Secrets of the Soul 31

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]

In the previous verse [Bhagavad-gita 2.12] Kṛṣṇa said, “All of us—you, me, and all these soldiers and kings who are present here—existed eternally in the past, are existing now, and shall continue to exist eternally in the future.” In other words, the spirit soul is immortal. But people who subscribe to the materialistic ontology, who are identified with their material bodies, object: “How can you say I was existing eternally in the past? I was born only a few years ago. Before that, I did not exist. At present I exist; so that’s all right. But as soon as I die, again I will not exist. So how can Kṛṣṇa say that all of us existed, and shall continue to exist, eternally?”

Is Kṛṣṇa’s statement contradictory? No, it is not. But Kṛṣṇa’s statement in Bhagavad-gita 2.12 rests on the fact that the spirit soul is different from the material body. The soul inhabits the body, but the body is temporary. Therefore we existed eternally in the past, but in a different body; and we shall continue to exist in the future in different bodies.

Tatha dehantara-praptih: this must be understood clearly. Deha-antara means, ‘of transference of the body’; and praptih means ‘achievement’. “I am” means my bodily identification. Dehi means the proprietor of the body, the owner or occupant of the body, and deha means the material body itself.

Kṛṣṇa gives the example, kaumaram yauvanam jara, dehantara praptih: formerly I was a boy; then I became a young man; now I am an old man. The body changed, but I am still existing as dehi, the proprietor of the body. I remain the same person, but the body has changed. So where is the difficulty to understand? Dehinah means ‘of the proprietor of the body.’ The body is changing; I can understand that my body has changed. Similarly, in the next life the body will change again.

The body will change. I may not remember; but that is another thing. Just like I do not remember what was my body in my last life. Forgetfulness is our nature, because we are so easily overwhelmed by the material energy. But just because I forget something, that does not mean that it did not take place. For example, in my early childhood I did so many things. I do not remember; but my parents remember. So my forgetfulness does not mean that those things did not take place.

Similarly, death means I have forgotten what my body was in the past life. Otherwise, as spirit soul I have no death. Suppose I change my mode of dress. In my boyhood, I wore a different style of dress. In my youth, I wore another kind of dress. In my old age, or as a sannyasi, I wear a different dress. My style of dress may change, but that does not mean that I have changed, or that I am dead or gone. No, the wearer of the dress is different from the dress itself. Then why is it so difficult to understand that the spirit soul is different from the material body that he wears like a suit of clothes?

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