Indian man: Are we duty-bound to maintain our body?
Prabhupāda: You are not maintaining your body. You are given a body to fulfill your desire. You get a particular type of body to fulfill your desire. You desire... Just like we have got, you analyze each and every one of us, each and every one has got a different type of body. Why? Each and every one of us has got a different type of mentality. That mentality is going on, and according to that mentality you are getting different types of body. So this body means to give me opportunity to satisfy a different type of mentality. That is God's grace. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). You wanted this body, God has given you this body. If you want a tiger's body, God will give you a tiger's body. If you want a demigod's body, God will give you a demigod's body.
- yānti deva-vratā devān
- pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vrataḥ
- bhūtejyā yānti bhūtāni
- mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām
- (BG 9.25)
But if you want a God's body you will get it also. So why not take a God's body? This is the opportunity. This is the opportunity. (break) ...desire this body, that body, this body, that body, I have traveled so many bodies. 8,400,000's of bodies. Now here is a body, where is perfect consciousness. I can understand that if I like I can get next birth God's body. (break) ...means the same body as God has, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). So this is illusion that I think that I am maintaining this body. You are not maintaining this body. The nature's law, nature's supply, nature's arrangement, that is Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). The nature is acting according to the different qualities. And ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā, being puffed up, one thinks that "I am doing this." Nonsense, you cannot do it anything. You are being forced to do by the laws of nature.