Death Means: Forgetting Past Life (SP Lecture)

SO FORGETTING DOES NOT MEAN THAT THINGS DID NOT TAKE PLACE. SIMILARLY, DEATH MEANS I HAVE FORGOTTEN WHAT WAS..., I WAS IN THE PAST LIFE...

The example is given, dehāntara. Just like I was boy. Then I became young man. So the body changed. And now I have become old man. The body changed. But I am existing, dehi, the proprietor of the body. So where is the difficulty to understand? Dehinaḥ. Dehinaḥ means "of the proprietor." The body is changing. I can understand that my body has changed. So next life the body may change. "May" not; it will change. But I may not remember. That is another thing. Just like in my last life, what was my body I do not remember. So forgetfulness is our nature. Because I forget something, that does not mean the things did not take place. No.

In my childhood I did so many things. I do not remember. But my father, mother who have seen my childhood, they remember. So forgetting does not mean that things did not take place. Similarly, death means I have forgotten what was..., I was in the past life. That is called death. Otherwise I, as spirit soul, I have no death. Suppose I change my dress. In my boyhood I was in a different dress. In my youthhood I was in a different dress. In my old age, or as a sannyāsī, I am in a different dress. So dress may change. That does not mean the owner of the dress is dead or gone. No.

This simple thing, transmigration of the soul, is explained. And individual. All of us individual. There is no question of mixing together. Every one of us, individual. God is individual, we are also individual. That we have explained yesterday. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām [Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13]. Only difference is that God does not change His body; I change my body. That is also in this material world. When I shall go to the spiritual world, there is no more change of body. Eternal. 

As Kṛṣṇa has got His eternal body, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ [Bs. 5.1], form, eternal blissful of knowledge, similarly, when we go back to home, back to Godhead, then we get also similar body, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ [Bs. 5.1]. That is the difference. When Kṛṣṇa comes, He does not change His body. In this material world, Kṛṣṇa does not change. Therefore His name is Acyuta. He never changes. He never falls down, because He is the controller of māyā. And we are controlled by māyā. That is the difference. Material energy.... We are controlled by the material energy. But Kṛṣṇa is the controller of the material energy. Not only material energy---spiritual energy, all energies.

Excerpt from Bhagavad Gita As It Is Lecture by HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada - 2.13 - August 19th, 1973, London.