Ordinarily when one quits the body he has to take up another b | The Bliss Of Krishna Consciousness

Ordinarily when one quits the body he has to take up another body. The lives of the living entities are going on simply due to the living
entities’ changing dress from one body to another—transmigration of the soul—according to the work of the living entities. At the present moment we may think that this material body is our actual body, but it is like a dress. In reality we do have an actual body, a spiritual body. This material body is superficial compared to the real spiritual body of the living entity. When this material body becomes old and worn out, or when it is rendered useless by some accident, we put it aside as we might put aside a soiled or ruined suit and take up another material body.

vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya
navāni gṛhṇāt naro ’parāṇi
tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny
anyāni saṁyāti navāni dehī

“As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.” (Bg. 2.22)

In the beginning the body is the size of a pea. Then it grows to become a baby, then a child, a young boy, a youth, a grown man and an old man, and finally, when it becomes useless, the living entity changes into another body. The body is therefore always changing, and death is simply the ultimate change of the present body.


From the book :- On The Way To Krishna

Written by :- His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada