-deśe, in the heart." Therefore heart is always palpitating. And the jīvātmā is also there and... Then when the jīvātmā leaves this body, that is called heart failure. That is heart failure. Heart is palpulating, but as soon as the jīvātmā goes, heart fails. And these materialist science, they cannot give any cause. They are giving, what is that, oxygen gas and every minute injecting to keep the palpitation of the heart, throbbing of the heart, continuous. But how they can do it? As soon as the living soul departs from the heart there is no more palpitating. It is simply a lump of matter. That requires intelligence, that this matter is never the living soul.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 2, 1972:

We are wandering, life after life, in different species of life, different forms of life, in different planetary system. And that is going on. This is not progress. Where is progress? You are conditioned within this universe. Where is your progress? Suppose you... Just like if I jump with a limited space, where is my progress? Real progress is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). If we actually want to make progress, then we must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that after leaving this body there is no more coming down to accept a material body. That is real progress. Otherwise, there is no progress. It is simply wandering with a limited space. That is not progress at all. But because we are in illusion, we are thinking it is progress. It is not progress.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.112 -- Bombay, November 24, 1975:

So we were discussing other night about the three principal energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There are multi-energies. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). From śruti we understand that the Supreme Lord is full of potencies. Even we are. We are a small particle of the Supreme Lord; still, we are full of potencies. Just like you shave today, and tomorrow morning, by your own potency, the hairs again grown. We see actually things are happening. How it is happening, that we do not know, even in our body. But it is a fact it is happening. Things are happening. That means due to my potency. As soon as I leave this body there will be no more hair growth.

Sri Isopanisad Lectures

Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 1 -- Los Angeles, May 4, 1970:

So Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means to make a solution of these four things: birth, death, old age, and disease. So if we act sinfully and if we eat sinfully, then this life of birth, death, old age, will continue. Otherwise, you can make a solution, and as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). "After leaving this body," tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti, "he does not take birth again in this material world." Then where does he go? He's finished? Just like voidist? No. Mām eti: "He comes to Me." Mām eti. "He comes to Me." And what is the benefit of going there, to You?

Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 8 -- Los Angeles, May 12, 1970:

So this verse, you'll read what is important. "Such person must know in fact the greatest of all, who is unembodied, omniscient..." That is the distinction between God and ourself. We are embodied. This body is different from me; therefore when I leave this body, this body becomes "Dust thou art, dust thou..." That thou means this body. I am not dust. I am spirit soul. So Kṛṣṇa is not embodied. He has no difference between His body and His soul. His soul and body, the same. He does not change His body, because He hasn't got material body. And because He does not change body, He remembers everything. We change body; therefore we do not remember what had happened in our last birth. We have forgotten who was... Just like even in sleep, when we forget our body, we forget our all, I mean to say, environments. While sleeping or dreaming, you are in a dreamland.

Festival Lectures

Lecture-Day after Sri Gaura-Purnima -- Hawaii, March 5, 1969:

So Lord Caitanya's teaching, the sum and substance of His teaching, is to understand that we are eternal servant of God. And if we immediately engage our energy to satisfy Kṛṣṇa, then immediately we are transferred to the spiritual platform. And if we stick to that activities on the spiritual platform, then, as assured by Lord Kṛṣṇa, then, after leaving this body, we go back to Kṛṣṇa, Vṛndāvana, go back to Godhead, back to home. That is our peaceful, eternal peaceful life. We should endeavor for that.

Ratha-yatra -- San Francisco, June 27, 1971:

This means that we are changing bodies in every moment, every second, imperceptibly, but I, the spirit soul, exist in all circumstances. Therefore it is natural to conclude that after leaving this body I shall have another body. That's a fact. That is Vedic truth. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). The example is given that as we change our dresses; similarly, we are changing our dresses from one body to another. We have changed dresses as aquatic animals, as many fishes and aquatic animals as there are in the sea, then we are change bodies as creepers, plants and trees for many, many years. Then we change our bodies in the insect life, reptiles life, then we are change our bodies in three..., thirty hundreds of thousands of beasts, then we have got this human form of life. That is also an evolution through many uncivilized form of human life.

Ratha-yatra -- London, July 13, 1972:

Or even if you do not understand the philosophy, even you do not read the books, simply if you take part in these three things, chanting, dancing, and taking part in eating the prasādam, your life will gradually progress in spiritual advancement of life. And if you continue this, then some day will come, even in this life it may come, that you will understand what is Kṛṣṇa. And as soon as you understand Kṛṣṇa, then after leaving this body you go back to home, back to Godhead, directly (?). This is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Those who have read Bhagavad-gītā...

His Divine Grace Srila Sac-cid-ananda Bhaktivinoda Thakura's Appearance Day, Lecture -- London, September 3, 1971:

So spiritual knowledge is beyond the scope of our sense speculation. Beyond the scope. Just like when a soul, a spiritual spark only, leaves this body, you cannot see. Therefore, atheistic class of men, they speculate, "There may be a soul; there may not be soul." Or, "The bodily function was going like this; now it stopped. The blood corpuscles now cease. It is no more red; it is white; therefore life..." These are speculation. This is not actual knowledge.

Initiation Lectures

Initiation Lecture -- Los Angeles, December 19, 1968:

They are also human beings, but they are very beautiful; they are very powerful. So you can go there. The moon planet, sun planet—that is clearly stated—if you act accordingly, as they are prescribed, that "If you want to go to the moon planet, you have to do like this," then after leaving this body, you can go there. Similarly, you can go any planet. Similarly, you can go to the planet of Kṛṣṇa. So those who are intelligent, they are not concerned with..., any more with any planet within this material world. Because wherever you go, the four principles of material miseries, namely birth, death, old age, and disease, will follow. Either you go to the moon planet or sun planet or Venus planet or any planet. Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). But that planet where going no more comes back in the material world, that is the most sublime planet.

Lecture at Initiation Fire Sacrifice -- Los Angeles, July 16, 1969:

So they do not know... They simply talk of these high sounds. But here is the process. If you adopt the process, then you come to the platform. It is open for everyone. So this mantra suggests that either you are in the material consciousness or not, apavitraḥ pavitraḥ vā, or in spiritual consciousness. It is not that when you are delivered from the material consciousness and come to the spiritual platform your service stops to Kṛṣṇa. That is not. Our service is eternal. We are serving here Kṛṣṇa, and after leaving this body, when you go directly to Kṛṣṇa, faced with..., the service is there. The service is the main means and the end. Not that this is simply means, and the end is something else. No. It is so nice, it is means and end, both. We are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa here, and when we go to Kṛṣṇa we shall chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, like that.

Initiation Lecture -- Hamburg, August 27, 1969:

So when one comes to the Western country, he also adjusts with different coats and shirts. In India we can remain naked body practically throughout the whole year, but you cannot live here. So there is adjustment. So this adjustment, the Bhagavad-gītā says, mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām (BG 9.25). "Those who have adjusted themselves to come to Me, he can come." There is no obstruction. So this initiation process, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, means to adjust your condition so that after leaving this body, you can enter into the planet where Kṛṣṇa lives. These things are very nicely explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama: (BG 15.6) "That supreme abode, where entering, one does not come back again to this material world, that is My supreme abode."

Initiation Lecture -- Hamburg, August 27, 1969:

This mantra also which we uttered just now, it is said, yaḥ smaret puṇḍarīkākṣam: "Anyone who remembers puṇḍarīkākṣam, Hari, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, immediately he becomes purified." Śuci. Śuci. Śuci means purified. Śrī viṣṇu śrī viṣṇu śrī viṣṇu. Three times. So the Kṛṣṇa and Viṣṇu is the same thing. Kṛṣṇa is the original person of all viṣṇu-tattva. So anyone who is keeping himself always in touch with the vibration of Kṛṣṇa consciousness—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare—that is the only, I mean to say, guaranteed platform where you can keep yourself purified without any material contamination. And in this purified state, if we can leave this body ultimately, then there is no doubt we enter into the supreme abode of the Personality of Godhead. These things are very nicely explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, and you read carefully. This initiation does not mean... Of course, this chanting will save you, only chanting.

Initiation Lecture -- Hamburg, August 27, 1969:

Intoxication does not mean simply liquor. Intoxication means even tea-drinking. Tea is also intoxication, in slight degree. Tea, coffee, cigarettes—everything should be avoided. In India they chew pan. So these things are to be give up, intoxication group, and meat-eating group. Then you make very quickly progress, and by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). After leaving this body, one hasn't got to take another material body and suffer. So long we have got this material body, we have to suffer the material pangs.

Wedding Ceremonies

Wedding Ceremony and Lecture -- Boston, May 6, 1969:

So this facility is given in this human form of life. Now it is our choice, where shall I go? Shall I go down to hell, or shall I go up to heaven, or I shall go back to Godhead, back to home? Everything we can do. So our this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is directly approaching the spiritual sky, back to home, back to Godhead. No more evolutionary process. That is the advantage of this Kṛṣṇa conscious... If you make your consciousness completely absorbed in Kṛṣṇa, if you understand what is Kṛṣṇa, what is your relationship, how you have to act in that relationship, simply if you learn this science in this life, then it is assured by the Lord Himself, Kṛṣṇa, in the Bhagavad-gītā, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya: (BG 4.9) "After leaving this body, one does not come again back to this material world to accept one of the 8,400,000's of species of body, but he goes directly unto Me." Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). "And if one can go back there, then he does not come back again in this material world to accept this material body." And material body means three kinds of miseries, threefold miseries always. And at least threefold miseries are exhibited in four kinds of distresses, namely birth, death, old age, and disease.

General Lectures

Lecture to Technology Students (M.I.T.) -- Boston, May 5, 1968:

Dehinaḥ means the soul, the spirit soul, who is embodied within this body, as he is changing body from moment to moment. This is a fact, a medical fact, that you are changing body every moment. Similarly, the last change is called death. But we have to take..., we have to accept another body. But we do not know what sort of body we are going to accept. That technology is wanting in the modern civilization. But there are 8,400,000's of different bodies, and after leaving this body you may enter any of such bodies. You may become, after leaving this body, you can become American or you can become Indian or you can become Chinaman or you can become god in the moon planet or some other planet, or you can become dog, you can become hog, you can become serpent—anything. That requires... That is under the control of the material nature.

Lecture -- London, September 16, 1969:

So this is tapasya. If you perform tapasya for transcendental understanding, then the result will be that your next life you will be promoted to the spiritual sky. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). After leaving this body, one does not come again to this material existence, miserable existence. But unfortunately, we do not accept that we are living in miserable condition. That is called māyā; that is called ignorance. We are actually in a miserable condition. We are trying to adjust things. But that cannot be adjusted. We have to suffer. The only way is that you realize yourself, what you are, and act accordingly. So your position is you are eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. You just practice how to serve Kṛṣṇa; then your life will be successful. So that is our movement. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is training people how to become unalloyed servant of Kṛṣṇa. Śuddha-bhakta, unalloyed, without any adulteration. What is that adulteration?

Lecture 'Nobody Wants to Die' -- Boston, May 7, 1968:

Ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16). You have to come back. And besides that, any planet you go within this material world, the four principles of material sufferings are there. What are those? Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi: (BG 13.9) birth, death, old age and disease. Everywhere there is. Your period of life may be very long, but these four things are there. You have to take your birth. Suppose you prepare yourself for going to the moon planet. Then next life, after leaving this body, you'll be pushed into the womb of a mother there in the moon planet, and you'll come out with a suitable body.

Lecture at Harvard University -- Boston, December 24, 1969:

What is that? Yena sarvam idaṁ tatam—by which your whole body is spread by air(?). And anywhere of your body, that consciousness is spread. And that substance, consciousness, is always living. When you leave this body this consciousness goes to another body. Just like the air passes, the flavor the air carries from one garden to another place. Similarly, this consciousness will carry you to another body after your death. After you leave this body... Just like we are changing our consciousness also from childhood consciousness to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood, and the old age. The consciousness is carrying me although the body is changing. Similarly, when you change this body, the consciousness will carry you to another body. That consciousness is always living. It is never dead. (break) Because they don't take it.

Lecture on Teachings of Lord Caitanya -- Bombay, March 17, 1971:

So that body will be created in this life. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi and that bodily structure will be formed at the time of your death. Just like if you leave this apartment, you'll have to go another apartment. So you have to select another apartment, good or bad. That will depend on your capacity, how much rent you are able to pay. Then you leave this apartment. Similarly, at the time of death by the superior arrangement, another apartment will be given to you, and immediately that is settled up, you leave this body and enter into that body. Daiva-netreṇa, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). That will be considered by your work.

Lecture -- Paris, June 26, 1971:

So this transmigration of soul is the most important factor to be understood by the human society. Unfortunately there is no university, there is no department of knowledge, to understand this important factor. That is very risky. So this soul is transmigrating from one body to another, and there are 8,400,000 species of life, and our, after leaving this body we may accept any one of them. We do not know. That will depend on our action at the present moment. Practically we are preparing our future body, and according to our work and mentality, we get a different body. Therefore we shall be very much cautious. Any intelligent man can understand that the future life is prepared at present. Just like the boy goes to the school, goes to the college, he prepares his future life, similarly, this human form of life is a preparation ground for our future life.

Lecture -- Paris, June 26, 1971:

That possibility is there. And if we simply can know what is the nature of God, or Kṛṣṇa, simply by understanding this fact one becomes liberated. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). A person who has understood the Absolute Supreme Personality of Godhead... It cannot be understood completely. That is not possible with our human intelligence, but with the help of Bhagavad-gītā, the statement given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the spiritual master, we can know Him to the best of our capacity. And if we can know Him, then the result is that immediately after leaving this body we enter into the kingdom of God. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti: (BG 4.9) "After giving up this body he does not come again to this material world, but he enters into the spiritual world and comes to Me." That is the statement.

Lecture -- London, July 12, 1972:

Just like the... I am changing, you are changing, everyone is changing. Every second, every moment, we are changing bodies. So similarly, changing of this body, accepting another body. After leaving this body, I'll accept another body. That body is not in my hands. What kind of body I am going to accept next, that depends on my work here, in this body. I am preparing my next body in this life. Just like a child is being, a boy is being educated to prepare his next life. If he is nicely educated, his next life is very bright. If he's not nicely educated, that will be very dark. Similarly, this chance, this human form of body, is a junction. From animal forms of life, by gradual process of evolution, I have come to this human form of life.

Lecture -- London, July 12, 1972:

It is not scientific. Because I'm thinking, "I am this body," this is not scientific. This is ignorance. So in this way you have to study. But the answer is there in the Vedic literature: tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). "My father has accepted another body." This is scientific. Dhīra, one who is sober, he is not lamenting. Just like your child, from babyhood it becomes grown-up, or acts in another way. You are not crying, "Where is that body of my child, that baby body? Where he has gone?" But you know that he has transferred to this body. Similarly, when you get this knowledge that "My father has left this body, he has accepted another body, although it is not visible," that is knowledge. That is scientific.

La Trobe University Lecture -- Melbourne, July 1, 1974:

So this education can be given through this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. On the basis of Śrī Bhagavad-gītā, everything is explained very vividly. The soul is eternal. The soul is transferred from one gross body to another gross body, just like we change our apartment from one apartment to another. But I exist. If I vacate one apartment and I go to another apartment, it does not mean I am finished. I may leave the apartment. Similarly, if we are leaving this body and we are going to another body, that means I am not finished. I am existing. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Na hanyate: "The soul is never annihilated even after the destruction of this body." Therefore the question is that "If I am eternal, why I am put into this condition of changing, of transmigrating from one body to another? Is there any possibility of not changing the body, to keep eternality?" Yes. That is possible. Actually we are, as spirit soul, the part and parcel of God. So God is eternal, God is blissful, God is in full knowledge, so we, being part and parcel of God, we have got the same quality.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

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.

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Prabhupāda: Therefore you are sinful. Just like I am living in this apartment. If somebody by force drives me away, it is criminal. If I go to the police, that "I was living in this apartment and this man by force has driven me," is it not criminal? So I am not lost because I am driven out of this body. But you will be liable for criminal punishment because you have forced me to leave this body. Ramakrishna Mission says that what is the point if a man or animal is killed? The soul is immortal, so what is this? What is that? The rascals, they do not know. The real philosophy is here. The soul is destined to live in a certain body for a certain period. If you immaturely stop it, then you become responsible. Exactly like that. I am living in my apartment. If you by force drive me away, you are criminal. They do not know all these things. Imperfect knowledge.

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Śyāmasundara: He says we have to know what conditions are required to show that it is true and then satisfy those conditions. So one condition you say is that as soon as the body dies, then there is no more movement. But what is there to prove that the soul has left the body or that there was ever a soul in the body?

Prabhupāda: That is the proof. Because the soul takes shelter into the womb of the mother, the father injects the soul—that is the statement of the śāstras—in the womb of the mother, and the mother gives shelter. So the body develops from the womb of the mother. There is conception, pregnancy. That is the proof.

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Śyāmasundara: So what he is saying is that because you can't see the soul after it leaves the body, therefore we cannot say if the soul exists or does not exist.

Prabhupāda: But why does he believe of his eyes so much? Why does he not accept that his eyes are so imperfect that he cannot see the soul?

Śyāmasundara: Either directly or indirectly he says that we have to be able to prove...

Prabhupāda: No. The same example, just like a man has committed murder and he is arrested and taken away. So others, they know that this man will be hanged. And one was, "Oh, I have not seen, so how he is hanged?" But that is foolishness. The state law says that if a man has committed murder he will be hanged. So you have to see through the law, not with your eyes. The nonsense eyes, what can they see? So see through knowledge, through books.

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Śyāmasundara: But everything you say, you are also showing, you are also giving examples that we can perceive. Just like the body, you say the soul has left the body so the body does not move. So even though it cannot be seen, the soul is leaving the body.

Prabhupāda: "It cannot be seen" means you have no seeing power. You cannot see beyond this wall, but that does not mean that because it cannot be seen, that is not fact. That is another foolishness. You have no seeing power. You admit your imperfection. Why you are proposing like that, "Because it cannot be seen"?

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Śyāmasundara: So the mind leaves this body and goes somewhere.

Prabhupāda: Not leave. It is just like a suit (shoot?).

Śyāmasundara: Oh, it extends.

Prabhupāda: Extends.

Śyāmasundara: He says that whatever exists is subject to...

Prabhupāda: At night also, the body also extends and again comes... You forget this body; you are dreaming some body, some other feature of the body. So sometimes you take that body very important.

Philosophy Discussion on St. Augustine:

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.