Issue #11: The body changes but YOU don't.
But we don't notice it at all.
Welcome all!
In this newsletter, we go through one of the most important pieces of information from Krishna, which if humanity dwells upon, could change the way we live our lives every day.
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.
BG 02.13 (Bhagavad Gita As It Is, Chapter 2, Verse 13)*
Similar to what we discussed in Issue #10, there are two parts to our existence in this world:
The Body
The Soul
(There is also a third - the Super Soul but we will go through this later).
The biggest difference between the two is - the body is temporary, but the soul is not. The body is material, but the soul is spiritual. Death means your body is finished, but you live on. You do not die, EVER!
When someone dies, people often say, “They have passed away” or “They have moved on”.
When the contract for the body is over or the body is no longer useful, the soul moves into another body. Just like a person walking through different compartments in a train where each compartment is the body and the person walking through it is the soul.
Even in this life, the body has to grow & evolve so that the soul can experience various pleasures & miseries. In this travel from child to youth to old age, the soul doesn’t change at all but the body keeps changing throughout.
These bodies could be anything - man, woman, animals or plants. Every living being has the body and the soul. The soul is the powerhouse of the body. Without the soul, the body is dead. It can’t do anything.
Krishna is educating Arjuna that he shouldn’t be sad about killing someone in the course of his duty as a military officer. The soul of those killed will take another body. This is something to be joyous about because the body is limited and will die anyway because of one reason or another. If it’s given up while performing one’s duty, then it’s great.
When we understand the science of the transmigration of the soul, we become thoughtful & sober.
What do we learn from today’s essay?
Understanding the limits of the body & the eternality of the soul is very important.
Image credits: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT)
*If you are interested to get your own copy of the Bhagavad Gita, may I recommend this edition found on Krishna.com: Bhagavad Gita As It Is by ISKCON Founder Acharya, His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. It’s life changing! You can find the book on Amazon as well in your country.
Here is the online version you can read for FREE!
https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/
Questions on these articles, please ask in comments on the web link of this newsletter (https://thegita.substack.com) or on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter accounts.