So personally the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is teaching that the soul transmigrates. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ means transmigrating from one body to another. Dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Those who are dhīra, sober, full of knowledge, they are not bewildered, they are not perturbed. Because he knows that my father or brother, everything, is said to be dead, it is..., he is not dead. This gross body, this coat, coating of the body, has stopped. It is (indistinct), or by some reason it is torn, it is no longer usable. Therefore, the soul has left this gross body and, being carried by the subtle body—mind, intelligence, ego—he has gone to accept another gross body. This is transmigration of the soul. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Just like the mother knows, "My baby was on my lap. Now as a boy he is running." So she is not lamenting. She knows, "That is my child, same child. Simply he has transformed the body." Similarly, we should not lament when a man dies. We should not lament. Because Arjuna was thinking in terms of the body, in the battlefield, he was bewildered whether..., because the other side were all relatives. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa is giving the knowledge that "Don't think that your father or your grandfather or your brother, they will be finished. No. They will be simply..., if you kill, they will simply be transferred to another body. Better you consider that your grandfather is possessing now an old body; if you kill your grandfather in the battlefield..." Because formerly the war was declared not whimsically. The war was also religious war. So in the religious war, a kṣatriya... The kṣatriyas were fighting, not the śūdras, not the brāhmaṇas, not the vaiśyas. There was a caste for fighters. Not like this, where a śūdra is elected as president, he is not fighting, he is in a safe place, and he is simply directing, "You go and fight. Let me see how you are fighting." No. The king, the kṣatriya, he will come forth in the front of fight. That was fight. If the king is killed by the opposite party, then it is declared that they are victorious—no more fight, no more unnecessarily killing other persons. The aim was to kill the king. The king was on the front. The other party, he was also in front. The king is fighting with king, and the soldiers are fighting with soldier. So when the king is killed, then the other party becomes victorious. That was the process of war, not that releasing atomic bomb from the sky and kill so many innocent persons. No, that is not war. So war, if it is fought on principle, on religious principle, that is called dharma-yuddhi. That is not prohibited. But this killing process, unnecessarily, innocent men, that is not dharma-yuddhi. That is irregular fighting. That kind of war is not sanctioned by the Vedas.
Dehantara-praptih means
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
This is Bhagavad-gītā. Nobody wants to know this. They manufacture their own commentaries. In that way you'll never understand. You'll understand as Kṛṣṇa says, sa eva ayaṁ purātanaḥ. The same thing. What is that same thing? That "I am God. I am Kṛṣṇa. You are My part and parcel." This is an eternal relationship. It cannot be broken, but you have forgotten. You have forgotten your relationship with Kṛṣṇa. You have made your relationship with your family, so-called family, so-called country, so-called society, and so on, so on, so on, so on. This is all temporary. Suppose I am Indian today. You are American tomo..., today. But is there guarantee after your death you'll become American or I'll become Indian? Or I'll take my birth in the same family? No. According to my karma, I may become cats and dogs. You may become demigods. You may become something else. But dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Dehāntara-prāptiḥ (means) you'll have to accept another body. And there are 8,400,000 species of forms of bodies. Any of them you'll have to accept. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). You are wasted your time as the family member or as the national or this or that, but there is no guarantee that next life will be same countryman or same family. No, there is no such guarantee. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ. You'll have to accept one body, and that body means... Any, out of these four... According to my karma... Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapatti (SB 3.31.1).
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So the instruction is very long, so (to) make it shorter I beg to inform you that this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to save person from going to the way of darkness. (break) ...go farther and farther on the path of darkness we become more and more entangled. More entanglement means: there are 8,400,000 forms of body. So after death we have to accept another body. (break) ...in the Bhagavad-gītā, tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13), as we are passing from one body to another in this life... I was a child, you were a child, everyone, but that child body is no more existing. I am existing in a different body, and I have to pass through many different bodies. So this is also dehāntara-prāptiḥ, changing the body. So similarly after death we shall change the body. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ means to accept another body. Now as I have already said, there are 8,400,000 forms of bodies. So we have to accept one of them at the time of death on the basis of our mental condition. So if we are accustomed to the beastly mentality like dogs and hog, then naturally we are going to get such body. But if we practice during this life, human form of life, while we are intelligent enough, godly life, then you are going back to home, back to Godhead. It is up to us to decide whether we are going to the dogly life or Godly life, that is our choice. According to the instruction of Ṛṣabhadeva, he says that this human form of life is a chance to practice Godly life and go back to home, back to Godhead.
A simple truth, Kṛṣṇa is explaining to Arjuna. It is authoritative statement because Kṛṣṇa says, and Kṛṣṇa says not unreasonably, very reasonably, "I am giving very common example that smin dehe, within this body, the proprietor of the body or the spirit soul is there. And on account of this," dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13), "because the living entity is within this body, therefore the bodily changes are taking place." What is that changing? Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. "The body is sometimes child, and sometimes boy, sometimes young man, sometimes old man. So the body is changing." Who cannot understand this? The child, the small child, is dancing. Now, that child will get the body of a young man like you. Everyone knows it. This body will change. Where is the difficulty? And Kṛṣṇa is giving this common example, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). As you are experiencing this change of body, similarly, you take it that this body also will change. An old man like me, the next body is there. Either farther old man or, after death, another body. This is to be understood. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ means to get another body.
This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is very scientific movement. It is trying to save the human society from risky life. Risky life means that if we are not cultured, if we do not take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and properly trained up, there is every chance to become again cats and dogs next life. This is the understanding. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). I repeatedly say you. Kṛṣṇa confirms. Kṛṣṇa says and we are repeating Kṛṣṇa's word. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ: You have to change this body to another. And if you do not properly work like human beings, and if you keep yourself like cats and dogs, then dehāntara-prāptiḥ means you get the body of cats and dogs and pigs. So they do not know this science. Therefore they want to forget that there is life after death. They think after death everything is finished, but that is not the case. So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to help everyone so that he may not fall again to the cycle of birth and death at the risk of becoming cats and dogs.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
| Page Title: | Dehantara-praptih means |
| Compiler: | Rishab, Serene |
| Created: | 16 of Oct, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=6, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 6 |