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Since every living entity is an individual soul, each is changing his body every moment, manifesting sometimes as a child, sometimes as a youth, and sometimes as an old man. Yet the same spirit soul is there and does not undergo any change

Expressions researched:
"bodily change" |"body changes" |"body has changed" |"body is being changed" |"body is changed" |"body is changing" |"body of a child is changed" |"body's being changed" |"body's changing" |"change his body" |"change my body" |"change of body" |"change of the body" |"change our body" |"change their body" |"change this body" |"changed bodies" |"changed body" |"changed his body" |"changed my body" |"changed our bodies" |"changed so many bodies" |"changed so many times your body" |"changed the body" |"changed your body" |"changes body" |"changing bodies" |"changing body" |"changing from one body" |"changing his body" |"changing in this body" |"changing my body" |"changing our bodies" |"changing our body" |"changing the body" |"changing your body" |"living entities" |"living entity" |"living force" |"proprietor of the body" |"soul" |"spirit" |"who owns the body"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: "child chang* body*"@20 or "son chang* bod*"@20

Bhagavad-gita As It Is

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 2.13, Purport:

Since every living entity is an individual soul, each is changing his body every moment, manifesting sometimes as a child, sometimes as a youth, and sometimes as an old man. Yet the same spirit soul is there and does not undergo any change. This individual soul finally changes the body at death and transmigrates to another body; and since it is sure to have another body in the next birth—either material or spiritual—there was no cause for lamentation by Arjuna on account of death, neither for Bhīṣma nor for Droṇa, for whom he was so much concerned.

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.1-10 and Talk -- Los Angeles, November 25, 1968:

Spirit soul is evergreen. The body is changing. That is to be understood. Body is changing. That everyone can understand. Just like in your childhood your body was different. Just like this child, a different body. And when that child will be young girl, that will be a different body. But the spirit soul is there in this body and that body. So this is the proof that spirit soul does not change, the body changed. This is the proof. I am thinking of my childhood. That means I am the same "I" which I was existing in my childhood, and I remember in my childhood I was doing this, I did that. But that childhood body is no longer. That is gone. Therefore it is conclusion that my body has changed, but I am the same. Is it not? This is simple truth. So this body will change, still I shall remain. I may enter into another body, that doesn't matter, but I shall remain.

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

Asmin dehe, "In this body, there is the proprietor, the soul." Dehino 'smin yathā dehe. That, on account of the proprietor, he is changing body. Changing body means... So long the soul is there. Suppose a child is born. If the child is born dead, then this body will never grow. You can apply any chemicals or any science; the body will remain the same. But so long the soul is there within the body, the child from the babyhood will come to childhood, then childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood. In this way the body will change. We have changed so many bodies, every one of us. I knew, I know that I had a childish body, I had a boyhood body, but those bodies are no more existing. But I am existing. Therefore the conclusion should be that I, you, as soul, we are eternal. The body is changing. This is our disease.

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

Now, the, our point is, as from the mother's womb, from the very beginning of our birth, as the body develops, develops, similarly, after coming out of the body, it also develops. But the spirit spark is there, the same. The body takes development. So... Now, that development—from this small child, he becomes a bigger child, then he becomes a boy, then becomes a youth, then gradually a old man like me, and then gradually, when this body is no longer useful, then it is, it has to be given up and another body has to be taken—this is the process of transmigration of soul. I think there is no difficulty to understand this simple process. Now, the soul is there, and the body's transforming every moment, every moment, imperceptibly. Just like if you have seen some, some your friend's child small, and after five years, you go to that friend's house and see the child: "Oh, you have grown so big? You have grown so big." But the father, mother cannot see. Because they are seeing daily, they do not see that "How my child is growing, daily," but a man who comes all of a sudden after five years, he says, "Oh, the child is grown up." So imperceptibly we are changing our body every moment. Every moment. That is also medical science, that we are changing our blood corpuscles every moment. You see? Similarly, what is the difficulty to understand that, that the soul transmigrates from one body to another? It is very nicely explained here. "As the owner of the body is there within the body, but the body is changing, one after another, one after another..." Dehino 'smin yathā dehe, kaumāraṁ yauvanam (BG 2.13).

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Mombassa, September 13, 1971:

So Kṛṣṇa is giving instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā that "I" within the body is there. And the "I," or the spirit soul, that is changing the body. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). How changing? Just like a baby. A baby grows to become a child, a child grows to become a youth. Boy, a boy grows to become youth, a youth grows to become old man. So this change is not of that "I." It is a change of the outward body, which is known as shirt and coat. Just like you have coat and you have shirt also. But when the coat is not useful, you cannot use anymore, you throw away the coat, you keep your shirt, then again you find out another coat. Similarly, the living entity, the living force within this coat, body and mind, there is the soul. The soul is changing one coat to another. Similarly, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Dehāntara means accepting another body. The soul is changing dresses.

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

Here especially the word is used, dhīras tatra na muhyati. Muhyati means bewildered. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Just like the parents. The child is changing body. The mother knows, "My child was six inches long within my womb. When he came out, he was twelve inches long, then thirteen inches, fourteen inches, in this way, now three feet, four feet." The mother is not agitated the child is changing body. Similarly, a dhīra, one who knows the laws of transmigration of the soul, he does not lament at the death of his father or friend. He knows that "My father has now gone to such and such place." That also he can know. How? With reference to the śāstra. Therefore, Vedānta-sūtra says that you should see everything through the śāstra, śāstra-cakṣuṣā.

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- London, August 19, 1973:

Just like Kṛṣṇa says Arjuna, in the Fourth Chapter you will find, Kṛṣṇa says that "This philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā, I spoke to the sun-god, some forty millions of years ago." How He remembers? Because He does not change His body. This is simple fact. We do not remember because we are changing body every moment. That is medical science. We are changing the corpuscles of blood. Every second, the body is changing, imperceptibly. Imperceptibly, body is changing. Therefore the father and mother cannot understand how the body is changing imperceptibly. But third person, if he comes all of a sudden and sees the child has grown very big, he says, "Oh, you have grown so big?" But the father-mother does not see that he has grown so big. Because he is always seeing, and the change is taking place very imperceptibly, every moment.

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

Madhudviṣa: Thirteen. "As the embodied soul continually passes in this body from boyhood to youth and then to old age, similarly the soul also passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change." Purport: "Since every living entity is an individual soul, each is changing his body at every moment, manifesting sometimes as a child, sometimes as a youth, and sometimes as an old man, although the same spirit soul is there and does not undergo any change. The individual soul finally changes the body itself in transmigrating from one to another. And since it is sure to have another body in the next birth, either material or spiritual, there was no cause for lamentation by Arjuna on account of death, either over Bhīṣma or over Droṇa, for whom he was so concerned."

Prabhupāda: Now, this simple fact, as it is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, that dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13), the change of body is taking place every moment. Every moment. Just like this child, the child, if there is some measuring instrument, if you measure this child today, tomorrow you'll find the child has grown or changed the body. That is a medical science also. The body is changing. The body is changing, but the soul is there. Just like I had my childhood body, boyhood body, and now I am in a different body, but I remember all the activities of my childhood. Therefore I am permanent. And body is changing. This simple truth, what is the difficulty for the people to understand this simple truth? The body is changing, but I am not changing. I am eternal. Therefore I am not this body. I am not changing. This simple truth, the first instruction of Bhagavad-gītā.

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

So what is the difficulty of understanding this simple truth that the soul is different from the body? And so far eternity of the soul, that is also, there is proof. Because in childhood I was present, in boyhood I was present, in youthhood I was present, and in this old age I am still present. (baby fussing) So naturally it is concluded that when I change this body, I exist. When I change this body... This body will be changed. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). As the parents of this child... Now she is, say, one-feet long only. When this child will grow five feet long, the father and mother, will they cry, "Oh, my child! Where is my child, that one-feet long?" He knows. The parents know that my child is there, but changed the body. This is a fact. Similarly, "You are lamenting on the body of your grandfather and teacher, even they change their body, what is the cause of lamentation? They will exist." This is the beginning of instruction of Bhagavad-gītā or spiritual instruction. Unless one understands this simple fact, that the soul is different from this body, the soul is eternal, the body is temporary, changing... Because without understanding this, there is no spiritual education. A false education. If one identifies with this body, there is no understanding of spiritual knowledge.

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

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

Lecture on BG 4.4 -- Bombay, March 24, 1974:

Now we can derive conclusion that how is that? Kṛṣṇa appears like human being and we are also human being, the same two hands, two legs, one head. How is that He knows everything and I do not know? The conclusion should be derived like this, that we forget because we change our body. Just like I was a child, you were a child. Everyone of us. We did so many things in our childhood, but we have forgotten. With the change of the body, the activities of my past body is forgotten. This is a fact. Similarly when we change this body we get another body. We forget. But why Kṛṣṇa has not forgotten? That means He does not change His body. This should be the conclusion. This should be the conclusion from right, logical point of view. I forget because I change my body. Kṛṣṇa does not forget. He does not change His body. This should be the conclusion.

Lecture on BG 4.7-9 -- New York, July 22, 1966:

Just like the, the entity, living entity is in the body... Just like a child. The living entity's there. The body is very small. But that small body is growing, growing. That is changing. And growing, growing, that small child becomes a boy, grown up boy. And that grown up boy gradually becomes a youth. And then that youth becomes an old man, old man. And then, after, at the end, when the body's no more useful, he changes to another body. So this death means the ultimate change of the present body. So this body's changing. Now, Kṛṣṇa says that as the body is changing, still, the person whose body is this, he's there. He's there. The child is grown up to a boyhood. That does not mean the living entity who came out as a baby is gone. No, he's still there. But his body has changed. Now, you cannot find the small body which came out of the mother's womb when the grown up boy. And you cannot find in a youth that grown, grown up boyhood photograph, or the body. That is gone.

Lecture on BG 4.7-9 -- New York, July 22, 1966:

So every moment we are having a new body. And that is a medical science truth. Medical science, it is... We are having new body at every moment. Similarly, when we take another body, oh, a person who knows things as they are, they are not bewildered. Dhīras tatra na muhyati. Dhīra means who is conscious of this bodily change, who knows things as they are, he's not, I mean to, bewildered. He's not, he's, he's steady, "Oh, he has changed his body. That's all." A person who does not know, he's crying. He..., "Oh, my son is gone. My son is gone. My son is gone." But if he's, I mean to say, in the consciousness, he knows, "Oh, my son has simply changed body." That's all. Just immediately, exactly, "My son, when he was little baby... Now he has grown up to be a boy." So the father and the parents do not lament, "Oh, where my, that son gone, that small baby gone?"

Similarly, that change of body... So our body is like that. We are changing. In the material condition. In the material condition we are simply changing our body. That is our disease. This conditional life of changing the bodies, one after another, one after... Not only human body. We may have to change to animal's body, or to another demigod's body. There are different species of life. I have several times spoken before you, that there are 8,400,000's of species of life. So our body's being changed in this circle of these 8,400,000's of different species of life. This is called our material bondage.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Hyderabad, April 27, 1974:

This material nature is not permanent. It is bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). Everything here, in the material world, everything comes into existence, takes birth, janma, then stays for sometimes, grows the body, then produces some by-products, then dwindles, and then finished. This is the material nature. Just like your body, my body, it has taken birth at a certain date, it is growing, and it is producing some children, by-products. Then, as we are growing old, then one day the body will be finished. This is the material nature. Either you take it personally, individually, your body, or this gigantic body of the universe, in whichever way you may take it, the nature is bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). Here the material nature is you take your birth or appearance and again disappear and again appear. This is the instruction of spiritual life. The spirit soul is there, but it is not getting a permanent settlement. This is material world. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). As the body is changing, there are so many children, they will also become old like me. But the spirit soul is there. In the presence of mother, although the body is changing, the mother knows that "My son is there." Although from babyhood the son has grown to boyhood, the body, original body, child's body, baby's body, is not existing, the mother knows that "My boy is there."

So this is commonsense understanding. People do not understand it, very nice common sense, that the body is changing but the soul is there. Exactly the same example: the mother knows that "My boy, my child, although he has changed body, now he has grown-up, say, fifty years old, but my child he is. He is my child." Where is the difficulty to understand? Anyone can understand. But people do not believe in the transmigration of the soul. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). This kind of education, what is the value? The real knowledge begins when we understand that we are not this body, material body. I am different from body.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Durban, October 9, 1975:

So take instruction from God to understand God. Then your life will be perfect. And if you understand God, then your all problems solved. Our real problem is repetition of birth and death. That is real problem. That we do not know. We are callous. We do not know what is the position of my real self. That we do not know. This is called ignorance. That instruction is given in the Bhagavad-gītā in the beginning. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This living spirit... Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācin na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This, I mean to say, spirit soul is never born. Then what is this birth? The birth is of this body. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāram (BG 2.13). This change of body We are changing body. But I am the eternal. I know that I had a body of a child. The body is gone. The childhood body is no more existing. But I know that I had a body. This is the proof that I am eternal; the body is changing. This is the way. I was a young man; now I am old man. But I know, "I was young man. My body was like this. I was doing that." But now that is not possible because that body has gone. So similarly, the conclusion is that when this body will be vanquished, I shall accept another body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). This is simple method of understanding the transmigration of the soul. So real problem is that I am eternal, but I am put into such condition that I have to take birth and die, I have to become old and I have to disease. This is the real problem.

Lecture on BG 9.34 -- New York, December 26, 1966, 'Who is Crazy?':

Suppose you are now in America, in the land of America. So next life you may be in China. Who can say? Because we are changing our bodies, you cannot say that we are not changing our bodies. Can you say that you are not changing your body? Yes, we are changing. When I was born, from the mother's womb, my body was so little. Now how I have changed my...? Where is that body? Where is that body when I was a child? Where is that body when I was a boy? Where is that body when I was a young man? I have got my photograph, my studentship. Oh, Swamiji, you were like this? Where is that body? Where it has gone? So we are changing, but I am the same man. I am thinking, "Oh, in my childhood, I was doing like this. Oh, in my youthhood, I was thinking like this. In my boyhood, I did so many things." Now where those days gone? If my body, everything has gone away? It is simply remembrance.

Lecture on BG 9.34 -- New York, December 26, 1966, 'Who is Crazy?':

"My dear Arjuna, just like the living spark, the living self, is within this body from the womb of the mother, it is developing when, after the father's-mother combination, there is a form of body just like a pea, and then that pea-like form develops within the womb of the mother and, after ten months, there is no more space in the womb of the mother. So the child comes out and again grows. So the growth of the body is going on, or the change of the body is going on." Dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). Dehe means in this body, and dehī means the person who is within this body, he is there, from that pea-like form. Because my form, my measurement is so small that we cannot see. It is not possible. It is ten-thousand, one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. It is so small. So with our material eyes, or with your material conception, we cannot see the soul. But the soul is there, and the proof is, evidence is, because the soul is there, therefore the pea-like form, material body, is growing. Wherever there is growth...

There are six symptoms of presentation of, presence of the soul. Growth is one of the important. So growth. As soon as the soul is out of this body, no more growth. If the child comes dead, oh, there will be no growth. Oh, the parents will say it is useless. Throw it.

Lecture on BG 10.8 -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

So in this way we shall be implicated with so many sinful activities that our life will be entangled. On account of our foolish civilization we do not understand what is the entanglement of life. The entanglement of life is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), to change this body. As we are changing body, the child is changing body to become a boy. The boy is changing body to become a young man. The young man is changing body to become an old man. Similarly, when the old man changes the body, he gets another body. If a young man challenges the laws of nature, that he is not going to be old man, that is false prestige. He must have to become an old man. Similarly, if some rascal says that "I don't believe in the next life," that is his foolishness. He has to change his body. Nature's law is going on. You are not controller of the nature, you are controlled by nature. So if we entangle ourself with sinful activities then next life means we get low grade life.

Lecture on BG 13.1-3 -- Durban, October 13, 1975:

Kṣetra-kṣetra-jñayor jñānam. One should have very clear knowledge that "I am not this body. This is my body." You are not this body; it is your body. You are spirit; I am spirit. We are different from this body. This is the first instruction given in the Bhagavad-gītā in the beginning.

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
(BG 2.13)

We are not this body. I am not this body; you are not this body. We are changing body every moment, imperceptibly, changing body. Sometimes it is found that the child has grown now to become a boy. But he has not become suddenly a boy. The body has changed. Body has changed every minute. But all of a sudden or at a certain moment we see that the body has changed. So this is real knowledge, that "I am not this body. I am changing my body, and when I shall finally change this body I will get another body." This is my position. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13).

Lecture on BG 13.19 -- Bombay, October 13, 1973:

In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is said, aham ādir hi devānāṁ maharṣīṇāṁ ca sarvaśaḥ (Bg 10.2). So that Supreme Personality of Kṛṣṇa is giving us knowledge, the ultimate goal of knowledge. And the living entities, their body, field of activities in this thirteenth chapter they have been very thoroughly described. Although Kṛṣṇa said it is summary. Because they cannot be described in full.

This body, how many bodies you have changed? Even in this life, we are changing our body. Every one of us, a little body of a child, then little grown-up body of a boy, then youthful body, then this old body. So as we are changing body, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Similarly, after giving up this body, I will have to accept another body, and there are for eight million four hundred thousand species of forms of body. According to our karma, we have to accept another body.

Lecture on BG 13.26 -- Delhi, September 22, 1974:

You are not dead simply by annihilation of the body. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Nityaḥ śāśvato 'yam. You are nitya, śāśvata. Na jāyate na mriyate. You have no birth, no death. The birth and death is simply changing body. Just like we have changed so many bodies. I was a child. But the child body is no longer to be seen. That does not mean I am dead. I had my body of a child. That body is now finished. There is no such body. You can see in photograph your body, childhood body, but where is that body? That body is gone. So body gone, but you are living. Where is the difficulty to understand? And Kṛṣṇa says, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). The body being lost, the person is not lost. The person is living. Exactly.

Just like I was a young man like you. I was also very beautiful at that time. But where is that body? But that body is gone, but that does not mean I am dead. Similarly, when this body, this old body, when it will be not workable, the machine will not act, so I or you, every one of us will have to change. Suppose your car is going on. Somehow or other the car stops. Then you take another car and continue your journey. The car stops to work does not mean that the man who is in the car, he also stops. No. He continues. Therefore it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Your work is not stopped. You are transferred to another body.

Lecture on BG 16.1-3 -- Hawaii, January 29, 1975:

So this is the preliminary knowledge of advancing in spiritual knowledge. You do not know what is spirit and what is the spiritual knowledge. This is spirit, that spirit is there. Asmin dehe, in this body, there is the spirit soul, and the spirit soul is permanent. The spirit soul is permanent, and it is expressing in different way according to the change of body. Just like this child is now just like ordinary animal. But this body, when he will change, he will express in a different way. He will express in a different way. Similarly, if you get the cat's body, you will express in a different way. If you get a dog's body, you will express in a different way. If you get the body of a tree, that you cannot express. You will have to stand simply. You have to suffer. You cannot protest. Somebody is taking, cutting, take your fruit, cutting your branch, but you cannot protest.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.2.4 -- Rome, May 28, 1974:

Because people have no knowledge about the next life, they are not interested with the spiritual education. That is the difficulty. They are not at all interested. Why people do not come here? They think that "These people will say that there is life after death, and if you do not do nicely, you will have to suffer. All this nonsense we have to hear, utopian." They are not interested. They are so dull. The facts... Kṛṣṇa is giving example. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāram... (BG 2.13). As you are changing your body... We have changed, every one of us, we have changed body. I was a baby. I was a child. I was a boy. I was young man. Now I have got a different body. Where have those bodies gone? They have no brain to think. I had all these bodies—that's a fact. And they are not existing now, that's a fact. And still I say, "There is no other body after death." What is the reason? What is the logic? How simple logic is given by... Not ordinary person, Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, says that "As you have changed so many bodies, passed through so many bodies..." Every... Medical science says every minute we are changing body. That's a fact.

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

The soul is eternal and the body is temporary. It is changing every minute. Just like from our mother's womb, our first birth takes place between the father and mother. Two secretions emulsified, forms into a pealike body, a small pealike body. First night the soul takes shelter within that body, and the mother supplies the energy, and it develops. From that pea it becomes a small body, but the small body becomes greater and greater, and when it is fit for developing, or increasing in this material atmosphere, mother delivers the child and again it becomes developing. So developing means changing the body. Child's body... 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 1.3.17 -- Los Angeles, September 22, 1972:

So these rascals, they do not understand the simple truth, that this body is different from my..., from the body of a youth or boy. They are different bodies. They are thinking the body is growing. The body's not growing. Body is changing. Just like in cinema, photograph, you see some body is moving, but that is not moving. That is different body changing, the photographs. But because it is shown so swiftly, we see that one body. As soon as the machine is stopped, the body is stopped. Immediately. We have experience. So these bodies are different bodies. Otherwise, a child does so many things foolishly and the elderly boy or a youth, he does not do so. Because the body is different. Why do they not understand? This is called ignorance. The body is different. Similarly, as everyone has got past, present and future... You are all young men. You had your past. You had a child's body or boy's body. In future you will get a body like me, aged. Similarly, I had my past. I was, I had a youth's body. Now I have got aged body. Then why not future, another body? This is very common conclusion. And it is given, it is confirmed. Not that we are imagining. It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. As the child is changing body to boyhood, boy is changing body to youthhood-dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13)—and the youth is changing body to old age body, similarly, the old also will change the body, again will get a small baby's body and again, again. That is the way of nature.

Lecture on SB 1.15.42 -- Los Angeles, December 20, 1973:

One of our big politician, Indian politician, some astrologer said that "He has become a dog in Scandinavia." But you cannot deny. You cannot deny. If you believe... First of all you have to believe that the soul transmigrates. That's a fact. That we are doing every day, every minute... Simply it requires little brain. Dhīra. Dhīras tatra na muhyati. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Dhīra means sober. What is the difficulty to understand? I was a child, you were a child. Just like these children, talking without any meaning. But they are children, they are excused. But the same child will become a young man, old man. The body has changed. Just like I was also child, you were also child. In childhood we have done so many nonsense things. But in this body I am not doing anything. I have to consider.

So that means the body is different. According to the body... The rascal says that the animals have no soul. Why? Then the child has no soul? What is the difference between the child's behavior and an animal's behavior? Anyone who has got a dog in the family, the dog is also one of the children. He also behaves... The children also behave like the dog. And the children do not find any difference, that a dog is different, he is different. Simple. So if the dog has no soul and if the behavior are the same, as of the dog of the child, so does it mean the child has no soul? How foolish they are. Just see. And they say the animal has no soul. Why?

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

After all, you have to change this body. Change... This is... Bhagavad-gītā says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). As we are changing this body from childhood, from babyhood to childhood, childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood... This is practical. You are not the same body as you had your body in the womb of your mother. That body is gone. Now daily changing; every moment we are changing body. Advancing age means I am changing body, you are changing body. So it is very easy to understood that we are changing our body. But I know, you know, every one of us, that "I had such and such body." You remember that you had a child's body. You were playing like that. When you see another child, you say, "Oh, I was also a child like him, and I was doing like this." But where is that body? That is gone. Now you have got another body. This example is given in the Bhagavad-gītā. So as you are changing body, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), similarly, after giving up this body, you have to accept another body. This is the logic, and any sane man can understand.

So we have become so rascal that we do not believe in the transmigration of the soul. Actually, I am...Presently I can understand that "I had such and such body; now I have transmigrated to this body." How I have done, that is not known to you or me. That is called acintya. Perceptive. Just like the child is changing body, and you saw one child on the lap of his mother. So after few years, you come. You cannot recognize the same child who has grown up: "Oh." The mother says that "This is such and such." "Oh, you have become so grown up." So things are taken imperceptibly. That is going on by the subtle laws of nature. It is a great science, but there is no discussion of this science in any university of the whole world.

Lecture on SB 2.1.5 -- Delhi, November 8, 1973:

Icchatā abhayam. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī is giving instruction to Mahārāja Parīkṣit what is to be done at the point of death. We have already discussed this point, that we must know the responsibility of our next life. Just like a child is given education for the next life, to become youthful, to get into higher education, admission. Then a youth is given higher education for better life in future. That is natural. Every one is expecting future prospect. Similarly, we, every one of us, we are changing our body exactly the same way as the child is changing his body to boyhood, the boy is changing his body to youthhood, the youth is changing his body to old body. Similarly, after old age, there is next stage is death.

So after death, what is the proposal? That they do not know. And practically we are experiencing that although I am changing body, I was a child, I was a boy, I was a young man, now I am old man, so there was past and future in every stage. Similarly, in this stage as I am remembering my past life... I can remember, you can remember... I was a child, I was a boy, I was a young man. I was doing like this. Everything I remember. Even if I forget, I had my past life and again I expect my future life. Past, present and future. Why the future should be zero? We have experienced so long, both past, present and future. Why in this old age I shall be future-less, void? There is no life after death? That is the foolishness. That we are not preparing.

Lecture on SB 2.1.5 -- Delhi, November 8, 1973:

These rascal, they do not see what is the future. They do not believe in future. Big, big professors, big, big politicians, they do not believe even that there is life after death. And why there is no life after death? We are experiencing that life after life... Just like this child's activities at the present moment will not be the same when she will get another body as young woman. That will be different activity. So according to our change of body we have got different engagements. A child talks all foolish things; nobody cares for it. But the same child, when he gets another body, if he talks foolish, then he will be called, "Oh, you are so fool. You are talking like this." Because the body has changed. So body is changing. That's a fact. But apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2), one who does not know that the spirit soul is eternal and changing body, they are blind, apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). They are simply engrossed in this bodily concept of life. Gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām. Compact, encaged in this body, encaged in society, encaged in nationalism, encaged in religion, encaged in ideas, philosophy. But there is no question of discussing about the soul. Apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2).

Lecture on SB 2.3.18-19 -- Bombay, March 23, 1977, At Cross Maidan Pandal:

We living entities, we are part and parcel of God. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). Some way or other, we are now fallen in this material condition, and we are changing bodies. This is the first instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā. There are so many commentators on Bhagavad-gītā, but nobody has pointed out what is the real business of Bhagavad-gītā. The real business is, as Kṛṣṇa says in the beginning of His teachings,

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
(BG 2.13)

This is the first instruction, that we are changing body on account of the spirit soul, and when the spirit soul changes... We are changing every day, every moment, our body—kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. I was a child. You were a child. We have now changed our bodies. Similarly, now I am old man. Some of you, you are also old man. We have changed the body.

Lecture on SB 2.9.4 -- Japan, April 22, 1972:

Prabhupāda: ...intelligence that our form we change or we die, so Kṛṣṇa never dies. Kṛṣṇa never dies. The evidence of death is... Just like in our past life we had some body and we died. We have got another body. Kṛṣṇa does not die means He does not change His body. Sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā (BG 4.6). If He would have died, then He could not recollect in His mind the incident which happened millions of years ago. He says, vivasvān, proktavān aham avyayam, vivasvān manave prāha. When Arjuna inquired that "You say that You instructed this Bhagavad-gītā, this science, to Vivasvān long, long, millions of years ago. How can I believe it?" Therefore He said, "I remember it. You don't remember. Therefore I do not die. You die." This is it. One who can remember, he does not die. Just like I... So long I can remember of my childhood activities, boyhood activities, I have not died. Is it not? Although the body is gone. This is the evidence that Kṛṣṇa does not die. Try to understand this point. Death means forgetting everything. That is death. But if you can remember, that is not death. It is clear?

Devotees: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So I change my body, but I remember that I was a child, I was a boy, I was playing like this. I was doing like this. My mother was chastising me like this. Therefore I am not dead. But the body is gone. So this is the distinction between death and life. If you can remember, then you have not died. And if you forget, that is death. But the ātmā is permanent, eternal. So Kṛṣṇa does not die. Otherwise, how He could remember? This is the reason. You try to understand all this reasoning. You have to preach. This is the reason. Because Kṛṣṇa says that "I remember everything," therefore Kṛṣṇa does not die. Is it established or not? Yes.

Lecture on SB 3.25.7 -- Bombay, November 7, 1974:

Everyone is engaged in hard labor simply for satisfaction of the senses. So they have become mad. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vi... And they are acting without any consideration of the effect. They do not consider whether it is sinful or not. They do not believe in the next life. They do not discriminate what is sinful, what is pious—nothing. Exactly like animals.

So śāstra says, "This is not good." Here also, Devahūti says that bhūmann asad-indriya-tarṣaṇāt. Asad-indriya-tarṣ... Actually, these senses are not real senses. It is covered. Just like my, this body, covered with this shirt, or this cloth. It is not my real body. Although you see the shirt has got a hand, that hand is not real hand. The real hand is within the shirt. Similarly, our real body is within this body. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). Dehe. Dehinaḥ. Dehinaḥ means the real body, or the spiritual body of the soul, is within this body. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe. And the body is changing. Kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. It is sometimes child, sometimes youth, sometimes a young man, sometimes old man. And then vanishes. It is... There are six changes. So this is not real body. But... And we are engaged in this unreal body, sense gratification. We have got senses. So therefore Bhagavad-gītā says, sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriya-grāhyam (BG 6.21). Atīndriya-grāhyam. Beyond the senses. Therefore these senses are to be purified. That is called tapasya.

Lecture on SB 3.26.34 -- Bombay, January 11, 1975:

Mahato bhayāt. Bhaya, or fearfulness, is of our next life. That is bhaya. Everyone is afraid of dying. Why? There is fearfulness that after this body, after death, nobody knows where he is going. That is bhaya. Everyone should be afraid of that. Suppose you are pushed somewhere. You do not know whether..., where you are going. So that is very dangerous. One must know "Where I am going." But they do not believe in the next life. Due to lack of knowledge, poor fund of knowledge, they... There is no question of disbelieving. It is quite logical, as Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). As you are changing body... Everyone is changing. Everyone knows, "I was a child. Then I became a baby, I became a boy, I became a young man. Now I am old man." So these, one after an..., change, one body after another, that is going on simply... Similarly, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ, after this body is finished, I must get another body. So I am transformed to one body to another by mind, intelligence and ego. That has to be trained, mind. If you train up your mind where to go... We decide even in this life. We first of all decide in the mind, "Where I shall go?" We purchase ticket. We make arrangement. Similarly, the mind should be trained up how to go back to home, back to Godhead. This is called bhajana-sādhana, to train up the mind.

Lecture on SB 6.1.1-4 -- Melbourne, May 20, 1975:

Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā,

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
(BG 2.13)

He is giving very practical example that because the soul is within this body, therefore bodily changes are taking place. Now, suppose if a child is born dead. That... You can keep it by some method, preservative method, but it will not grow. One can understand very easily. Because the soul is there, therefore the child from the womb of his mother grows gradually. Grows means changing body. Everything, information, is there in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The man and woman, father and mother, after sex the two secretion is emulsified and it takes a form like a pea. And the small living entity, the measurement is also given. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitaḥ: (CC Madhya 19.140) "One ten-thousandth part of the upper portion point of hair." You know the point of hair. Now divided into ten thousand part and take one part. That is the form of the soul. That little spark takes shelter into that emulsified pea, and because the soul is there within, it develops from the mother's womb. The child does not develop all of a sudden. Every mother knows that. It grows gradually, little by little, little by little. When it is seven months, then it is further..., it moves. So in this way the... Kṛṣṇa says that don't take this body as the living being. Dehinaḥ asmin dehe. Within this body, the soul is there. So everyone can understand.

Lecture on SB 6.1.1-4 -- Melbourne, May 20, 1975:

Now, because the soul is there, therefore the body is changing. Everyone knows that he was a child. I know, you know. I remember my childhood body or my boyhood body, my youthhood body. I am old man. I remember them, that "I was doing as a young man like this. I was doing as a boy like this. I was jumping. Now I cannot jump. Why? The body has changed." The body has changed. It is very good logic. The same "I" am there. I was a boy. I was jumping. Now I am old man. I have changed my body. I cannot do that. I will have to take the stick. Because the body has changed. So where is the fallacy of logic? It is very clearly... And the authority says... Kṛṣṇa says, not an ordinary person. He says, "Within this body there is the soul, and as on account of the soul, the body is changing shape from childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood, from youthhood to old man's body. Similarly, when this body will be useless, he will accept another body." This simply truth one has to understand first of all before anything spiritual knowledge. If one cannot understand that the spirit soul is different from this body, then he is cat and dog. He is not human being.

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Honolulu, June 8, 1975:

So we may declare very foolishly that we are independent. That is the foolishness of the modern civilization. They are not independent, nobody. Everyone is dependent. But because they are dependent and there are so many sufferings awaiting them for their so-called independent life, they do not believe in the next life. This is the, I mean to say, special feature of the modern civilization. They say, big, big professor, big, big leader, "No, there is no life after death. This is once we get and finished." That is also another foolishness. Just like a child. A child, he knows that his body will be changed. Nobody will remain a baby. Nobody will remain a child. Nobody will remain a boy. Next life is awaiting. It is very simple philosophy. And then after this body another body is waiting. That's a fact. And not only fact. If you cannot understand it—there is no difficulty in understanding—but the authority says, Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). As we are changing from this body to that body, this body to that body, this body to that body, every moment... According to medical science, every moment we are changing body. That's a fact. But the changing is going so swiftly that we do not see how it is being changed. But if you come after some years... Just like we are seeing so many children, and if you come some years after, his father says, "This is the same child," oh, you will be surprised, "Oh!" Because he has changed body. You will say, "Oh, you have become so big." So it is a fact that we are changing body, and Kṛṣṇa says this example, that as we are changing even in this life the body, similarly we shall have to change this body. The authority says, and we are practical example is there. Why we should not believe in the next life? Even a child can understand. But they are trying to avoid next life. That is their philosophy.

Lecture on SB 6.1.7 -- Honolulu, June 15, 1975, Sunday Feast Lecture:

Ninety-nine point nine percent, they do not understand this philosophy, especially in the modern age. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo (SB 1.1.10). They are very, very dull rascals. This is the challenge. Mandāḥ. Mandāḥ means dull, no intelligence. A simple truth, Kṛṣṇa is explaining to Arjuna. It is authoritative statement because Kṛṣṇa says, and Kṛṣṇa says not unreasonably, very reasonably, "I am giving very common example that smin dehe, within this body, the proprietor of the body or the spirit soul is there. And on account of this," dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13), "because the living entity is within this body, therefore the bodily changes are taking place." What is that changing? Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. "The body is sometimes child, and sometimes boy, sometimes young man, sometimes old man. So the body is changing." Who cannot understand this? The child, the small child, is dancing. Now, that child will get the body of a young man like you. Everyone knows it. This body will change. Where is the difficulty? And Kṛṣṇa is giving this common example, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). As you are experiencing this change of body, similarly, you take it that this body also will change. An old man like me, the next body is there. Either farther old man or, after death, another body. This is to be understood. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ means to get another body.

Lecture on SB 7.5.31 -- Mauritius, October 4, 1975:

Tathā dehāntara prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). We have to change this body. Death means changing body. We are changing body every moment, every second, and getting a new body imperceptibly. And the last change of this body is taken as death, transmigration of the soul. But nobody knows "What kind of change is going to happen in my next body or next life." But there is change of body, dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Just like I was a child. Now I have got another body, the body is changed. Similarly, when this body will be finished, then I will get another body. This is a fact. If we cannot understand, then we have to take it from authority to understand, because understanding means taking knowledge from the authority.

So Kṛṣṇa says, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Dehāntara-prāptiḥ is there, information. So how can we deny that there is no life after death? There is.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1-2 -- Stockholm, September 6, 1973:

The human form of life is not meant for to live like the dogs and the hogs. They are busy always for maintaining the body. They are busy. They have no other business. They cannot understand. If I bring some dog in this meeting and try to make him understand, "Please note that you are not this body." It is not possible for them to understand. But a human being, he may be educated like dogs and hog, but if he's given reasonably the, as Kṛṣṇa is giving that the soul is the proprietor of this body and he is as he's changing in this body He's a child-child means he has got a child's body. Baby means he has got a baby's body. Young man means he has a youth's body. So this body has been changed. Similarly when this body is useless, no more can be used, then he transmigrates to another body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir.

Lecture on SB 7.9.54 -- Vrndavana, April 9, 1976:

The simple thing that "I am not this body. I am living within this body, and because I am living within this body, the bodily changes are taking place," this simple thing... A dead child never grows, but a living child grows or changes body. So where is the difficulty to understand that there is something in the body, therefore the body is changing? Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). A child is becoming a baby, baby is becoming a boy, a boy is becoming a young man, young man is becoming a middle aged, a middle-aged man is becoming old man, so the old man, now, after giving up when it is useless, this body, no more workable, then he must get another body, as we have experienced after one stage of life another stage, another body. Where is the difficulty? Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, dhīras tatra na muhyati. Those who are intelligent, they are not, I mean to say, bewildered. They accept, "Yes, there is." Only the rascals, they cannot understand, the rascals. The opposite number of dhīra, the crazy rascals, they cannot understand. Simple thing.

Lecture on SB Lecture -- Melbourne, May 19, 1975:

Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Just like we are changing our body. In mother's womb we had a small body. It grows, and we come out. Again it grows. Grows... It is not actually growing, it is changing. The child is changing his body to baby, the baby is changing his body to boy, and the boy is changing his body to youthhood. Then... in this way you are changing body. That you have got experience. You had a child's body—you remember. Or you had a boy's body—you remember. But the body is no longer existing. But you are existing. Therefore the conclusion is that when this body will be no more fit for existing we shall have to accept another body. This is called tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. So we have to change. That is nature's law. The soul is immortal. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). The soul is not finished, simply a particular type of body being finished, no. The people do not know it. And because they are simply engaged in sinful activities, their brain has become so dull that they cannot understand this simple truth that as you are changing body in this life therefore you will change this body to another life. This is very simple truth. But at the advancement of material civilization, we have become so dull and rascal that we cannot understand it.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.15 -- Dallas, March 4, 1975:

Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). We are becoming... We are seeing that "My child is growing." It is not growing; it is changing body just like the film spool. But because it is displayed in a very scientific way, we are seeing that "My child is growing." It is not growing. The actual fact is the child is a soul, and the soul is changing every minute the body. That is real understanding. Kṛṣṇa says, authority says, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prā... (BG 2.13). Dehāntara-prāptiḥ means accepting another body.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.98-102 -- April 27, 1976, Auckland, New Zealand:

Ask any learned scholar in these days that "What is the ultimate goal of life?" They will say, "Oh, there is no particular end (?). Let us live very happily, and after death everything is finished." I have consulted many men, big, big professors, Indian and foreign. They have no idea of the first education in the Bhagavad-gītā: tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). There is change of body. There is already change of body. I was a child, I was a boy, I was a young man. Now the body is changed—I have got this wretched body, old man's body. So all these bodies... That is simple, logical. Kṛṣṇa says in the beginning—that is the first lesson of Bhagavad-gītā-that,

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
(BG 2.13)

Dehinaḥ means the proprietor of the body. But every one of us, thinking "I am this body." They have no first lesson of Bhagavad-gītā. First lesson only, ABCD, that "You are not this body." This is the first lesson.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

Arrival Address -- Paris, August 11, 1975:

The first dirty thing is to accept this body as self. This conception, bodily concept of life, is existing amongst the animals. It is existing amongst the animals that "I am this body." So actually, I am not this body, I am spirit soul. I am embodied within this body, material body. This is the fact. If we simply become aware of this fact that "I am not this body, I am spirit soul. I am living within this body," then immediately we become liberated from this material world simply by this understanding. And this can be understood by any sane man without any study of philosophy, simply by common sense. The simple philosophy is that the child is now possessing a small body, then he will possess a big body, then another big body. In this way the child is there, the body is changing, that's a fact. And the body changes so long the soul is there. Therefore, the conclusion should be the body and the soul, they are different. It is very simple truth, but because we have accumulated so much garbage dirty things within our heart, we cannot understand even this simple thing.

Arrival Address -- Mauritius, October 1, 1975:

We are under the bodily concept of life. Ninety-nine percent people think that one is this material body. But that is not the fact. The fact is that within this body there is the spirit soul. The example is given in the Bhagavad-gītā that because the spirit soul is there within the body, therefore the body is changing from childhood to boyhood, from boyhood to youthhood, then middle-aged, then old man. This body is changing. But if the child is born dead—that means without the soul—then the body does not change. We have got practical experience. A dead child, if you keep the body in a preservative way, it will not grow. So long the soul is there, the bodily changes are there. From the womb of the mother, the embryo, the child, grows daily. Why? Because the soul is there. So our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to understand this fact first of all, that body is superficial. Just like you are dressed with your shirt and coat. The shirt and coat is not important, but the person who is putting on the shirt and coat, he is important. Unfortunately, modern education is giving stress on the outward, external body or to the dress and not to... They do not understand who is the person who is dressed or who has got this body. This is the first lesson of spiritual understanding.

Arrival Address -- Toronto, June 17, 1976:

So if we understand this fact... It is not "I believe," "I think," "Perhaps." No "perhaps," no "thinking," no "believing." It is a fact that I am not this body. Everyone can understand. A man has died, his sons family members crying, "Oh, my father has gone, my father has gone!" Where has your father gone? Here is your father lying down. Why you are crying your father has gone? "No, my father is gone." So that means he never saw his father. He saw the coat-pant of the father, and now it is not moving. The coat-pant is there, but still he says, "My father is gone." This is our misunderstanding. Your father is not this body. The spirit soul which moved the father so long, and you accepted the coat-pant or the body as father, that is your misunderstanding. Father is not this coat-pant or the body. Father is within.

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
(BG 2.13)

This is the first education of Bhagavad-gītā, that within this body the living entity is there. The living entity is there, but the body is changing. The child is becoming boy, the boy is becoming young man, the young man is becoming middle-aged man, middle-aged man becoming old man. The body is changing. We know, every one of us. But I am the same spirit soul. This misunderstanding, that I am not this body, still, I am identifying with this body, this is our ignorance. And so long this ignorance will continue, we shall remain like cats and dogs, There cannot be any peace. It is not possible.

General Lectures

Lecture at a School -- Montreal, June 11, 1968:

In the Bhagavad-gītā there are description of two consciousness. Just like I am conscious throughout my body. If you pinch any part of my body, then I feel. That is my consciousness. So I am spread, my consciousness is spread, all over my body. This is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, avināśi tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṁ tatam: "That consciousness which is spread all over this body, that is eternal." And antavanta ime dehā nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ: (BG 2.18) "But this body is antavat," means imperishable. "This body is perishable, but that consciousness is imperishable, eternal." And that consciousness, or the soul, is transmigrating from one body to another. Just like we are changing dress. I may have this dress. You may have another dress. I may exchange your dress with me. So this changing of dress going on every moment. How? Now, these children, they are now so small. When they'll become young, this body will grow. We do not know... We say, "It is growing," but growing or not growing, this body will not remain. This body will go; another body will come. Medical science also says that every second we are changing blood corpuscles, and therefore change in the body is going on. So you say or I say that "Body is growing," but in the Vedic language it is said that "Body is changing." Just like a child is born so small from the mother's womb, and it changes body every second. Then he becomes a young child or a boy, then young man, then old man like me, and so on. In this way this changing, body changing, is going on. And the final change is called death. Death means... Just like the too much old garments cannot be used, similarly, this body is the garment of the soul. When it is..., no longer can be used, we have to accept another body. This is called transmigration of the soul.

Lecture -- Hawaii, March 23, 1969:

So if we take this crucial test of learning, we shall find hardly a learned man in this world, hardly one man, because everyone is absorbed in this bodily conception of life. All their ideas—this nationality, humanity, this duty, that duty, all—everything on this. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). They are accepting this bag of skin and bones as self. You see? This is a bag made of skin and bone, and this... Is spirit soul so cheap thing that it is a bag of skin and bone and some stools and urine, combination? That is nonsense. So hardly you'll find any sane man or any learned man in this world. You see? So first teaching is that "You are not this body." That is the beginning of Kṛṣṇa's teaching.

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntaraṁ prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
(BG 2.13)

"My dear Arjuna, you are posing yourself as very learned man, but a learned man is not disturbed by this change of body." Just He says very nice example. Just like a child. A child is growing. Growing means he is changing body. A child is born so small; a few years, he becomes big. Now where is that small body? That body is gone. You tell whatever you think, but that body is gone—another body. Then the same child becomes youth, young man. That body is gone. The same man becomes old man. That, that youthful body is gone. So every second the body is gone, but the soul is there.

Lecture at Engagement -- Columbus, may 19, 1969:

The Vedas informs, "you don't remain in darkness, but come to the light, that is your business." Asato mā sad-gamaḥ, don't remain in the non-permanent situation. This body is non-permanent situation. You are thinking, oh, you have got this nice body, American body, "We have got so much opulences. What we have to learn about Vedānta? We are very much happy." But, try to understand that how long you shall remain American? It is all right, you have got this nice body, beautiful body, you have got opulences, your country is very nice. But as soon as you change your body, that change of body is going on. Try to understand. You were a child when you were born out of the womb of your mother, or in the womb of the mother your body was so small. Just like a pea it has developed, and when it's fully developed you come out. You have come out, you are developing. Developing means changing. That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā:

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
(BG 2.13)

As you are changing your body even in this present life, you remember that you were a child, you were a boy... I remember I was a child... I was a baby. I still remember in my babyhood I was lying down on my elder sister's lap. She was knitting. I can still remember. So, we can remember our childhood, our boyhood, our youth, but I am the same, the body is changing. It is a fact. Similarly, when these bodies ultimately lapse or change, I am accepting another body. That is a fact. This is called transmigration of the soul. As we are changing our dress, similarly we are changing our body. And there are 8,400,000 of different kinds of bodies.

Lecture (Day after Lord Rama's Appearance Day) -- Los Angeles, April 16, 1970:

Avināśi means eternal, and vināśi means perishable. So this body is perishable, everyone knows. Either it is young body or old body or child's body or boy's body—anyone's body—today, tomorrow or one hundred years after or fifty years after, it is perishable. There is no doubt about it. But what is that thing imperishable? That imperishable is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, yena sarvam idaṁ tatam: "That thing is imperishable which is spread all over your body." That is very easy to understand. What is that? If you pinch your body, any part of your body, you feel pain. That means your consciousness. Your consciousness is imperishable. The body is changing. When you took your birth from the mother's womb you were a small child. But perhaps you may remember your childhood activities. The consciousness is the same, but the body has changed. The body has changed. If you have got sharp memory you can remember so many things of your past life, and that means the consciousness is the same but body is changing. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that,

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
(BG 2.13)

Asmin dehe, in this body, there is one thing which is the proprietor of the body. And that proprietor of the body, due to the presence of the proprietor of the body, the body is changing from childhood to boyhood, from boyhood to youthhood, from youthhood to old age. And when it is too old, when it is not useful any more, you have to change another body, that is called death. So dhīras tatra na muhyati. One who is intelligent, one who is in the knowledge, he is not bewildered. He sees that every second, every moment, the body is changing, and the last phase of change is called death.

Lecture at Krsna Niketan -- Gorakhpur, February 16, 1971:

Just like we have no janma, we have no appearance. It is simply change of dress. It is not death. As it is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā that vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22)—if I change my dress, that is not my death. This is easily understood. Similarly, transmigration of the soul from one body to another, that is not death. But because we have no eyes to see the soul, how it is changing from one body... Just like we cannot see how the baby is coming to another body, childhood, boyhood. We cannot see. We see that the body is changing. No. He's changing from one body to another. That is the version of the Bhagavad-gītā. But we say that body's growing. Why body's growing? If the body has got any growing power, then why the body of a dead child does not grow? The body has no growing power. It is actually changed. But because... Just like in the spool of your film, there are many pictures. But because you see under certain condition, you see one picture. It is very easy to understand. Actually, the pictures are changing, different pictures, and we are seeing one picture. We are seeing the picture is moving in one picture. Similarly, this body is continuously, every moment, there is different body, different body, different body, every moment, but we are seeing one body. This is our ignorance. But we are changing body. Every moment we are changing body. The spool is going on. The exact example is that, like that, the film. Every second, changing one picture, one picture, one picture, one picture. And it appears that it is only one picture.

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

The soul is different from this body. This is our misunderstanding. I am soul; you are soul. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. But somehow or other, I have been entrapped in these bodily, material bodily changes. Changes, you can understand, that you had a body like a baby; you had a body like a child; you had a body like a boy. Now you have got youthful body. Some days after, you will get a body like me. So the body is changing, and I am the same. I can remember my childhood body, my babyhood body or my boyhood body.

So the soul is eternal and the body is changing. That is explained in this Bhagavad-gītā.

Lecture at Indo-American Society 'East and West' -- Calcutta, January 31, 1973:

Asmin dehe, in this body, there is the proprietor of the body. That is soul. Asmin dehe, on this body, there is the proprietor of the body. this proprietor of the body constantly changing different types of bodies. The example is given that kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. Just like a child is changing his body to boyhood, the boy is changing his body to youthhood, and young man is changing, his body to old body. Similarly when the old man dies, he does not die. He accepts another body. This knowledge. Dhīras tatra na muhyati. One who's actually in knowledge, he's not surprised that a man is dead. He's not dead. And the example is given just you change your dress. Now some of you are present here with a coat, black color. You can change it tomorrow into white color. That does not make any difference, that you are dead. Similarly, when we change our body. Just like I was a baby. Everyone knows. I, I remember that I had a little body. I remember at least. But that body is missing now. I remember that I was young man. I had a very youthful body. But that is missing now. And my elderly person, he may also, he may also know that he has changed his body, but he's not dead. I know that I have changed my body. I have simply changed my body, but I am living. I remember the body. Similarly, when we change our body, it does not mean that I am dead. Tathā dehāntaraṁ prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati.

Lecture -- Jakarta, February 28, 1973:

So this is Brahman realization, that "I have no death. I have no birth." This is Brahman realization. The birth and death is concerned with this body, and I am not this body.

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ jauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntaraṁ prāptir
(BG 2.13)

Just like I, living entity, I am all existing in this body. I'm changing bodies so many times. I was a baby; I changed that body. I became a boy or a child. Then I became a boy; I changed my body. Then I became a young man; I changed my body. Then I became an old man; I changed my body. All those bodies, different types of body—babyhood, childhood, boyhood, youthhood—they are now gone, and now I'm existing in this old body. So it will also go. But that does not mean that I'll be finished. No. I'll accept another body. As I am changing different types of bodies, I am existing. Similarly, when I shall change this body, I shall exist in another body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Dhīra means those who are sober. He's not bewildered.

Lecture at the Hare Krsna Festival at La Salle Pleyel -- Paris, June 14, 1974:

Those who are in bodily consciousness of life, for them, this meditation yoga, or to understand oneself, that is very important thing. If you try to understand yourself, very simple method... You take your finger. You ask yourself whether you are finger, the answer will be "No, I am not finger. It is my finger." Everyone will say, even a child will say, "This is my finger, my hand, my leg, my head." Nobody will say that "I leg, I finger, I head." Nobody will say. Therefore the conclusion should be I, the soul, is different from this material body. The material body changes on account of presence of the soul. Just like a child gets a different body like a boy; a boy gets a different body like a young man. Similarly, young man gets another body as an old man. Every one of us can consider that "I had a small body of child. I had a small body of boy. I had a youthful body. Now I have got this old body." By this simple study, I can understand that I am different from the body. And because I am eternal, in all forms of body I was existing. That I can understand also.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Prabhupāda: Then what is his understanding of the soul?

Hayagrīva: He says there are no entirely separate souls without bodies.

Prabhupāda: That is rascal. That means he is imperfect. How he can say so when we practically see that the soul is changing from childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood? How he can say like that? He is transmigrating. That is, every day we have experience. How he can deny that? Otherwise, if he, if the soul does not transmigrate, then how the child becomes a young man? The body is different. The, this is simple understanding, that he has changed the body. The body changes and the soul remains eternal.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Hayagrīva: He concludes this because he says, "Those who believe in the immortality of the soul generally quit life with fully as much, if not more reluctance, as those who have no such expectation." But we have examples, so many classic examples of Socrates quitting, meeting his death courageously, and how could this be possible if he didn't believe in the immortality of the soul or the...

Prabhupāda: That I have already said, "Immortality of soul is the fact." If one does not understand this fact then he is animal. He is not in the humans category, he is animal category. He is experiencing daily how the soul is continuing even the body is being changed. In his family, he is seeing that the body of a child is changed into the body of a boy, but the father, mother know that the soul is the same. So where is the difficulty to understand the immortality of the soul? So that means it is less intelligence. Therefore, according to Vedic description, one who does not understand immortality of the soul he remains in the category of animals, sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13).

Philosophy Discussion on Sigmund Freud:

Hayagrīva: In the same letter he writes, "I am entirely incapable of considering the survival of the personality after death, even as a mere scientific possibility. I think therefore, it is better if I continue confining myself to psychoanalysis."

Prabhupāda: What is that psy...? He is deficient in psychoanalysis also, because he is practically seeing in his daily life that a child is growing to become a boy, a boy is growing to a young man, but the body is changing and the soul is there. So if he has no sense to understand this, what kind of psychoanalysis he is? The body of the child is finished, then he accepts another body, boy. So how you can deny it? You say it has grown. I say that it is finished. Then what is the difference? Actually the child's body is not there. So you can show..., speak in a different language, but the, when the child's body is finished, there is the boy's body. When the boy's body is finished, the young man's body. So body is changing, but still my child, my son, John, I still call him John, although he has changed his body, because I know my son, the soul John, whom I call John, he is there. So the soul is there; the body is changing, we are experiencing every day. So what kind of psychoanalyst he is, that he cannot understand this simple truth? And still he says, "I cannot believe in the eternity of the soul." That how poor thoughts he is maintaining, and he is proclaiming himself a philosopher. What kind of philosopher he is?

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Prabhupāda: Another continuation is that the child changes body. So as he was acting in his childhood, he does not act in the same way when he has got the different body of a young man, but the same soul is there. It can be understood very easily.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Prabhupada Listening to Recording of His Own Room Conversation with Students -- April 25, 1969, Boston:

Student (6): Have you ever found what you believe to be your self? Have you ever found your inside, I mean, not physically or mental...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Student (6): What...?

Prabhupāda: Yes! (laughter)

Student (6): Could you tell us what you found.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I am prepared to tell you, and this center is open for telling you. Our books are there. It is not a paltry subject that you can understand immediately, but I can give you one instance. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā.

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
(BG 2.13)

It is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, Second Chapter—those who have got Bhagavad-gītā, they will see to it—that "Within this body there is soul, and the body is changing every moment." That is a fact. We say, "The child is growing." Growing or changing-practically the same thing. Actually, it is changing because the former body is no longer to be found. It has accepted, the soul has accepted, another body. This is going on from babyhood to childhood, from childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youth-hood, then old age. So, just like I am old man. I can remember my childhood body, my babyhood body, my boyhood body, my youth-hood body. So the body is no longer, but I am there. I am thinking that "I did do like this. I was playing like this with my body." But that body is gone, but still I am there. Therefore it is naturally surmised that when this body will not be existent, I will be existent. I will accept another body. This is very logical conclusion. As I am changing so many bodies, still I am there. I can understand that I changed my body. I was so little. Now I have grown up. I am old. But I am there. Similarly, it is concluded, when this body will not be there, but I will accept another body. This is very easy to understand, that that "I" is... Now, we can perceive that when you are spiritually emancipated, you will see yourself, God also, and everything spiritual. That requires time. That requires practice.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Prof. Kotovsky -- June 22, 1971, Moscow:

They do not know what is next life. There is no department of knowledge or science, scientific department, to study what is there after life, after finishing this body. That is a great, I mean to say, department of knowledge. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). Dehe. Deha means this body. So there is a dehinaḥ who owns the body, dehi. So dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. The dehi, the owner of the body, is within, and the body's changing from one form to another. The body of a child, baby, a certain type of form, it changes into another type of form when he's child, another type when boy, another type when he's young, another type, he's old. This is going on, but the owner of the body existing. Similarly, when this body will be completely changed, another body he will accept. So people do not understand this. As we are accepting different body even in this present life from babyhood to childhood, from childhood to boyhood, from boyhood to youthhood... That's a fact. Everyone knows it. I was a child, but that childhood body is no more. I have got a different body. Similarly, what is the difficulty to understand: when this body will be no more, I'll have to accept another body? It is great science.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Two Buddhist Monks -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: That... Again I am quoting that Professor Kotofsky. He said, "Swamiji, after this body there is no life." That is their conviction. This is the primary teaching of spiritual life, that we have got next life. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Dehāntaram. After giving up this body, you have to accept another body. This is the first lesson of spiritual education. But they do not understand the first lesson even. What is their spiritual understanding?

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
(BG 2.13)

So dehāntara-prāptiḥ they do not understand. And it is very easy, that "I am, dehāntaram, I am changing my body. I was a baby, I was a child, I was a boy, I was a young man. So I have changed so many bodies. But I remember, I was a child. I remember. I was a boy. I remember. Therefore I am existing. My body has changed." Simple truth. Similarly, when this body will be changed, I will exist. Where is the difficulty to understand? But this plain thing they cannot understand. And they are passing as educated, philosopher, scientist. This plain truth, they cannot understand. The brain is so dull. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). "As I have changed so many bodies..." I exist.

Room Conversation with Anna Conan Doyle, daughter-in-law of famous author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Guru-gaurāṅga: So when this body is finished, why shall the soul be gone?

Prabhupāda: Even the father, mother is not crying. The mother's baby dies. She cries, she becomes mad. But when the child gives up that childhood body, accept another body, she's happy because she knows: "My son is there. He has only changed the body." The mother knows. Mother is not crying: "Oh, where is my child gone, sir?" He knows that "My child is here. He has changed his body." These are the arguments. If the foolish rascal will not accept genuine arguments, logic, then how he can be convinced? He's a animal. The animals cannot be convinced. Any man with little brain substance, he'll understand this. Where is the difficulty? But it is useless to talk with animals. You cannot argue with dogs and hogs. That is not possible. So if their brain is doggish and hoggish, how you can convince them? But the logic is there, the argument is there.

Room Conversation with British Man -- August 31, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So... We... This is the first step of spiritual understanding. That one must know that he's not this body. Actually anyone can understand. It is a very simple thing. I'm not this body because I had many types of body, in this life also, a child's body, a baby's body, boy's body, youth's body. Now we have got different body. So the body's changing. That's a fact. The child, you do not possess any more that, your childhood body. It is gone. Your boyhood body—gone, your youth-hood body—gone. Now you have got a different body. So although the bodies are not existing, you are existing. That's a fact.

Room Conversation -- September 2, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: First of all you have to understand that there is life after death.

Guest (2): Why, is it a faith or belief?

Prabhupāda: No, it is not faith, belief. It is a fact. Just like, I have already given you the example. You were a child. That body's no longer existing, but you know that you were a child. Therefore the conclusion is that although the body has changed, but you the soul, the knower, is still there. Therefore, when this body will be changed, you'll exist in another body.

Guest (2): In what form?

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. First of all you have to accept this fact, that you have to change this body. As you have already changed so many times. Tathā... Kṛṣṇa first of all says tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Antara, another body you have to accept.

Morning Walk -- December 18, 1973, Los Angeles:

Devotee: The scientists would use the same argument. The scientists would say, "Well, since I have not experienced that I am eternal, therefore how can I accept that I am eternal?"

Prabhupāda: Yes, you are eternal. Because you were a child and now you are grown up, but you know that you were a child. Therefore you are eternal. You were a child, but you have no that child's body. Now you have got a different body. So although you have got different body, you know that you had a body like a child. Therefore body has changed. You have not changed. That is eternity.

Girirāja: And nobody wants to die.

Prabhupāda: Nobody wants to die.

Girirāja: If the soul is not eternal, where has that desire...

Prabhupāda: No. This is eternity. This is practical eternity. You have changed so many times your body, but you are the same person. Therefore you are eternal, in spite of changing body. This is simple argument.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Mr. Tran-van-Kha, and President & Members of the Society of Buddhists in France -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: So, not only the animals. The trees, the plants, the insects, the birds, the bees, the aquatic animal: fish. Everyone has got soul. So anything, which has got life symptom, it is due to soul and so long the soul is there the change of body takes place. A child born, if it is dead, the change of body does not take place. You cannot understand?

Lady (2): No.

Prabhupāda: You have got now a different body, but you had a body like a child, so you cannot understand this? Why is that? Even a child can understand. You were also sometimes a body like this young girl. You do not believe that?

Yogeśvara: (French)

Lady (2): (French)

Yogeśvara: She says she can recollect.

Prabhupāda: No, but who recollects? The soul. The body is changed. The body is changed, but the soul is the same and therefore she can recollect.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- February 28, 1975, Atlanta:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Proof is under investigation. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Eh? That is nonsense. That is nonsense. This proof, that from life, life is coming, there is proof, so many proof. A man, animal, trees—everything is coming from life. Up till now, nobody has seen that a man is born from a stone. Nobody has seen. Sometimes it is called vṛścika-taṇdūla-nyāya. You know that? Vṛścika-taṇdūla-nyāya. Vṛścika means scorpion, and taṇdūla means rice. Sometimes we see some heaps of rice, the scorpion is coming. But that is not that the rice has given birth to the scorpion. You have not seen in your country? We have seen it. From the rice, heaps of rice, one scorpion, small scorpion, is coming. The fact is that the parent of the scorpion, they put their eggs within the rice and, being fermented, the scorpion comes out, not that from rice the scorpion is coming out. Therefore it is called vṛścika-taṇdūla-nyāya. Vṛścika means scorpion, and taṇdūla means rice. So "Life is coming from matter"—this is called vṛścika-taṇdūla-nyāya. Life cannot come from matter. Besides that... Just like when there is life, living entity, the body grows, body changes or grows, as you say. But if the child is dead or come out dead, then the body does not grow. Then matter is growing on life.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- March 1, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: Yes, nitya, nitya. Nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Why don't you see these references? It is never created. It is ever-existing, eternal. Only it appears to be temporary on account of accepting different material bodies. Therefore, paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). One who knows, he knows that he has changed his body, the same person. Just like father, mother knows. When a son becomes very stout and strong, the mother sees that same child. Others may be bewildered. One who has seen the child very long ago, now he has become robust build. He cannot say. And the mother says, "He is my child, that child." So paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18).

Satsvarūpa: "For the soul there is never birth nor death, nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain."

Prabhupāda: That's all. So where is the question of creation? But because we have got these material eyes, we want to see everything through this material manifestation. We are seeing that he is dead, he is alive, he is born, he is this, that...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But that is the defect of the scientists. They only see the body.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is their defect. Therefore asses, go-kharaḥ. That is defined. Anyone who takes the body as the self, he is a go-kharaḥ, animal.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: And what is, the scientists will not believe? We say, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ: (BG 2.13) "As the child is becoming boy, boy is becoming, similarly you have to change body." What scientist has to challenge this? But they are obstinate dog. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ you have to accept. Can the scientist say, "No, no, no, the child is not going to be a young man or boy"? Can he say like that? Then why they challenge unnecessarily? They are changing the body. Can the scientists stop it? But if they are unreasonable dogs, then what can be done? What argument will reach them? A dog cannot understand.

Rādhāvallabha: Just stick.

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, they will not understand even with stick. You see? They are less than dog. Bhagavad-gītā days, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13), very simple argument, that "As the child is becoming boy, boy is becoming young man, young man is becoming middle-aged man, and middle-aged is becoming old man, similarly, you are changing body." So where is the difficulty to understand? But they are so obstinate rascal, they will not believe. As soon as the child is dead, does he become boy?

Garden Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: It is observation. That is, a child is growing to another body. So the soul of the child is transferred to another body. What more proof he wants?

Rāmeśvara: There's no visible evidence of the soul.

Prabhupāda: This is visible. Your child, a baby, is on the lap, and after one year, he has got a different body. The old, the old body, on the lap, is finished. Now he is walking. It is another body. Why it is not visible?

Rāmeśvara: They say all matter goes through the stage of development and destruction.

Prabhupāda: No, no. First of all, this is to be answered, that this child, when he was born he was very small, lying on the lap of the mother. Now he's jumping. Now that body which was lying on the lap of the mother is no more existing. He has got another body which is jumping. But the mother knows that "It is my same child." Therefore the same soul is there; the body has changed.

Rāmeśvara: But they argue that there is no soul; it is simply the changing of matter.

Prabhupāda: The changing.... When the child is born dead, why he does not grow? (laughter) Therefore they are rascals.

Garden Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Dr. Wolfe: Prabhupāda, I told a friend, he's been a friend over the years, I tried to bring it home to him that we are not our body, and he said, "Oh, yes, and I cannot get away from the physical idea that I am this," and I said, "Your father is very sick now, and he may die at any time," he's very fond of his father, and when the father is dead and lying there on the floor and after few days he begins to smell, I asked him, "Is that still your father?" He had no answer for that.

Prabhupāda: Nobody can answer. They simply falsely argue. Therefore less intelligent. Mūḍha. If he was intelligent, then he would immediately accept the Kṛṣṇa's teachings, beginning with dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). On account of the soul, the body is changing, kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. The body is sometimes child, sometimes boy, sometimes young man, sometimes old man, sometimes diseased, sometimes healthy. All these terms are there on account of presence of the soul. If the soul is not there, then it is simply a lump of matter, and it is going to decompose into matter again, and then it will smell, either you have to throw it for being eaten by the vultures or you can bury it under some ceremony or you can burn it. Three.... What is called? Pariṇamanam. Transformations. Either as stool or as ash or as earth. Those who are burying, the bodies gradually becomes earth; those who are throwing, the vultures eat, the jackals, dogs eat and it turns into stool; and those who are burning, it turns into ashes. Three transformations. This beautiful body.

Room Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Jay Warner: I do have one question. How can one establish faith in the principle of reincarnation? How can one come to believe in it?

Prabhupāda: Incarnation of God?

Devotees: Reincarnation, transmigration.

Prabhupāda: That is very simple thing. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Now, you were a child. That's a fact. Were you not a child?

Hṛdayānanda: You were a child before.

Jay Warner: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Where is that body?

Jay Warner: Where is the body of the child?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You were a child. Where is that body?

Jay Warner: It has grown into a man.

Prabhupāda: Grown, or it is changed? The same thing. But that child, that body, is no more existing. Is it not?

Jay Warner: Yes, it is gone.

Prabhupāda: The body may vanquish, but you are going through. That is incarnation. The child body is vanquished; it is no more existing. Either you say grow or I may say it has changed, that body is finished. Is it not?

Jay Warner: Yes.

Prabhupāda: But you are still existing.

Jay Warner: I still feel that I am myself.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That means you were in the child body and you are in this young man's body. So you are existing, but the body has changed. What is the difficulty to understand?

Jay Warner: Where is it difficult to answer?

Devotees: (all at once) What is the difficulty to understand?

Prabhupāda: You are.... When the child's body, that body, is no more existing, you are in a different body.

Jay Warner: The difficulty for me reaches the moment, retroactively, before the moment of birth, or past the moment of death. How can one come to have faith that there is life after one leaves his body?

Prabhupāda: This is the proof. A child may not understand that there is, after his childhood body, there is another body, boyhood body or youthful body. He may not understand. But that is the fact. If the child says, "There is no more body. This is the final body," that is not the fact. He is going to get another body which is boy's body, young man's body, old man's body. Similarly, you may believe or not believe, you are going to get another body. The proof is that you have no more the child's body; you have got a different body. The common sense reasoning.

Interview with Kathy Kerr Reporter from The Star -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Kathy Kerr: Do you believe then that there is more than one way?

Prabhupāda: There is only one way. Just like the spirit soul is within you and within me. Your skin may be white, my skin may be colored, but within, the spirit soul, what is there in you, that is in me also. There is not change on account of the body. Therefore to understand that spirit soul, there is only one way. There is no second way. Because it is not experimental; it is already there. If it is based on experiment and observation, then my experiment, your experiment may be different. But it is a fact that the soul is there, and as soon as the soul is gone from the body, the body is a dead lump of matter. That you have to understand. And any gentleman, any sensible man can understand it, that soul is there although we are changing body. Just like you were a child. That's a fact. But where is that child's body? Now your body's different. Is it not a fact? What do you think? So where is that body, your child's body?

Kathy Kerr: It's material, I would say.

Prabhupāda: Material. When you were on the lap of your mother the body was so small. Now you are a young girl and you are.... So where is that small body? That means you have changed bodies. But your mother knows that you are the same, "My child." Because you have grown up or you have changed your body, your mother will not cry "Where is my child?" She knows that "My child is there, but she has changed body." Why these people do not understand this plain truth? Suppose you have come in this dress; next moment you come in another dress. But if I know you I'll not mistake because you have changed your dress. Similarly, we are changing our dress from baby to child, child to boy, boy to young man, young man to middle-aged man, constantly changing, every moment. Medical science also says. The blood corpuscles are changed every moment. So we are changing our body every moment. But still we cannot understand that on account of change of body, the living force within the body does not change. Is there any difficulty to understand?

Interview with Kathy Kerr Reporter from The Star -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Kathy Kerr: Do you believe then that when your physical body dies, that your spiritual body...

Prabhupāda: That I have already explained, that your physical body as child's body, dead, gone. How you are living? This simple truth we cannot understand. Where is this child's body? Where is that, can you answer?

Kathy Kerr: Child's body?

Prabhupāda: Yes, you had a body, a small child's body. Is it not?

Kathy Kerr: Yes.

Prabhupāda: You were a child. So where is that child's body?

Kathy Kerr: Well, you say it's changed.

Prabhupāda: Changed, or another body you have got. Change means another body. If you dress your child, you get another.(?) So it is simple truth. So you have got another body or another dress, but you are still living. This simple truth they cannot understand, and they are advanced in education.

Kathy Kerr: Does that mean then that once the immediate corporal body is dead, the one that you have...

Prabhupāda: Yes. We have to conclude.... This is, what is called, logic, that my, I have changed my body, still I am living. Therefore when I change this body, I shall live. This is the logic.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Bill Sauer: Is that immediately after one dies you transfer to another body, or later?

Prabhupāda: Yes, body is changing every moment. That is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā lesson.

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
(BG 2.13)

Every body... Just like a child is changing his body to boyhood, boy is changing his body to youthhood, kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. The young man is becoming old man. Similarly, when the body is no more endurable, then you get another body. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This body is being destroyed, we are not destroyed. We living entities, we are nityaḥ śāśvato 'yam. We are eternal. The proof is given that the child is growing, getting the boy's body. That means the living entity is there, he has changed bodies. When a child is grown to become a boy, the father, mother do not think that "My child is no more existing." He knows "My child is existing, but in a different body." This is common sense. So we shall exist, we existed in the past, we are existing now and we shall exist in the future, but in a different body.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Hari-śauri: They think that transmigration only applies to human beings. Or in fact they don't even accept transmigration. They think that you've just got one lifetime.

Prabhupāda: Why? Transmigration for everyone. The Darwin's theory, evolution, it is like that, transmigration. The living soul is changing bodies, that's a fact. We can experience in our own life. The child is changing body to boyhood. The boy is changing his body to youthhood. So therefore it's a fact. The living entity is there within the body, and the body is changed. This simple truth they cannot understand. When a child grows up to become a boy, so what is the change? The change is body. But everyone knows the same child has become boy. Is it not? What do you think?

Guest (2): Well, when you leave this planet you go to sleep.

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is another thing. Studying, that a child is grown to become a boy, he has changed his body. Does it mean the living entity who was in the child's body is different from the living entity within the boy?

Guest (2): No difference.

Prabhupāda: Therefore it is a fact that the living entity is eternal and the body is changed. So where is the difficulty to understand this?

Vipina: They can understand it, but their scripture doesn't accept reincarnation.

Prabhupāda: Therefore you should give up your philosophy and science. That "Because my scripture does not allow me to become educated, I shall remain a fool." (laughter) What is this?

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Guest (2): The living entity changed bodies.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is common sense. If they cannot understand this commonsense affair, then how they are educated?

Dr. Sharma: Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22).

Prabhupāda: Yes. Common sense. And we are practically experiencing. When the child has grown to become a young man, the mother does not cry, "Oh, my child is gone." She knows, she knows that "Here is my child. Simply he has changed his body." So this is a fact, that we are changing bodies but we are eternal. This is the conclusion. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). So unless one is properly educated, where is the talk of advancing? So this is the beginning of spiritual education, to understand that the living entity is eternal and the body is changing. And then next question will be that if the body is changing, then this body will be changed, so after my death what kind of body I am going to accept? That is education. That is education.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Mike Robinson: And develop from that. I'm sorry about that. If I ask you a few questions about what you believe and that sort of, along those lines, and then get some of the background material from some of your other members of the movement. Can you tell me what you believe, what is the philosophy of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement?

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is not a question of belief, it is a science, a spiritual movement. Just like a man is living and he's dead, what is the difference? The difference is that the spirit soul or the living force is out of the body. Therefore he's called dead body. So there are two things, anyone can appreciate. One, this body, and other, the living force of the body. So we are speaking of the living force of the body. That is the difference between material and spiritual. As such, in the beginning, it is very difficult for ordinary man to understand what is our movement, but our movement begins when one understands that he is soul or something other than this body. Then this movement begins.

Mike Robinson: And when we understand that...

Prabhupāda: You can understand at any moment, but it requires little brain. Just like a child is growing or changing the body. A child is becoming a boy and the boy is becoming a young man. The body is changing, but the child cannot understand that his body's changing. Actually, the body is changing. So the young man's body is also changing, and the old man's body. Therefore the conclusion is that the body is changing, and the occupier of the body, it is the same. So on this logic, the occupier being the same and the bodies changing, it is to be concluded that when this body is changed, we get another body. This is called transmigration of the soul.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Rich man you can become but for how long you shall be rich? The nature is so cruel; at any moment he'll take away everything. Then what is the use of becoming? No, you become rich man. There is no... But you should know that "Although I am rich, powerful, everything can be taken by nature at any moment." Mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham (BG 10.34). That is statement of God, that "Any moment... You try to become rich, powerful, and president or minister, that's all right, but any moment, I can take everything from you." So who will protect himself? They have no brain that "Whatever I have created, it can be taken at any moment." So what is that confidence? They have no inquiry even. That this is a fact. Either you become Napoleon, Hitler or Gandhi, or this or that, any moment everything will be taken away. "Get out." Not only that, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), you have to accept another body. And that is no guarantee what body you are going to get because fully under the control of nature. They therefore don't believe in transmigration of the soul. And that is very great botheration. They try to evade. But Kṛṣṇa says, God says, "You cannot evade. It is nature's law." Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). Within your body the soul is there. On account of presence of the soul—you were a child; now you are a grown young man—the body has changed. You were a boy; now you are young man. So on account of presence of the soul, the body is changing. So when this body will be finished, the soul will exist. Therefore, naturally you have to conclude, there will be another body

Room Conversation with Indian Man -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Indian man: Then the question is, this is not the complete answer, that I am not the body. That is not...

Prabhupāda: Hm. Self-realization that, that you are seeking what I am. Am I this body or something else? That is your inquiry. And the answer is that, "No, you are not this body."

Indian man: But questions remain the same.

Prabhupāda: No, no, not... Then it is explained, how you are not this body. In the beginning He explains, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). Just like you see the body has changed every daily, per minute, the body is changing, imperceptively. But try to understand that you were a child, now your body has changed in a different body. But you understand, you remember, that "I was a child." But the child body is no longer. So you remember or not remember, the body is changing. This is the answer. This is self-realization.

Indian man: I am the constant change, the process?

Prabhupāda: You are not changing.

Indian man: Body is changing.

Prabhupāda: Body is changing. This is to be understood.

Indian man: Then who am I? Question is still hanging.

Prabhupāda: That will come next. The first question is this.

Indian man: I am not body.

Prabhupāda: That's all. That is sufficient.

Indian man: Quite satisfying, I am not body.

Prabhupāda: That is self-realization.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Talk -- June 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Śatadhanya: They say, "That is pie-in-the-sky."

Prabhupāda: You say. We don't say. Because you cannot do, you say. We are cultivating Kṛṣṇa consciousness for this purpose. We are not wasting time. And we are wasting time doing so? We are fools? That is the first instruction, that soul is immortal and unchanging. This very instruction they cannot understand. That is first instruction. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). This simple... A child changes body. That is beginning. There is no... Same child. For a while it may be. Now he's grown up, young man. It is not change of body? Why these rascals cannot understand? What is that improvement of...? Therefore I have said, "You have no brain." It is a fact. My son, he's now young man. He took birth as a small child. Where is that body? Body has changed. Common thing. But these rascals, so fool, they cannot understand. I have become old man, but if some elderly persons, my guardians, were alive, he knew it, "He has become old man, but he was born a small child." That we have given in pictures, change of body. Change of body is going on. Why these rascals cannot understand? What is their intelligence? Therefore the real problem is the change of body should be stopped.

Morning Talk -- June 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Śatadhanya: They do not accept that beyond death there is life.

Prabhupāda: Why not? Why not? If your childhood takes boyhood, why not next?

Śatadhanya: It's logical.

Prabhupāda: You see everything. That means the body is finished. The body is finished. Childhood body is finished. Why do you say "He is my son"? Although this previous body is finished, he has got another body. You are confident. Otherwise how you say "Here is my son"? Body has changed, but your son is there. And your friends say, "Oh, he is your son? Oh, I saw him, little boy." And he could not identify. The father knows that he is the same. That is the difference. The other man, he could not believe that child has become so grown up, young man. Father knows it. "No, he's the same child." That is the difference. Unless one understands this very first instruction, eternity of life, so-called scientists, philosophers—all nonsense. All rascals. Animal. The animal even. The so-called scientists, they are no better than the animals. That's all.

Morning Talk -- June 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Śatadhanya: You are not moved by the scientists.

Prabhupāda: You should be firmly convinced about our philosophy. Otherwise where is that firm...? How you can support these rascal scientists? That is your rascaldom. Take it for granted. One who cannot understand this fact, that soul is immortal, body is... He is no more human; he is animal.

Śatadhanya: Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). Ass and camel, you say. But if we follow strictly your instructions, then we may gradually understand.

Prabhupāda: Why gradually? That means the background is foolish civilization, that's all. It is simple thing, very simple. Child is becoming boy. The body has changed. Where is the difficulty? How you can defy this argument? (break) ...means disciple. Still if it is so, that means a dog's obstinate rascal. Immediately. Or animal. Animal cannot be convinced.

Correspondence

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Satsvarupa -- Surat 19 December, 1970:

You may inform Jadurani that the picture she has sent is alright with necessary adjustments. Krsna is of course to be pictured in the same dress in all the scenes of the Kuruksetra delivery of Bhagavad-gita because the episode took place all within about one half hour. Some ideas are: 1) Duryodhana and Dronacarya conferring in a tent just before the battle. 2) A ratha with four horses drawn before the ranks of soldiers and akshouhini carrying Krsna and Arjuna. 3) Arjuna morose; leaving weapons aside he is almost crying. 4) A man pictured dead and also living. Krsna says to Arjuna, "the wise mourn not for the dead or the living." 5) pictures of an individual from babyhood to youthhood, in manhood and in old age and death. The figure of the soul in each different body remains the same indicating that the body changes, not the soul. 6) Krsna instructing the Sun-god; Vivasvan instructing Manu (his son). I will send you more ideas later if required by you.

Page Title:Since every living entity is an individual soul, each is changing his body every moment, manifesting sometimes as a child, sometimes as a youth, and sometimes as an old man. Yet the same spirit soul is there and does not undergo any change
Compiler:Alakananda
Created:07 of Mar, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=1, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=58, Con=25, Let=1
No. of Quotes:85