The Gist of All Spiritual Disciplines - 7

Sri Sukadevaji Maharaja tells Parikshit --

‘0 King! Now give up this animal intelligence that you will die. Just like the body had no existence in the past, it was born later and then it will die,

but it is not so with you (the self), that you were non-existent in the past, you were born later and later you will die.’

The body never remains uniform while the self never changes, it always remains uniform. The body did not exist before birth, will not exist after death

and at present also it is dying every moment.. In fact when the body comes to the womb, the process of dying (death) begins. At the death of boyhood, youth ensues. At the death of youth, old age ensues. At the death of old age, the soul acquires another body

dehino ’smin yathā dehe, kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā

tathā dehāntara-prāptir, dhīras tatra na muhyati

(Gita 2/13)

Boyhood, youth and old age-these three states (stages) are of the gross (physical) body while attaining another body after death is the stage of the subtle

and causal bodies. At the death of the body, the gross body is left but the subtle and causal bodies accompany the soul. Unless a man is liberated, his affinity for the subtle and causal bodies persists. It means that the self transcends the gross, subtle

and causal bodies and their states. The body and its states change but the self remains the same.

From book ‘For Salvation of Mankind’ by Shradhey Swamiji Shri Ramsukhdasji