Srila Gurudeva: There is a big difference between the soul and this body. We are not this body. You should all try to understand this thing. You are not this body. The body is only made of earth, water, fire, air, and ether. The soul can leave this body at any time. We don’t know when we will die and leave this body. What will happen after that, in the future? Where have you come from? You are not independent. You are controlled by time. You have no freedom at all.
You should fully know that you are not this body. This body is like a cloth that you can change, but the soul in the body is eternal. There is really no birth, no death, no suffering, no sorrow, and no problems, but we are not realizing this. We are like animals, but really we are not animals. You should try to realize that this body is like a cloth. There are two souls in this body. One is the jivatma and the other one is the controller of the whole world. He controls everything. One can only realize this in the human form of life. One day someone can be a king and the next day we will see that he is a poor beggar. Or we see that a beggar becomes the Prime Minister or a president. We must realize that the soul is here in the heart. The soul is never born and it never dies.
Now we are in a human body, we are not like animals. We should not act like animals. Animals are always involved in four things: eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. Animals are afraid of others and then support their children and nourish them. If a man dies and takes birth as a serpent, donkey, pig, or monkey, he can easily manage his wives everywhere. In a human body, we may only have one or two children or no children at all. But pigs can have more than sixteen babies at a time. Pigs are not worried about their marriage. They are happier than somebody in a human body. If you are engaged in these things, the pigs are happier than you.
I request you all, you are all very intelligent boys and girls. Perhaps you are going to go to colleges here and there and have different jobs. But you should try to understand, “Who am I? Where have we come from? What is our future?” We are not like animals, so we should have strong faith in God. Who created this world? Why do we want happiness? If you want to be happy, have a strong faith in God and chant the holy name of God. Then you can realize all these things, and you will be happy.
[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on December 21st, 1998, Bali, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 24]