This is the problem at the present moment. People are not educated about the vital force of this body. Here in the Bhagavad-gītā, it is explained dehī. Dehī means the proprietor of this body. Both we all, not only we human being, but also lower than human being, all living entities . . .
There are 8,400,000 forms of living entities. They are called dehī. Dehī means the proprietor of the body. The dog, the cat, the human being, the president, or higher or lower, there are different species of life, everyone is the proprietor of the body. That we can experience. You know everything about the pains and pleasure of your body. I know what are the pains and pleasures of the body.
So this body has been given to us by material nature as our field of activities. With different bodies we are acting differently. Not that your activities and my activities are the same. The dog's activities and the man's activities are different because the dog has got a different type of body and I have got a different type of body, every one of us. So dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). The dehī, the living entity or the vital force, is within this body.
So the body is changing. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. Kaumāram means boyhood, yauvanam means youthhood, and jarā means old age, aged body. So I can remember—I am an old man—I can remember I had a boy's body, I had a young man's body; now I have got this aged body. So although the boyhood body, the youthhood body are no longer existing, but I am existing. That's a fact. Everyone can understand: he has got past, present and future. You are all young boys and girls present here. So you had your past body as boyhood, childhood; similarly, you have got your future body also. That is awaiting. I have got it; you are awaiting.
So past, future . . . past, present and future, relatively we can understand in any condition of life. Therefore the conclusion is that when this aged body as I have got now . . . I am seventy-seven years old. So when this body will be finished, I'll get another body. As I have got consecutively from boyhood to childhood, childhood, I have . . . from childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood, aged body, so why not next body? This is simple truth, that the living entity, or the soul, is transmigrating from one body to another. This is the basic principle of spiritual understanding.
The vital force of the body is the spirit soul. It is not a mechanical arrangement of matter. The modern so-called scientists, they think that the body is combination of matter and, at a certain stage, these combination of matter develops living symptoms. But that is not a fact. If it is a fact, then the scientists can manufacture with chemicals a living body. But a scientist even up to date is unable to manufacture even a body like an ant, and what to speak of other, bigger animals.
So we have to take this knowledge from authority. Here is Kṛṣṇa speaking. He's authority. We accept Kṛṣṇa: the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His knowledge is perfect. He knows past, present and future. Therefore He is teaching Arjuna, "My dear Arjuna, the spirit soul within this body is eternal." That's a fact. Just like I can understand I was in the past, I am in present, so I must be in the future. These are three phases of time: past, present and future.
In another place we read in this Bhagavad-gītā, na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit (BG 2.20). The living entity is never born; neither it dies. Na jāyate means it never takes birth. Na jāyate na mriyate, it never dies. Nityaṁ śāśvato 'yam, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). It is eternal, śāśvata, existing forever. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre. By annihilation of this body, the soul does not die. Because . . .
This is also confirmed in the Upaniṣads, Vedas: nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). The God is also eternal, and we are also eternal. We are part and parcels of God. Just like gold and fragments of gold, both of them are gold. Although I am fragment, a particle of gold, or the spirit, still, I am spirit. So we get this information that both God and we, living entities, we are eternal. Nityo nityānām. Nitya means eternal.
So two words are there. One is singular number, nitya, eternal, and the other is plural number, nityānām. So we are plural number, plural number eternals. We do not know what is the numerical strength of the living entities. They are described as asaṅkhya. Asaṅkhya means without any counting capacity. Millions and trillions. Then what is the difference between this singular number and the plural number? The plural number is dependent on the singular number. Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. The singular number eternal is giving all the necessities of life to the plural number, we living entities. That's a fact. We can examine by our intelligence.
Out of 8,400,000 different forms of life, we civilized human beings are very few. But others, their number is very great. Just like in the water: jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi (Padma Purāṇa). There are 900,000 species of life within the water. Sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati: and 2,000,000 different forms of life in the vegetable kingdom, plants and trees. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati, kṛmayo rudra-saṅkhyayaḥ: and the insects, they are 110,000's different species of form. Kṛmayo rudra-saṅkhyayaḥ pakṣīṇāṁ daśa-lakṣaṇam: and birds, they are 1,000,000 species of forms. Then beasts, paśavas triṁśa-lakṣāṇi, 3,000,000 types of animals, four-legged. And catur-lakṣāṇi mānuṣaḥ, and the human being, the forms are 400,000. Out of them, most of them are uncivilized.
So we civilized human being—never mind American or Indian or German or Englishman, it doesn't matter—we are very few. So we have got economic problems. We are trying for developing our economic condition. What is that economic condition? Eating, sleeping, mating and defending. We are busy always, but the animals are also busy for eating, sleeping, mating and defending, but they have no problem. We have got problems.
So just try to understand, if the major portion of the living entities have no problem . . . their necessities of life are being supplied by the supreme eternal, God. Just like an elephant. There are millions of elephants in African jungle. They eat at a time fifty kilos. But they're getting their food. Similarly, a small ant, it requires a grain of sugar. So he's also getting his food. So the supreme eternal has arranged food, or the economic problems are solved by nature. They do not do any business, they do not go to school or colleges to learn technology, to earn livelihood, but they are being supplied. They are healthy. There is no disease.
So our advancement of civilization means we have created problems. That's all. This is our advancement of civilization, and we do not know what is the formation of the soul, how it is transmigrating from one body to another, what is the next life, whether we are getting next life a human being or better than human being or lower than human being. And if it is so, how we are getting that form of life next? Because we are eternal; we are changing this body. Neither we do know there are two kinds of bodies: the gross body and the subtle body. This gross body is made of earth, water, fire, air, ether; and the subtle body is made of mind, intelligence and ego. Within the subtle body, the soul is there.
Now, when this gross body becomes useless or unworkable, then the subtle body carries me to another gross body. This is called transmigration of the soul. But we do not see the subtle body. Every one of us, we know that we . . . we have got mind, but we cannot see the mind. Neither we can see intelligence, neither I can see what is my ego. But they are existing. So it is not necessary that everything you have to see with your blunt eyes. The eyes, they are not perfect. Just like the other side of this hall is dark; I cannot see you, although I have got the eyes. So even though we have got eyes, it is very imperfect. It cannot see in all circumstances. Under certain circumstances we can see. Therefore we should not believe simply by seeing.
But one thing: although I cannot see you, you can hear me, or I can understand that you are hearing. The ears are stronger than the eyes. So things which is beyond our experience, we can hear about. Even though we cannot see, it does not mean there is no existence of things. The same example: even though I cannot see what is mind, what is intelligence, what is ego, but I can hear about it. Therefore perfect knowledge is acquired by hearing.