Living body

Expressions researched:
"live bodies" |"live body" |"living bodies" |"living body"

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 3.14, Translation:

All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by performance of yajña (sacrifice), and yajña is born of prescribed duties.

SB Canto 4

SB 4.16.5, Purport:

"All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by performance of yajña (sacrifice), and yajña is born of prescribed duties." (BG 3.14)

SB 4.22.31, Purport:

The living entity, or the soul, is ever existing and eternal. It cannot be lost, but learned scholars say that it is lost when actual knowledge is not working. That is the difference between animals and human beings. According to less intelligent philosophers, animals have no soul. But factually animals have souls. Due to the animals' gross ignorance, however, it appears that they have lost their souls. Without the soul, a body cannot move. That is the difference between a living body and a dead body. When the soul is out of the body, the body is called dead. The soul is said to be lost when there is no proper knowledge exhibited.

SB 4.22.37, Purport:

One who is spiritually advanced can thus understand the real difference between a dead body and a living body. In conclusion, one should not waste his time by so-called economic development and sense gratification, but should cultivate spiritual knowledge to understand the Supersoul and the individual soul and their relationship. In this way, by advancement of knowledge, one can achieve liberation and the ultimate goal of life.

SB 4.29.61, Translation:

The living entity, while dreaming, gives up the actual living body. Through the activities of his mind and intelligence, he acts in another body, either as a god or a dog. After giving up this gross body, the living entity enters either an animal body or a demigod's body on this planet or on another planet. He thus enjoys the results of the actions of his past life.

SB 4.30.44, Purport:

"All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by performance of yajña (sacrifice), and yajña is born of prescribed duties." By performing sacrifice, man will have sufficient rainfall and crops.

SB Canto 5

SB 5.16.24, Purport:

"All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by performance of yajña (sacrifice), and yajña is born of prescribed duties." These are the prescriptions given in Bhagavad-gītā (3.14). If people follow these principles in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, human society will be prosperous, and they will be happy both in this life and in the next.

SB Canto 7

SB 7.14.7, Purport:

"All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by performance of yajña (sacrifice), and yajña is born of prescribed duties." (BG 3.14) When food grains are sufficiently produced, both animals and human beings can be nourished without difficulty for their maintenance. This is nature's arrangement. prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇa-ni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Everyone is acting under the influence of material nature, and only fools think they can improve upon what God has created.

SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13

SB 10.3.18, Purport:

Without the basic principle of soul, the body cannot be produced. So-called scientists have tried in many ways to produce a living body in their chemical laboratories, but no one has been able to do it because unless the spirit soul is present, a body cannot be prepared from material elements. Since scientists are now enamored of theories about the chemical composition of the body, we have challenged many scientists to make even a small egg. The chemicals in eggs can be found very easily. There is a white substance and a yellow substance, covered by a shell, and modern scientists should very easily be able to duplicate all this.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 10.87.31, Translation:

Neither material nature nor the soul who tries to enjoy her are ever born, yet living bodies come into being when these two combine, just as bubbles form where water meets the air. And just as rivers merge into the ocean or the nectar from many different flowers blends into honey, so all these conditioned beings eventually merge back into You, the Supreme, along with their various names and qualities.

SB 12.4.8, Translation:

The sun in its annihilating form will drink up with its terrible rays all the water of the ocean, of living bodies and of the earth itself. But the devastating sun will not give any rain in return.

SB 12.4.30, Translation:

There is no material duality in the Absolute Truth. The duality perceived by an ignorant person is like the difference between the sky contained in an empty pot and the sky outside the pot, or the difference between the reflection of the sun in water and the sun itself in the sky, or the difference between the vital air within one living body and that within another body.

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book 87:

Such philosophers push forward the argument that although cow dung is dead matter, sometimes it is found that scorpions come out of cow dung. Similarly, dead matter like nails and hair comes out of the living body. Therefore, things produced of a certain thing are not always of the same quality as that thing. On the strength of this argument, Māyāvādī philosophers try to establish that although this cosmic manifestation is certainly an emanation from the Absolute Truth, the cosmic manifestation does not necessarily have truth in it.

Krsna Book 87:

The example given by the Māyāvādī philosophers that inanimate matter like nails and hair comes from the living body is not a very sound argument. Nails and hair are undoubtedly inanimate, but they come not from the animate living being but from the inanimate material body. Similarly, the argument that the scorpion comes from cow dung, meaning that a living entity comes from matter, is also unsound. The scorpion which comes out of the cow dung is certainly a living entity, but the living entity does not come out of the cow dung.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.7-11 -- New York, March 2, 1966:

You are... In other words, you are a fool. You do not know how things are going on because paṇḍitāḥ, those who are learned men, they would not have lamented just like you are doing." That means indirectly He says... Paṇḍitāḥ means learned. Learned man does not lament over a dead body or a living body. Gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca. Asūn means life. One has lost his life. And one has got his life, a body, living body and a dead body, living body and a dead body. Just mark the point, that "A learned man... As you are lamenting over the subject of killing your friends and relatives, but a learned man would not have lamented like this. That means you are a fool."

Lecture on BG 2.7-11 -- New York, March 2, 1966:

So here He say that "You are lamenting over the bodies of your relatives because in the fight you are considering that 'My friends and my relatives will be killed,' so that means they are living bodies, and you are lamenting over the, over their killing. So this sort of lamentation is never done by a learned man. A learned man never does it." Gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ (BG 2.11). "Those who are learned, one who is learned, he does not lament over the body, either a living body or dead body. There is no question of..." Now, because one who knows the distinction between the body and the soul, firmly con... Just like you have heard the name of Socrates.

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

There are so many evidences. If I am this body, then when the soul is not there, the living entity is not there, the body is simply a lump of matter. That is the difference between a dead body and living body. Living body means that the soul is there. Therefore the body is moving. And as soon as the soul is not there, the body is nothing but a lump of matter. I think somebody as my father. I call, "Father," Father immediately replies, "Yes, my son." But when the soul of the father is not there, then the father, this body of the father, whom I am seeing as father, although he is there, still, he cannot reply. This is the distinction.

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Pittsburgh, September 8, 1972:

The modern so-called scientists, they think that the body is combination of matter and, at a certain stage, these combination of matter develop living symptoms. But that is not a fact. If it is a fact, then the scientists can manufacture with chemicals a living body. But a scientist even up to date is unable to manufacture even a body like an ant, and what to speak of other, bigger animals.

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Pittsburgh, September 8, 1972:

The soul is there, but it is so small that it is not possible to see by your these blunt eyes. Any microscope or any machine, because it is stated it is one ten-thousandth part of the top of the tip of the hair. So there is no machine. You cannot see. But it is there. Otherwise, how we can find distinction between the dead body and the living body?

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.

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

Similarly just like we try to... When a man is dying, we try to feel whether the man is breathing, or he's feeling touch sensation. These are the tests. So the touch sensation is there so long the soul is there. Now I am living body. If somebody pinches my body, because the consciousness is all over the body, so I feel: "Somebody's pinching me." But when the conscious, consciousness is not there, if somebody chops up my body I will not protest. Therefore we should understand what is that living thing.

Lecture on BG 3.11-19 -- Los Angeles, December 27, 1968:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Simply you have nice foodstuff, palatable dishes. You can prepare palatable dishes for Kṛṣṇa. There are hundreds and thousands of preparation. But as soon as you prepare for yourself or you try to satisfy your tongue, then you are bound up by the laws of nature. Anything. Because that is sinful. Sinful. If you do not acknowledge, if you do not acknowledge the authority, if you do not feel your gratitude for the supplier, then you are a thief. Especially it is mentioned. "It is thief." I am taking your things, I am eating, but I am not feeling any gratitude for you, then I am a thief. Yes. Go on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fourteen: "All living bodies subsist on food grains. Food grains are produced from rains. Rains come from performance of sacrifice and sacrifice is born of man's work (BG 3.14)."

Prabhupāda: This is a cycle. Cycle. We are living on food grains. We cannot live on meat-eating. It is not possible. However a great meat-eater may be he must have some grains some vegetables. That is his life. Yes. Therefore grains, vegetables, they are actually our food. Now, I am living and getting energy by eating grains and vegetables and how my energy should be utilized? It should be utilized for the purpose from where I am getting energy. I am getting energy from the Supreme Lord by supply of this foodstuff; therefore my energy should be utilized for the service of the Supreme Lord.

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

The matter cannot develop. Matter cannot develop. That you have got experience. A dead body does not develop. A living body develops. A child, when it comes out of the mother's womb, if the child is dead, oh, there is no further development, however you can keep the child in a very antiseptic way preserved. No. There is no development. Therefore it is concluded that the supreme spirit, Kṛṣṇa, from Him everything has come out. Everything has come out. Any stage you take, that is Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on BG 8.21-22 -- New York, November 19, 1966:

So beyond this body, what is, that is spiritual. That we can feel. Similarly, as we cannot find our self within this matter, although I'm here, that we can distinguish, the distinction between dead body and living body, something minus. That something is spirit. That something is spirit. Although we have no eyes to see, but the spirit is there. That is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā. Avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṁ tatam. That spiritual existence is eternal, whereas this body is not eternal.

Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hawaii, February 3, 1975:

So what is the nature of that Absolute Truth? Is it a dead body or a living body? There are two things, something dead and something living. So what is the nature of the absolute truth? So that is replied, janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataś cārtheṣv abhijñaḥ (SB 1.1.1). Abhijñaḥ means cognizant, living. The Absolute Truth is not dead; it is living. We are pushing forward this theory.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.8.34 -- Los Angeles, April 26, 1973:

Just like this body, your body, my body, even elephant's body... It has grown. It has grown because the spirit soul is there. As soon as the spirit soul is not there, there will be no more growth, no more growth and the body will be heavy. Due to the spirit soul within the body, the body is light. You can make an experiment. You just have a weight of a dead body and of a living body. You will find difference. What is the difference. Where is our scientist?

Lecture on SB 1.16.25 -- Hawaii, January 21, 1974:

So people who do not want to realize, there is no realization. Otherwise, it is very simple, very simple. One minute, one can understand, there was something. And then you come to the guru, and guru teaches śāstra. From śāstra, immediately you can confirm. If you are puzzled that what is that thing that is missing so that this living body is now dead body... This is the general impression. Now, just to get it confirmed, you come to guru. Guru will say, "Yes, it is a fact. The soul was there, and now it has gone." So how guru says? Not guru is manufacturing. Guru says on the strength of śāstra.

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

Similarly, there are other types of miserable condition as adhibhautika. I do not wish to create any misunderstanding with a friend, but automatically there is some misunderstanding between friends, neighbors, nation, man to man, business friend. There are troubles. So this is called... And not only... If not human being, human being, but other, lower animals. Just like there are insects, there are cockroaches, there are so many other living bodies—they are giving us trouble. That is called adhibhautika. And adhidaivika. Adhidaivika is nature's disturbance.

Lecture on SB 6.1.45 -- Laguna Beach, July 26, 1975:

So in the previous verse we have discussed, dehavān na hy akarma-kṛt. Anyone who has got this material body, he has to work. Everyone has to work. In the spiritual body also you have to work. In the material body also you have to work. Because the working principle is the soul—soul is living force—so he is busy. Living body means there is movement. There is work. He cannot sit idly. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, "Not even for a moment one can be idle." That is the symptom of living being. So this working is going on according to the particular body.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

Arrival Speech -- Stockholm, September 5, 1973:

Every one of us, living being, we are at the present moment combination of spirit and matter. Matter we can understand, but on account of our long association with the matter, we cannot understand what is that spirit. But we can imagine that there is something which distinguishes a dead body and living body. That we can understand. When a man is dead... Suppose my father is dead or somebody, a relative, is dead, we lament that "My father is no more. He has gone away." But where he has gone? The father is lying on the bed.

Arrival Address -- Mauritius, October 1, 1975:

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Does the self-realized soul experience the actions...?

Prabhupāda: Anyone can experience. The body is active so long the soul is there. It doesn't require much intelligence. Simply one can understand what is the difference between the dead body and the living body. Living body means there is the soul, and dead body means there is no more soul. Father dies; the son is crying, "Oh, my father has gone." "Oh, where your father has gone? He is lying on the bed. Don't you see?" "No, no, he is gone. He is now..." So that means I never saw my father, I saw his body only. Now I realize, "My father has gone." That is my ignorance. I do not know who is my father; I do not know who is my son. But on this false understanding we are going on. When the father dies or the son dies, we cry, "Oh, my son is gone," "My father is gone." "And where is your father gone? He is lying on the bed." "No, no, he is gone." And then we realize. It is very difficult to understand? Simple thing.

General Lectures

Lecture -- Los Angeles, July 20, 1971:

The animals also trying their best, how to eat nice, how to have nice sex life, how to sleep and how to defend. So what is the difference between man's knowledge and animals' knowledge. The man's knowledge should be developed to find out this technology, what is the difference between a living man and a dead man, a living body and dead body. That is spiritual knowledge. That is... That was taught by Kṛṣṇa in the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā. Arjuna was talking as a friend, replying Him as a friend. Of course, he was... Whatever he was talking, that was right, but that was right to a certain point.

Lecture at Auckland University -- Auckland, April 17, 1972:

No scientific professor at the present moment can explain what is that thing missing, when the thing is missing, this body is called dead. What is the distinction of this dead body and the living body? So according to Vedic instruction, according to Kṛṣṇa's instruction, the body is always dead. But so long the soul is there, it appears to be living. Just like within your coat and shirt, so long you are there, the hand of your coat appears to be moving.

Lecture -- Tokyo, April 29, 1972, (with interpreter):

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is on a different platform than this matter. It will be easier to understand that distinction between living body and dead body. So we are talking of the living portion of our existence. The living portion... We have got a living force within this body. Everyone can understand. As soon as that living force is out of this body, this body has no longer any value. It is thrown away on the street. So without any knowledge of the living force within this body, if we simply take care of our body, it is just like decorating a dead body. So do not take this movement as a sectarian, religious movement.

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

So we are preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement on the platform of the spirit soul, which we do not see with these material eyes. This is great ignorance. After death we cry that "My father is gone," "My son is gone." But where he has gone? He is lying on the bed. Now, even still, we do not come to the understanding what is the difference between the living body and the dead body. There are so many theories, but as I have already told you that we receive knowledge from the perfect person, Kṛṣṇa. He says that within this body the owner of the body is there, and on account of the owner of the body presence, the body is changing.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Śyāmasundara: His conception of the soul, which he calls elan vital in French language, means the vital impulse.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Vital..., this is living force, vital force. (indistinct), it is never addressed. God has (indistinct) for the mind, for the intelligence, for the body, God has (indistinct).

Śyāmasundara: Is it (indistinct) in the same quantity in every body, in every living body?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Same quantity. The same measurement: one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair.

Śyāmasundara: I mean the energy, the amount of energy.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. That much, that spiritual energy is everywhere, in the ant or in the elephant.

Philosophy Discussion on Martin Heidegger:

Prabhupāda: Thank you. All right. Then, this is the idea of existence. Therefore the philosophy is that I shall not be very much interested what I am going to become in this life. My philosophy should be that as I am eternally existing, what is my eternal occupation. That is philosophy.

Śyāmasundara: But he is talking about..., a man defines himself in this world without any knowledge, previous knowledge, and he has... All his knowledge is that he has observed that other living bodies die, or living entities die, so he has the anxiety...

Prabhupāda: No. That knowledge is not perfect. Everyone has knowledge that I existed as like this. Then he becomes... It is common sense. So how he existed as a child, as a baby, as a young man, everyone can see. Any old man can see. So it does not require any high knowledge.

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Śyāmasundara: This would also, it seems, satisfy his second requirement for verification, that sense observation or information ultimately derived by means of sense observation is necessary for verification.

Prabhupāda: This is sense observation. It not nonsensical; it is complete sense, sensible, that now this soul has passed and quit this body—death. So the body is not the man; the soul is the man. This is quite sensible. It is not nonsensical. Otherwise how do you explain? You explain what is that distinction between dead body and living body. What is your sensible explanation, according to this philosopher?

Śyāmasundara: He isn't quibbling with that. His only philosophy was that he was putting forward ways of determining what is true and what is false.

Philosophy Discussion on Johann Gottlieb Fichte:

Śyāmasundara: So he seeks to combine these two types of reason, Kant set up. There's pure reason and practical reason or moral reason. In other words speculative reason and practical reason or moral reason.

Prabhupāda: Practical, practical reason is that if I think I am this body, then where is the difference between dead body and living? Living body means I am in this body, that is living body. As soon as I give up this body, I go and accept another body. Then it is dead body. So this is practical reason, that without the soul this body is a lump of matter. It is very practical. Therefore soul is different from this matter.

Śyāmasundara: He says that our progress towards this kind of understanding comes about because we unify our speculative reason, our theoretical reason with our practical reason or our moral reason.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Once I was invited to speak in that institution, MIT. So I questioned, "Where is your department of technology to understand the difference between dead body and living body?" So I spoke on this. So the students appreciated. After my lecture, they gathered around me. How do you explain? What is that technology, why the man is dead? Science is simply based on this bodily concept. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13).

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No. We refute that. The chemicals are already there. Otherwise how living entities are coming out? We don't say that chemical is missing. Because the same theory: conservation of energy. The chemicals, the energy-producing, that is already there. It may be in different form, but the life-producing-energy is there. Otherwise how the other living entities are coming out?

Karandhara: In a living, in a living entity in the living body, there are so many things, personality...

Prabhupāda: They have got personality, all the living entities coming out, the microbes. They have got their personality. If they're moving in this way, you stop. They'll move in this way.

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1973, Los Angeles:

Brahmānanda: Six-thirty.

Karandhara: Six thirty-five.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. We can walk little more.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But in the same living body, Śrīla Prabhupāda, there are innumerable small living entities. Like the cells themselves. They are living also.

Morning Walk -- April 21, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: But that means that is not... Originally, it is from life. Seed is from the life. So where is your proof that matter produces life? Then you have to accept: life produces life. According to our śāstra, within the semina of the father, the living body, living entity, takes shelter. And it is injected to the mother's womb and the two matters mixes and the body forms. This is our śāstric explanation. Not that the semina discharged by the father, that is life. No. Within that semina, the living entity takes shelter. And it is put into favorable condition.

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So when the Paramātmā and the jīvātmā are within the same material living body, so the...

Prabhupāda: Paramātmā is not material body. Paramātmā's energy. Just like heat and light is the energy of the sun. The sun is not feeling heat and light. For him, everything is all right. There is no heat in the sun, body of the sun. He doesn't feel any heat. You are feeling heat.

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Prabhupāda: It is not belief.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: You can believe that too.

Krishna Tiwari: Oh, I believe too, but this is... Belief, as somebody's belief. Say I may believe so many things, as you do, as Swamiji does, as everybody else does.

Prabhupāda: What is your explanation between dead body and living body?

Krishna Tiwari: As I said, you see, it's a very complex thing, and I would not say something that I know from which probably I don't know. What we can measure in a dead body is that we see many things, you know. Things, say organs are not working...

Morning Walk -- December 13, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Therefore I say on account of the environment, these chemicals are produced. Therefore I say. When a man is diseased—the environment has changed-other extra chemicals comes out. It is the environment. I am also pointing out that. The environment is the cause. Chemicals produced in the body of a dead body, you cannot produce in the laboratory because the environment is different. Unless you find out a dead body, that chemicals you cannot manufacture. How can you find out the chemicals of dead body in a living body? Get up. Yes. (laughing) So pay; then the chemical is produced. Without payment, then there is no chemical. Cause is the payment. These rascals, they do not understand this. (break) ...goes to fight in Vietnam, what is the philosophy? Who will answer?

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 31, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They are standing?

Dr. Patel: They have started understanding Kṛṣṇa now. Scientists.

Prabhupāda: Now, here is the... This is very simple. A child can understand. Here is a dead body, and here is a living body. What is the difference? That Kṛṣṇa is not there, and here is Kṛṣṇa. That's all.

Dr. Patel: That is what I say...

Prabhupāda: Yes. But these rascal scientists will not understand this.

Morning Walk -- April 8, 1974, Bombay:

Mahāṁsa: ...impregnates...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mahāṁsa: ...material nature, it can become weightless.

Prabhupāda: Yes. A dead body immediately goes down in the water, but a living body floats. So this is the example, that because viṣṭabhyāham idaṁ kṛtsnam ekāṁśena sthita. Because Kṛṣṇa enters this material world as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, as Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, therefore it floats. Just like this airplane. It is floating so long the pilot is there. If the pilot is not there, it will not float, however good machine it may be. It will not float; it will come down. These are the ex... (break) ...soul, the spiritual spark, even in minute quantity, it can float the heaviest matter. This is the conclusion. (break) ...so high and if the pilot is killed some way or other, no more floating, come down.

Room Conversation with Mr. C. Hennis of the International Labor Organization of the U.N. -- May 31, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: When a man's brain is gone, he is dead body, maybe he is living. He has no use. Just like a madman. He has got life, but what is the use of that life? It is already dead. Because his brain is deranged. Is it not? So if the brain is lost, brain is deranged, therefore it is dead body. That is the distinction between living body and dead body. A living man has got brain. He can work with his brain. And the dead bod... The body is there. Why call it dead? Because brain is not working. Brain is dead. That is the difference. Although the hand is there. The dead man has also hand. The leg is there. The dead man has also leg. But why the hand is leg? Because the brain is dead.

Room Conversation with Mr. Deshimaru -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Yes, I can prove that the body is dead because the soul is gone. (French)

Yogeśvara: He says, "Oh, I can also say that when the body is dead, the soul is dead."

Karandhara: No, but at the time of death the body is still there. Just like your body is there, at the time of death your body will still be there, but it won't be the same, something is missing. Something's gone away. What's the difference between a dead body and a living body?

Prabhupāda: How you can explain? Why the body's hand is there, leg is there, head is there, why it stopped working? (French)

Room Conversation with Mr. Deshimaru -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Deshimaru: But the death is... You can change also what you say.

Prabhupāda: How you can change? Can you make the dead body alive? (French)

Karandhara: I can say that life is not present in a dead body, but you can't say that death is present in a live body. (French)

Prabhupāda: No, he says that the living force and the body is the same.

Devotees: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Does he not say? But why the body becomes dead, and the living force go on? Why? Why the body is no more moving? (French)

Pṛthu Putra: He says when the body is dead, everything is gone, but what is still existing is the karma.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: It is very simple thing. Just like a body is moving, and body is not moving. So there is an active principle which makes the body moving, and when it is absent, it is not moving. Now, the question will be: "What is that active principle?" Athāto brahma jijñāsā. First of all let him distinguish what is the difference between this dead body and living body. If a student is unaware of it, he can see that on account of the active principle, the body is changing, the body is moving, and in the absence of the active principle, neither the body changes, neither moves. Just like in our childhood we used to think that the gramophone box, there is a man, and he is speaking from the box. This is a childish suggestion only, but similarly, anyone can think that within this body there is something which is making the body moving. It is not very big philosophy.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: No, as I say, the active principle, I am also the active principle. As I say, the dead body and the living body, difference is, when the active principle is not there, it is dead body. Similarly, I am also the active principle. So 'ham, so 'ham: "I am the same active principle." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am Brahman. I am not this material body." That is self-realization. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati: (BG 18.54) "When one is self-realized, then he is jolly." Prasannātmā. He is never morose. He is jolly. Na śocati na kāṅkṣati: "He has no lamentation, no hankering." Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu: "He is equal to everyone, man, animal and everything."

Room Conversation with Scientists -- July 2, 1974, Melbourne:

Cāru:

annād bhavanti bhūtāni

parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ

yajñād bhavati parjanyo

yajñaḥ karma-samudbhavaḥ

(BG 3.14)

"Translation: All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by the performance of yajña, sacrifice, and yajña is born of prescribed duties."

Prabhupāda: This is the cycle, that we should produce immense food grain both for the animals and for men. And there should be cooperation. Just like the cow and bull. The bull helps plowing. That is the original system. Now they have invented tractors, what is called? Tractor?

Morning Walk at Marina del Rey -- July 14, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: And too much collecting money also. That is also not good.

Kṛṣṇa-kānti: Too much what?

Prabhupāda: Collecting money. (pause)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We were discussing that in all the living bodies, we have these innumerable cells, living cells. And in these cells... We were just discussing whether the Paramātmā and the jīvātmā is still there even in the living cells.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It is. It is there. So actually our body's a combination of these so many living entities.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Unless the matter is touched by life, it cannot...

Prabhupāda: Manifest. Just like this coat. It has not automatically come on my body. I have gathered it. Similarly, life is there, and it is gathering the matter to dress himself in a particular way. This is the varieties of life.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We give that example that the difference between life and matter... We say that the difference is that the material living bodies... We live in a material body, but the material bodies, when a living entity stays inside a body, is fully automated, fully equipped.

Prabhupāda: Life is enjoying or trying to enjoy the matter. Matter is prakṛti, and the living entity is puruṣa. The chief puruṣa is Kṛṣṇa, and we are trying to imitate Kṛṣṇa to enjoy. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Living entity is superior prakṛti. Apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ paraḥ. It is a prakṛti, but they are trying to become puruṣa. This is struggle for existence. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...trying to live within the water. They are not trying?

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: The jīvātmā... If the cells are living entities, then why do they not remain? Just like other living entities, they remain in the body and they come out. Even the man who has died, he is not there, but the other living entities are there.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So it seems that the cells are not independent. They are somehow controlled by the jīvātmā or the... Of course, Paramātmā is controlling everything. But I know sometimes the cells that compose the body of a living body, it seems that they are not independent; they are dependent.

Prabhupāda: That may be. But what about your cultivating living entities from the cells?

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1975, Mauritius:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The combination of...

Prabhupāda: Do it. Again foolishness. These rascals... (laughs) Then, if you can create life, then where is the question of dead body? You create again. Give life again. If you are so competent that you can give life, combination, then this dead body is there. You bring chemicals and inject.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The same chemicals are there, too. The same chemicals, living body, dead body—five minutes before, five after—is the same chemicals. But they can't explain why there is such a drastic difference.

Prabhupāda: What is that same chemical?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In the living body, two minutes before death and two minutes after...

Prabhupāda: So what is that? Name that, what is that chemical. Then bring it.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Let him try and make life. Not possible.

Room Conversation with Professor Olivier -- October 10, 1975, Durban:

Prof. Olivier: They accept the soul, I think so, but they do not care to analyze what it means.

Prabhupāda: Oh. And it is without analyzing this, what is the education? First of all this should be analyzed, what is the distinction between a dead body and a living body. That must be analyzed. Otherwise what is the education? We are dealing with this body. The body is always dead. Just like a motorcar with driver and without driver. The car is always a lump of matter. Similarly, this body, with the soul and without the soul, is a lump of matter. Therefore the...

Prof. Olivier: Not worth very much.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Brian Singer: How do you awake that consciousness?

Prabhupāda: Then.... Therefore the books are there. The first of all, you have to understand, "Whether I am this body or I am different from body?" This is the first instruction. If you are.... If you are human being, we should analyze the body. We are now scientist, chemist, physicist. Analyze the body. What is the difference between dead body and living body? The dead body is there. The son is crying, "My father is gone." Where your father is gone? He is lying on the bed. Why you say that "Father is gone"? Hm? What is the answer. The father is lying on the bed, the same coat, pant, and bedding, and everything is there. Why you say that "My father is gone"? Where he is gone? He is lying there. Why do you say he is gone?

Brian Singer: We normally say he's dead.

Conversation with Clergymen -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: A man is poor when he's in ignorance.

Scheverman: So you see that as a greater poverty, is the ignorance, rather than the physical poverty of not having enough food.

Prabhupāda: So food problem can be solved simply by accepting.... That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Find out. Annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14). How everyone can.... Find out.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "All living bodies subsist on food grains which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by the performance of sacrifice, and sacrifice is born of prescribed duties."

Prabhupāda: So if you produce enough food grains, both the man and the animal will live very peacefully. Food grains. And I've seen in your country, in America, in Africa, in Australia, so much vacant land without producing food grains. So men are not engaged to produce food grains, but they are brought in Detroit to manufacture of wheels of motorcar.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Therefore not physical. This is definition by negation. In the logic, there is a process of definition by negation. The Māyāvādīs, they define this Brahman, neti, neti, neti, neti, negation. "It is not this, it is not this." What is, that they cannot tell. They simply negate. That is a partial definition. Yes, go on.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: And the third point, lacks—in matter column—lacks specific inherent complex form, and life column has a specific complex form and activity by nature. Now here we are talking about complex form. Normally the matter itself is very simple by nature, but life tends, when the living entity is in a living body, the matter itself is also very complex when it is associated with life. But matter per se is a very simple, simple structure.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: How can you say, though, that the soul has a complex form?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Well, we get information that in the spiritual world the spiritual world is full of variegatedness. It is not just one variety. It is full of varieties. So we take that as proof of the complex nature of life.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Hari-śauri: Yes, "I am the fire of digestion."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So that differentiates also the simple matter without life. For example, sometimes it has been asked whether a crystal is alive or not. This is confusing to the scientists. Sometimes they say that a crystal is behaving just like a living body, it grows and this and that, they say. But actually there is no flow of matter. That tells us that crystal is not life. There's a fundamental difference. The last point in this connection is that matter is impersonal and life has personality.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So that implies that matter is unconscious and the life is fully conscious.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is also material. Now how much powerful is spirit soul, you can just imagine. If one grain of matter has got so much potency, how much potency has got the spirit.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But then somebody may ask that why that cyanide..., cyanide is just material. But now in the living body the spirit is there, but how is spirit affected by...

Prabhupāda: Spirit is unable to live. The condition changes. Poison means the condition changes.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: But that is not your laboratory children. That is God's children. That is another thing. That is not your laboratory children. You want to produce children in laboratory? Then do that. That is our challenge.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But this, one of our arguments now, we argue that these molecules that (indistinct) for example DNA, even if they make it, still it just... It means it's a molecule. It is not going to function normally, as we find in a living cell, in a living body. So this has nothing to do with the life processes. The molecules they make, they may do so many reactions, but still there is a fundamental difference in the living body and this simple, that... To determine that it's never possible to create life in the test tube. The have timetables, Śrīla Prabhupāda, in about fifty years, that's about the turn of the century, that about 2001 we are going to make such and such bodies and...

Prabhupāda: All imagination.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) just like we're opposing their theory. They are not absolute.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Science, science also, Prabhupāda, changing the subject level, science also comes to the conclusion that the stars and this universe have..., they die out and then they produce new ones, just like life cycle of the living body. So...

Prabhupāda: Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Sadāpūta: Is earth still being manifested from ether? Like the description in Bhāgavatam is from sound and then through different elements finally down to earth. Is that still happening today?

Prabhupāda: Every, always happening. Nature's law is going on.

Sadāpūta: Yes. So what I was wondering, is like earth still being manifested in living bodies from sound and so on, like the chemists...

Prabhupāda: No, no. The process is going on. I've described. That is going on.

Rūpānuga: So the spirit soul is in the seed, and the seed interacts with the other chemicals to make growth. So if the chemicals are not there in the earth, then that seed cannot make those chemicals.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Rūpānuga: Now suppose we take so many chemicals from the earth and they may become a little depleted. Can those chemicals be replaced by the earth itself as the ongoing process of nature?

Prabhupāda: Everything is coming from the earth.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That is..., Sadāpūta has an interesting point in science itself, that somebody tried to show that in the living body, when life is within matter, the ah, it doesn't follow the conservation of matter. Science, one of the basic principles of science is that...

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Similarly...

Interviewer: But my body is not dead.

Prabhupāda: Body is not because the living force is there.

Interviewer: Right. But people in general you say are walking on the dead platform in live bodies?

Devotees: Working.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Interviewer: Oh working. Oh, working on the dead platform in live bodies.

Prabhupāda: Dead, you don't talk, you don't talk.

Interviewer: Is that correct?

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: So if I would not have students like you, they would have taken me as crazy man. But now I have engaged you to prove them rascals. That is my ambition. (break) ...life from matter.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Before 1828 in the history of chemistry, there was these scientists. They thought that something, what happens in the body, in the living body, is different than chemistry in the physics. That is called vital theory.

Prabhupāda: No, Bhagavad-gītā says, nainaṁ chindanti śastrāṇi nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ (BG 2.23). So what is there within the physical world that is not burned by fire? Where is that thing? But these rascals have no knowledge. It is clearly said indirectly. This is called negative definition: "It is not this." And because he has no brain to understand, so therefore Kṛṣṇa is explaining in the negative way that "You cannot cut by any weapon; you cannot burn it; it is never dried up."

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: When the consciousness is undeveloped, looks like dead body.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. (break)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In a living body, in a living cell, actually it is made up of innumerable lives. But among these innumerable lives, the jīva, who is...

Prabhupāda: He's a particular individual. In the body... Just like you are in this room. When you leave this room, the room becomes vacant, but there are innumerable other jīvas.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But different consciousness. So among these innumerable lives making this whole living body, there is one which is highly...

Prabhupāda: Particular.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. Conscious.

Śatadhanya: Who permeates that body.

Prabhupāda: And we can experience. There are so many germs within the body.

1975 Correspondence

Letter to Tulsi -- Bombay 18 December, 1975:

Please accept my blessings. Thank you very much for your nice letter. I can understand from your letter that you are very intelligent. Generally India people are not taking up this movement, although it is their original culture, they are now in favor of economic development and technological advancement which can never do any good to the people in general, neither material nor spiritual. After all a living being lives by the grace of God. He cannot eat nuts and bolts, however nicely they may be manufactured. We live by food grains, vegetables and milk products as it is stated in the Bhagavad gita "All living bodies subsist on food grains which are due to rains come by proper proformance of sacrifice" Human life is meant for sacrifice to please Visnu. Bhoktaram yajna-tapasam, sarva-loka-mahesvaram (BG 5.29), "The sages knowing me to be the ultimate purpose of all sacrifices, the Supreme Lord of all planets, and the well wishing friend of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries"

1976 Correspondence

Letter to Purusottama -- Los Angeles 4 June, 1976:

Prahlada's father, Hiranyakasipu was giving so much trouble, but to Prahlada it was not trouble. He was simply concerned to see that others who were suffering might take to Krsna Consciousness. That is the Vaisnava's concern. For myself, let me go to hell, I can chant Hare Krishna, but the Vaisnava is simply lamenting for the nondevotees who must go immediately from the room? No. The living body or the dead body, either way it is the same, simply earth, air, water, fire, and ether.