One thing, avināśi; and another, vināśi. Avināśi means eternal, and vināśi means perishable. So this body is perishable, everyone knows. Either it is young body or old body or child's body or boy's body—anyone's body—today, tomorrow or one hundred years after or fifty years after, it is perishable. There is no doubt about it. But what is that thing imperishable? That imperishable is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, yena sarvam idaṁ tatam (BG 2.17): "That thing is imperishable which is spread all over your body." That is very easy to understand. What is that? If you pinch your body, any part of your body, you feel pain. That means your consciousness. Your consciousness is imperishable.
The body is changing. When you took your birth from the mother's womb you were a small child. But perhaps you may remember your childhood activities. The consciousness is the same, but the body has changed. The body has changed. If you have got sharp memory you can remember so many things of your past life, and that means the consciousness is the same but body is changing. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that:
- dehino 'smin yathā dehe
- kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
- tathā dehāntara-prāptir
- dhīras tatra na muhyati
- (BG 2.13)
Asmin dehe, in this body, there is one thing which is the proprietor of the body. And that proprietor of the body, due to the presence of the proprietor of the body, the body is changing from childhood to boyhood, from boyhood to youthhood, from youthhood to old age. And when it is too old, when it is not useful anymore, you have to change another body, that is called death. So dhīras tatra na muhyati. One who is intelligent, one who is in the knowledge, he is not bewildered. He sees that every second, every moment, the body is changing, and the last phase of change is called death.
So these answers are there in the Bhagavad-gītā. The problems of life is that how to stop these changes of body. Because it has been spoken that, that thing which is not changing, unchangeable, that is soul and eternal. Avināśi tu tad viddhi. That is eternal. Now, if there is any possibility of getting eternal body also? Yes, there is possibility. That is answered in the Bhagavad-gītā, how you can get eternal, blissful, all-knowledge body, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1).
This body is not eternal, neither it is blissful, neither it is full of knowledge. It is full of ignorance, it is temporary and always miserable. And if you say: "Now we are very happily living," that is māyā, that is illusion. Lord Buddha's teaching is that He was prince and there was no want in His life. He was luxuriously living. But He left home for meditation. Therefore He understood that, "I am not living comfortably." This understanding, when we can understand that this life, this material life, is not at all comfortable, it is full of misery, that is called buddha life, intelligent. Buddha means intelligent. And if we are thinking that "I am living very comfortably. I am very happy," that is called māyā, illusion.
Actually, we are always in miserable condition. In the Vedic language the miserable conditions have been described in three ways: adhyātmika, adhibhautika and adhidaivika—miseries due to the condition of this body and due to the condition of the mind. Sometimes you feel headache. This is due to the body . . . body, gross body. And sometimes you feel morose. This is due to the mind; the mind is not in quite order. Similarly . . . this is called adhyātmika. Then adhibhautika: misery inflicted by others, other living entities, some of your enemies.
Just like somebody murders somebody. This is misery inflicted by other living entity. The mosquito bite, the bug bite, or the tiger attacks you. So many living entities there are, they're always busy to inflict misery. This is called adhibhautika. And there is another misery, which is called adhidaivika, nature's disturbance. All of a sudden there is earthquake, there is famine, there is pestilence. So many, in which you have to control.
In every misery, there is no control. Ultimately, all the miseries are summarized in four things: the misery of birth . . . we do not . . . we have forgotten how much miserable condition we passed during our stay in the womb of mother, in a suffocated condition. You just imagine. Some of you might have seen the picture how the child remains within the womb of the mother. It is air-tight packed. And there are many germs who are biting the delicate skin of the child. And when the child is little grown up, at seven months, it feels too much pain. Therefore the mother can feel that the child is moving. It wants to come out, and prays . . . one who is fortunate, he can pray to God, "Please give me relief from this condition. This time I shall try my best not to come again in this position of life."
So there is severe pain of birth. Similarly, there is severe pain during death. And for disease and old age, everyone has got experience. When you are diseased, simple, if you have got some headache . . . so these miseries are there always. If we forget and if we think that we are living very comfortably, this is called illusion.
So we have to prepare for eternal life, blissful life, and life full of knowledge. If we do not do that, then our this human form of life is missing, is misused. That is the philosophy not only of Lord Buddha but Lord Caitanya, Śaṅkarācārya or Lord Jesus Christ. Anyone you take, nobody will recommend that you make your plan and live in this material world very happily. Nobody has recommended. Everyone has said that this life is the preparation stage of your next best life. If you do not believe in that, if you think that this life you can make this world happy by arrangement, by scientific advancement, that is not possible.