Secrets of the Soul 9

dehino ’smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati

“As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.13]

The sloka continues, asmin dehe yatha, kaumaram yauvanam jara: even in this life I experience that I have changed apartments so many times. First I was in an infant’s body; then I changed from that apartment into a boy body; then again I changed from that apartment into an adolescent body; then I changed to an adult body. Soon I will change again to an old man body, and when I vacate that apartment at the time of death, I’ll have to accept another apartment, another body, according to my qualification.

Why is it so difficult for many people to understand this science of the soul? The spirit soul in the material world is away from his natural home in the spiritual world. Therefore he must possess a material body in which to reside. The body is simply an apartment in which the soul temporarily resides while in the material world. There is no reason to be identified with the apartment, or to think the body is the self.

yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke
sva-dhih kalatradisu bhauma ijya-dhih
yat-tirtha-buddhih salile na karhicij
janesv abhijnesu sa eva go-kharah

“A human being who identifies this material body with his self, who considers the by-products or relations of the body to be his kinsmen, who considers the land of birth worshipable, or who goes to the place of pilgrimage simply to take a bath rather than meet men of transcendental knowledge there, is to be considered like an ass or a cow.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.84.13].

Just like an apartment building is made of bricks, stone and cement; similarly, according to Ayurvedic medicine this body is made of tri-dhatus: kapha, vata and vayu or mucus, bile and air. So what is this body? Simply a complicated construction of material elements. What is the essential difference between this body and an apartment building? No essential difference.

Just like in an apartment building there are so many bricks; the bones of the body are like bricks. And in the apartment building there are so many pipes full of water and other liquids; similarly, in the body there are many pipes carrying blood, lymph and other materials within the abdomen. The electrical wiring of the apartment may be compared with the nerves and brain of the body.

Similarly, if you think about it, this body is made of the same materials as the whole material manifestation. There is no essential or qualitative difference between the materials in this body and in the entire universe, simply a difference in quantity. The body is a small quantity and the universe, a large quantity of the same material ingredients. The ant’s body, the human body, the elephant’s body, and this gigantic universe—with its innumerable planets, suns, moons and the vast expanse of space—are made of the same material ingredients. It is only a difference of quantity: a big apartment or a small apartment, a cheap low-class apartment or an opulent, expensive townhouse. That’s all.

This is karma-kanda, the material world. Karma means that everything is balanced; a zero-sum game. As soon as you make some profit on one side, there is a loss on another side. For example, if you want to construct a big apartment building, you must dig up the earth to provide the materials. Otherwise, you cannot create the bricks and other building materials. You have to dig material from somewhere else, process it and pile it up until the building is complete.

And that is the advancement of material civilization: simply increasing the digging and piling up of material. The materialists do not think, “Why am I uselessly digging and piling this material stuff? After all, soon my karma will kick me out of this body, and then all my work of digging and piling will come to naught.” They too busy digging and piling up material to contemplate the real situation. They cannot hear Bhagavad-gita or the Esoteric Teaching from a self-realized Master Teacher. They are too busy with temporary material work. This is called maya, forgetfulness or the illusory concept of life.

But just as the tenant of an apartment is qualitatively different from the apartment itself, the soul is qualitatively different from the body he inhabits. The body is constructed of material energy, and the soul is spiritual energy, conscious and personal. Anyone who wants to make tangible spiritual advancement must understand this point very clearly.

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