The understanding of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in toto. So if we discuss about kṛṣṇa-kathā, the words of Kṛṣṇa . . . there are two books, words of Kṛṣṇa. One, Bhagavad-gītā. Every Vedic literature is kṛṣṇa-kathā, but these two books especially, kṛṣṇa-kathā. Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa is directly speaking, and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, directly speaking about Kṛṣṇa. Both of them are kṛṣṇa-kathā. So therefore here it is said that uttama-śloka-vārtayā. Vārtā means message, words. So if we pass our time simply by reading and talking about Kṛṣṇa, then the sun will not be able to take away our life. This is the secret. If you want to become immortal, then you always be engaged in kṛṣṇa-kathā. Always, twenty-four hours, always think of Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
So everyone is dying, but those who are engaged in kṛṣṇa-kathā, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, those who are busy in Kṛṣṇa's business, they are not dying. They are living. How? Because ordinary man, his duration of life, span of life, is being taken away by the sun rising and sunset every day. If a man is fifty years old, that means . . . he has to live for eighty years. So fifty years duration has already been taken away by the sun. Fifty years old means that fifty years of time has already been taken away by the sun. It will never come back. "But what about the devotees? He is also the same. His, also, life is being taken away?" No. His life is not being taken away, because he is going to live. Superficially we see that the body of a devotee is also taken away. But this is not the real body. Real body is the spiritual body.
So spiritual body . . . just like Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9): "After giving up this body, he does not take birth. He comes to Me." So he has . . . now, the body is given up. Then how he goes? He says: "He comes to Me." So who comes to Him? Materialistic person, the so-called scientist, philosopher, they know this body—the self. They do not know that the body is the cover of the self. This real self, the real person, goes to Kṛṣṇa to live forever.
So those who are devotees, those who are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are giving up this infected body and they are getting their new . . . not new; the old, original body, spiritual body. Therefore, as soon as you get the spiritual body, the sun has no power to take it away. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā that, "The fire cannot burn it, the weapon cannot kill it, the water cannot moist it . . ." In so many way, indirect way, are described. The spirit cannot be destroyed by anything material. Matter . . . just like this body is matter. This body can be cut into pieces, but the spirit soul cannot be. The body can be burned into ashes, but the spirit soul cannot be. Pāvakaḥ. Dahati pāvakaḥ.
So the modern scientist, they say that there is no life in the sun planet, sun globe. But that is not a fact. What is sun globe? It is a fiery planet, that's all. But the spirit soul can live in the fire, and he gets a fiery body. Just like here, on this planet, on earth, we have got this earthly body. It may be very beautiful, but it is earth—simply by nature's manipulation. Just like we are coming—Karandhara showed me—the plastic some trees. So they have made the plastic tree exactly resembling the tree. But it is not tree. Similarly, this body is as good as the plastic body. It has no value. So tyaktvā deham.