Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 11.22.39
Nirodha· Winding upDeath Does Not Destroy the Soul
“When the living entity passes from the present body to the next body, which is created by his own karma, he becomes absorbed in the pleasurable and painful sensations of the new body and completely forgets the experience of the previous body. This total forgetfulness of one’s previous material identity, which comes about for one reason or another, is called death.”
What the purport teaches
- When the karma allotted to a body is exhausted, death occurs. Nature provides another body in which the living entity experiences the karma currently in effect.
- Absorption in the new body’s pleasure and pain brings complete forgetfulness of the previous bodily identity. This total forgetfulness is called death.
- False bodily identification makes bodily death seem like the death of the soul. Actually, the soul is eternal, never created or destroyed; this knowledge is easily understood in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Try this today
Write down and reflect on this teaching today: “The body dies, but the soul is never created or destroyed.”
Ask yourself
How does the soul’s eternal nature challenge my sense that the body is my whole identity?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
From Canto 10, chapter 14 onward, the translation and purports were completed by Śrīla Prabhupāda's disciples after his departure, and published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.