Changing Bodies

Dr.Singh: People want more proof.

Srila Prabhupada: What more is required? The eternality of the soul is a simple fact.

I am an eternal soul.

My body is changing, but I am not changing.

For example, I am now an old man.

Sometimes I think, "Oh, I used to jump and play, but now I cannot jump because my body has changed." I want to jump, but I cannot do it.

That jumping propensity is eternal, but because of my old body I cannot do it.

Dr.Singh: Opponents will say that according to their observation, the nature of consciousness is that it lasts for only one body.

Srila Prabhupada: That is foolishness.

In Bhagavad-gita (2.13) Krsna explains: dehino 'smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara tatha dehantara-praptir dhiras tatra na muhyati "As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death.

The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change." Just as this body is always changing (as I can see in my daily experience), there is a similar change at the time of death.

Dr.Singh: But according to the scientists, we cannot actually observe this last change.

Srila Prabhupada: Their eyes are so imperfect that they cannot observe many, many things.

Their ignorance does not make the Bhagavad-gita unscientific.

Why don't the scientists admit the imperfection of their senses? They must first admit the imperfection of their senses.

Their seeing power does not determine what is and what is not science.

Dogs cannot understand the laws of nature.

Does that mean the laws of nature don't exist? Dr.Singh: Well, the scientists admit that argument, but they say the way to become perfect is through objective information and experience.

Srila Prabhupada: No.

That is not the way to become perfect.

No one can become perfect through imperfect thinking, and our thinking must be imperfect because our senses and minds are imperfect.

Dr.Singh: Srila Prabhupada, another question can be raised.

is it not possible that the soul may accept three, four or five bodies and then die? Srila Prabhupada: You are accepting millions of bodies.

I say that your body of yesterday is not your body of today.

So, if you live for one hundred years, how many times have you changed bodies? Just calculate.

Dr.Singh: Thirteen.

Srila Prabhupada: Why thirteen? Dr.Singh: Medical science says that all the bodily cells are replaced every seven years.

Srila Prabhupada: No, not every seven years--every second.

Every second, the blood corpuscles are changing.

Is it not so? Dr.Singh: Yes.

Srila Prabhupada: And as soon as the blood corpuscles change, you change your body.

Dr.Singh: In scientific terminology, can the eternality of the soul be compared to conservation of energy? Srila Prabhupada: There is no question of the conservation of energy, because energy is always existing.

Dr.Singh: But according to scientific terminology, the law of conservation of energy is that energy cannot be created or destroyed, which means, I think, that it is eternal.

Srila Prabhupada: Oh, yes, that we admit.

Krsna is eternal; therefore all His energies are eternal.

Dr.Singh: Is that why the living entity is also eternal? Srila Prabhupada: Yes.

If the sun is eternal, its energies--heat and light--are also eternal.

Dr.Singh: Does it follow from this, then, that life cannot be created or destroyed? Srila Prabhupada: Yes.

Life is eternal.

It is not created or destroyed.

It is only temporarily covered.

I am eternal, but last night I was covered by sleep, so I think in terms of yesterday and today.

This is the condition of the material world.