Devotee or Guest: I have a question about the, taking a body of Kṛṣṇa after death if you're thinking of Kṛṣṇa at the time of death, or taking the body of a dog or a deer if you're thinking about that sort of thing when you die. There must be different kinds of taking of a body, because there are different kinds of bodies. The bodies of dogs and deers and things are not the same as the body of Kṛṣṇa. Now, how do you take on this form of Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: By thinking of Kṛṣṇa.
Guest: No, what I mean is how does the soul assume this form? How does it become...
Prabhupāda: Not become Kṛṣṇa. Just like you are spirit soul. When you take the body of a certain type of body, you act according to the body. Just like the dog is acting differently from human body because he has got a different body. Hog is acting differently because he has got a different body. So there are 8,400,000's of different bodies. So mad-bhāva, mad-bhāva means the nature, Kṛṣṇa's nature. You keep your individuality, but you get Kṛṣṇa's nature. And what is Kṛṣṇa's nature? Kṛṣṇa's nature is always blissful. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Always joyful. So you get a body of joyful, full of knowledge, and eternal. Not that you become Kṛṣṇa. You get exactly the same bodily constitution as Kṛṣṇa has got. That is sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). As we are, even at the present moment, we are particle Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is vibhu, the whole. We are aṇu, we are small. Similarly, as now we have got this material body, if we pass our life in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we get our spiritual body, which is not different from the soul. A clear example: just like a man put into the water is raised from the water and placed in the land. So in the land he is happy. Similarly, because we are spirit soul, we are in a very unfavorable condition of this material world. As soon as we perfect ourself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we get into the spiritual platform or body or atmosphere.
Guest: I have one more question. If in taking on a body like Kṛṣṇa we assume a nature like Kṛṣṇa's nature...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guest: When you say taking on the body of a dog or a cat or a pig or whatever, is this also... Do you mean literally a body like a pig, or do you mean the nature of a pig or dog or cat?
Prabhupāda: No. Here the body and the soul different. The soul is spirit, and the body is matter. But when you attain a body like Kṛṣṇa's, that means that is spiritual body. There is no difference between the soul and the body. Here there is difference between soul and body. But in the spiritual world there is no difference between soul and body.