Kṛṣṇa says that dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). Dehī, deha. Deha means this body, and dehī means the owner of the body. There is the owner of the body. Now, the modern scientists, modern philosophers, hardly they do know that there is a proprietor, owner of this body. This body is not the person. The person is within. Asmin dehe, within this body, there is the proprietor of the body, soul. Asmin dehe. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13).
Now, kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. The changes that are taking place, it is not of the owner of the body, but it is of the outward, external body. Just like if you live in a house. The house becoming older, it does not become . . . does not mean you are becoming older. The owner of the house does not become deteriorated. It is a crude example.
Similarly, the changes, difference, the different types of body, the soul is migrating, transmigrating through different types of body. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati (Padma Purāṇa). There are 8,400,000 forms of body, and the living entity is transmigrating from one body to another, one body to another, one body to another. This is the evolution.
Darwin's evolution theory is misplaced. Here is real . . . as it is stated in the Padma Purāṇa: asatiṁś cāturaṁś caiva lakṣams tān jīva-jātiṣu. The evolutionary theory is there in the Padma Purāṇa. Asatiṁś cāturaṁś caiva lakṣaṁs tān jīva-jātiṣu. Jīva-jāti. There are different forms of living entity, and they are 8,400,000. That is clearly stated. So one has to pass through from the beginning. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi: 900,000 species of aquatics.
So in this way, when we come to the human form of body, it is very rarely obtained. Mānuṣaṁ durlabhaṁ janma. It is very rarely obtained. Therefore, it should be very properly utilized. In the human form of life one should try to understand that he's not this body. He must know that, "I am Brahman, I am spirit soul, part and parcel of God."
That is the beginning of teaching of Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa says, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). As the soul, dehī, is passing through different types of body, even in this life . . . first of all, he gets a small body within the womb of the mother, just like a pea. And that pea changes into another form, another form, another form.
Then when the form is complete with hands and legs, it comes out, then again changes from babyhood to childhood, from childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood. In this way, the living entity is changing the body. Not that the living entity itself is changing. It is changing simply body, according to the necessity.
That is explained here: dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). The point was to convince Arjuna that, "Do not be bereaved, because your grandfather will change the body. Your grandfather has got now old body."
So He was giving the logic, "Now, if your grandfather is killed, why you are lamenting? He will get a fresh, new body, another childhood body; then he will grow. You should rather become joyful, that 'My old grandfather is going to have a new body of childhood, boyhood, youthhood.' " That was the argument.
But the actual education is that we should not identify ourself with this body. That is ignorance. Unless we understand that, "I am Brahman, I am spirit soul," there is no advancement of education. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā you will find, when one realizes that he is not this body, he is Brahman, spirit soul, at that time:
- brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
- na śocati na kāṅkṣati
- (BG 18.54)
When one becomes brahma-bhūtaḥ, self-realized that, "I am not this body," at that time one becomes jubilant, prasannātmā. Actually we are suffering, being identified with this body.