- manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu
- kaścid yatati siddhaye
- yatatām api siddhānām . . .
- (BG 7.3)
Not only perfect.Perfection of human consciousness is there when one understands that, "I am not this body, I am spirit soul." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. That is perfection. But if you study scrutinizingly so many men, everyone is bodily conscious.
In Moscow I was speaking with a great professor, Kotovsky. He's in charge of Indology department of the government. He said . . . although I defeated him in argument, he said that, "After finishing this body, everything is finished." Just see. No. The spiritual knowledge begins when one is perfectly aware that, "After finishing this body, I am not finished." That is perfection. Not that those who are in this concept of life, that with the finishing of this body everything is finished. That is nonsense.
Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre, Kṛṣṇa teaches. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācin . . . nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ . . . na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). "This ātmā is never born and he never dies." Na jāyate mriyate vā. Nitya, eternal; śāśvata, ever-existing, śāśvata. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre. "Don't think that because the body is finished, therefore he is finished. No."
In another place Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). As we are changing body from babyhood to childhood, childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood, youthhood to grown-up and old age—this is our practical experience, I have several times explained—similarly, this old body, when I give it up, I shall accept another body. What is that body? That will be given to you by the laws of nature according to your mentality.