# Death and Transmigration *On the changing of bodies* --- ### The Body Is Changing > That we have to admit. We may say that the body is growing, but actually, the fact is, body is changing. It is medically admitted that we are changing our body every second. We are changing our blood corpuscles, and therefore a change of the body is taking place, and that is being manifested in a different shape only. Actually, we are changing every moment our body. So the ultimate change, when this body cannot be worked any more, just like a dress, when it is torn, when it is too old, you have to change it, similarly, when this body becomes useless, no more, it cannot be pulled on any more, you take another body. — [[spoken/1968/680402le.sf|Lecture, San Francisco, April 2, 1968]] --- ### Death Is Kṛṣṇa > So this is our real business. This requires little intelligence, that "We are eternal. Why we are put into this process of taking birth and death?" Kṛṣṇa also says, "This is the real misery of life," *janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam*. They are trying, the so-called scientists, trying to increase. If the scientists sees that a man was to die immediately; now he has lived one hour more—he thinks that his science is successful. That is their foolishness. If you live one or two hour more or one year or two year more. In Allahabad we had a friend. He was very rich man. So he was on the dying stage. So many big, big doctors were attending, and he was begging to the doctors, "Doctor, can you not give me at least four years' time? I could finish what I have already attempted." So here we know the death is certain. Still, we make some scheme, big or small, according to idea. But we do not know that at any moment, death will come. "As sure as death." And this death is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says in the *Bhagavad-gītā, mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś ca aham*. That is Kṛṣṇa's mercy. Repeatedly we are taking birth and making big, big scheme, and we may be successful, but at any moment Kṛṣṇa says, "Now you get out, and your all business finished. And whatever you have done, that is also finished, or I'll take it away," just to teach us that this place, material world, is not our place. — [[spoken/1975/750404cc.may|Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 1.11, Māyāpur, April 4, 1975]] --- ### Where Is the Difficulty to Understand? > 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*. 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. — [[spoken/1976/760409sb.vrn|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.9.54, Vṛndāvana, April 9, 1976]] --- ### No More Taking Birth > So immortality is not very difficult thing. Simply one has to adopt the method, process, as recommended in the *śāstra,* and then you can become immortal. Kṛṣṇa says, *janma karma ca me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ, tyaktā dehaṁ punar janma naiti.*. *Punar janma naiti*—this is immortality. The Kṛṣṇa says, *punar janma na:* "No more *punar janma.*" And if you have no *punar janma,* there is no *punar* death, *punar vyadhaka,* or *punar* disease. *Punar* means "again." So if you can stop your *punar janma*—no more taking birth—that is perfection of life. — [[spoken/1975/750404cc.may|Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 1.11, Māyāpur, April 4, 1975]] --- ### The Body Is Formed According to Desire > So the living entity is wandering in this way, *vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni*. Just like we change our dress from one dress to another, similarly, we are changing different positions by the influence of *māyā. Māyā* is forcing me. *Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi*. As soon as I am desiring something, immediately my body is formed. Immediately a particular type of body begins to form, and as soon as I am mature to change, my next body I get according to my desire. Therefore we should always desire Kṛṣṇa. Then from this life, the Kṛṣṇa-approaching body, or the spiritual body, will be formed. — [[spoken/1969/690410sb.ny|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.1.1–4, New York, April 10, 1969]] --- ### Saṁsāra Means Repetition of Bodies > So similarly, when I shall give up this body, I must have another body. And Kṛṣṇa says, *tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ*. This is called *saṁsāra.* The *saṁsāra* means repetition of different bodies. That is called *saṁsāra.* Here, *saṁsāriṇāṁ karuṇayā.* Therefore this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to be compassionate to these rascals who are in the cycle of changing body after body. It is a great movement. Everyone, all over the world, they are thinking there is no life after death. But that is not the fact. The fact is as you have changed so many bodies in this life, you have to change this body; you have to accept another body. It is a great dangerous position. That they do not think. If I accept another body of a tree, then I will have to stand in one place for thousands of years. This is the science. Now I cannot stay for five minutes in the *Bhagavad-gītā* class, but if I am given the body by nature... *Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni.* You are under the grip of nature. — [[spoken/1974/740528sb.rom|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.4, Rome, May 28, 1974]] --- ### Preliminary Knowledge > The first instruction of spiritual life is to understand that "I am not this body." The example is given, very simple thing, that I am present, although I remember that I had a small body lying down on the lap of my mother. I remember, when I was six months old, I was lying down on the lap of my elder sister, and she was knitting. I still remember that. So everyone, we remember that we had a small body, and then another small body, then another small body. Those bodies are gone. I have got a different body now, but I remember that I had all these body. Therefore the conclusion should be for the sober man that "Although we have changed so many bodies, I, the person, the soul, am existing." Therefore *Bhagavad-gītā* says, *tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ*. Similarly, when I shall give up this body, I shall accept another body. This is the beginning of understanding, that "I am not this body. I am living in this body just like I am not this coat, but I am living within the coat." — [[spoken/1974/740530ar.gen|Śrīla Prabhupāda Welcomed by the President of the State Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, Geneva, May 30, 1974]] --- ### There Is Life After Death > So at least we should follow the standard, how to raise our children to become first class. At the present moment, people cannot understand even that there is life after death—most people. There is life after death, they cannot understand, even big, big professors, big, big learned scholars. Everyone is thinking, "This body is accidental, and when the body will be finished, everything is finished." That is the general understanding. But *Bhagavad-gītā,* you read. It is said, *na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre*: "After the destruction of the body, the soul is not destroyed." — [[spoken/1975/750705r1.chi|Room Conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Wax, Chicago, July 5, 1975]] --- ### Who Has Gone Away from That Body > When a man is dead... Suppose my father is dead or somebody, a relative, is dead, we lament that "My father is no more. He has gone away." But where he has gone? The father is lying on the bed. Why do you say, "My father has gone away"? If somebody says that "Your father is lying sleeping on the bed. Why you are crying that your father has gone away? He has not gone. He is sleeping there...," but that sleep is not this sleep, ordinary sleep as we have daily. That sleep means eternal sleep. So actually, we have no eyes to see who is my father. During the lifetime of my father I did not know who is my father; therefore when the actual father goes away, we cry that "My father is gone." So that is spirit. Who has gone away from that body, that is spirit soul. — [[spoken/1973/730905ar.sto|Arrival Speech, Stockholm, September 5, 1973]] --- *9 verified verbatim quotes from Śrīla Prabhupāda on death and transmigration*