Hare Krsna-below is yet another conversation with Prabhupada about the idea of reincarnation and changes of body which some devotees have expressed some doubts about how it actually "works". In this conversation Prabhupada tells us about the continuity of mind within our subtle bodies means that energy, which most of us have not a clue how it works, that energy of subtle mind intelligence and false ego carries us, naturally to another material body. He gives the example of an old man wanting sex, but his old body wont allow it, but his mind for sex as a young man continues in his present body, and that energy of mind and intelligence carries him, to another material body, just like it is doing at present in his old man body. He is being carried along by mental energy within his present gross body and that same mental energy will carry him to yet another body after death. In Bg mind is described as the source of liberation and the source of bondage. We choose which way we want to go.....depending upon how we use or misuse our minds in a daily fashion.
Damaghosa das
Aug 10 1973 Paris conversations
Bhagavān: He says people say that there is consciousness in this body because there is the soul. Then at the end of the body, soul is finished, the body is finished. Everything finished.
Prabhupāda: Why soul is finished?
Bhagavān: Because they say the body is finished.
Prabhupāda: No body is finished. My childhood body is finished, but the soul is not finished.
Bhagavān: They will not listen logically. What can you do?
Prabhupāda: How it is? My childhood body, my babyhood body is finished. It is no longer existing. So how I am existing? Therefore his statement that body is finished and the soul is finished is wrong. We see practically. The body is finished, the soul is existing. This is practical. Why he's talking nonsense—"The body is finished, and the soul is finished." Where the soul is finished? I remember my childhood body. So I, I am existing, but my childhood body's finished. That is the fact. Therefore with the annihilation of the body, the soul does not annihilate. This is the conclusion.
Guru-gaurāṅga: The baby body is finished. But soul is still there.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guru-gaurāṅga: So when this body is finished, why shall the soul be gone?
Prabhupāda: Even the father, mother is not crying. The mother's baby dies. She cries, she becomes mad. But when the child gives up that childhood body, accept another body, she's happy because she knows: "My son is there. He has only changed the body." The mother knows. Mother is not crying: "Oh, where is my child gone, sir?" He knows that "My child is here. He has changed his body." These are the arguments. If the foolish rascal will not accept genuine arguments, logic, then how he can be convinced? He's a animal. The animals cannot be convinced. Any man with little brain substance, he'll understand this. Where is the difficulty? But it is useless to talk with animals. You cannot argue with dogs and hogs. That is not possible. So if their brain is doggish and hoggish, how you can convince them? But the logic is there, the argument is there.
Guru-gaurāṅga: How is it they can see continuity between baby's body and young boy's body and young man's body, they say, "Oh, he's still here," but they can see no continuity between this body and...
Prabhupāda: That, that, he has no eyes. How I have got my continuity of my childhood thoughts and now also? Just like for a old man. He hasn't got so much sexual power, but the sex continuity is there. He wants to enjoy. Therefore he takes some medicine. He takes some injection. Why? The continuity. That means the continuity is mind. The gross body has changed. The mind is there, subtle. Intelligence is there. That is continuity. And that continuity, that subtle body, mind and intelligence, carry me to another body, as it is doing now. My gross body has changed, but mind and intelligence continuing. Similarly when this body will be completely finished, my mind and intelligence will carry me to another gross body. Then in the womb of my mother I shall grow another gross body. The mind and intelligence being continued. And I get a particular type of body on the condition of mind and intelligence at the time of death. Death means finishing this body. But the mind and intelligence is the same. As the air carries the flavor. This is the logic. Everything is...
Guru-gaurāṅga: So is subtle body ever finished?
Prabhupāda: Subtle body can be finished when you are liberated from material bondage.
Guru-gaurāṅga: Otherwise, it's the same subtle body...?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Carry, carrying you, carrying you in different types of bodies, gross bodies.
Guru-gaurāṅga: It's the same mind, but it's covered.
Prabhupāda: Subtle body will be finished when you regain your Kṛṣṇa consciousness fully. Then the subtle, this material mind, intelligence will not work.
Guru-gaurāṅga: But it's one mind. The soul also has a mind.
Prabhupāda: Yes. One mind. There... Just like I am one, but I am speaking just like madman. The man is one, but under some condition he's talking nonsense. So any materialistic man is a madman, under the influence of this energy, external energy. Therefore he's talking all nonsense. Come on. Come on. Namaskāra.
Bhagavān: Sit here.
Prabhupāda: Yes.