Now, ākāśa means ether. Ether is here. Now, that ether... Now, my this body... Now, this body, there is also ether. "Now, as soon as this body's destroyed, it is burned or it is, another way, destroyed, then this ether within my body becomes amalgamated with the greater ether." So this sort of assertion is not accepted in the Bhagavad-gītā because the first reason is that ether is a material thing. Ether is a material thing. And the soul is spirit. We'll have, in later ślokas, that soul cannot be cut. Soul cannot be cut into pieces. And the spirit cannot be... acchedyo 'yam adāhyo 'yam. We'll get those ślokas. Soul never can be cut into pieces. You see? Just like here is a paper. I can, I can tore this paper into pieces, but it is not possible for the soul. Then it, then it loses its eternity or its stability. You see? So we cannot compare ether with soul because they are two different subject matters. You see? Analogy... Now, those who, those who are present here, those who have knowledge of logic, analogy... Analogy is possible when the two things are... When there are greatest number of similarities of two things, then there can be analogy. Otherwise there is no question of ana..., analogy. Just like if I say, "Oh, this lady's face is just like moon," now there must be some similarity in this face and the moon. As the moon is bright and a very beautiful looker, therefore this face must be very beautiful and very bright. But if the face is ugly, how can I compare with this moon? So whenever we make some analogy, there must be points, greater number of points of similarity. Now, here ether is a material thing, and soul is spiritual thing, so there is no similarity at all. At all. And besides that...
So soul, the individual soul, is different from the very beginning, nitya. Nityaḥ śāśvato 'yam. In later verses we will come to understand. The Lord says that "These individual souls, they are My part and parcels." Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ: (BG 15.7) "Jīva-bhūtaḥ, or these living entities, they are My parts and parcels." How it is that? I can give you a very good example. Just like the sun, sun and the sun rays. What is the sun ray? Sun ray, if you analyze physically, you'll find small molecules of raising (raysing ?) atoms, shining atoms. This is material. You see? The sun ray is nothing but combination of, I mean to say, shining atoms. It is not a homogeneous thing. Anything you take. Anything you take. You are artist. You take a point, any color, and you photograph. If you analyze with a microscope or magnifying glass, you'll find so many spots. Is it not? You are also artist. So in God's nature, there is no, nothing homogeneous. There is nothing homogeneous. All molecules, atoms, particles, even in the matter.
So similarly, we, we living entities, we are also spiritual atoms. We are spiritual atoms. And our magnitude also has assessed in the śāstras. That magnitude is stated in the Purāṇas that keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca (CC Madhya 19.140). Keśāgra, your hair. I have no long hair. You have got. Now, you can see the point of the hair, keśa-agra. Agra means the point of the hair. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya. Now, the point of the hair, you divide into hundred. That is imaginable. That is not imaginable by you, how the point of the hair can be divided into hundred. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya. Now, you take one part of that division and again divide into hundred. This is beyond your experience, beyond your power. The, by arithmetic calculation the mathematicians say that "The point has no length and breadth." Oh, this is, this is, this is a disappointment. Because he cannot measure the length and breadth of the point, therefore he says like that. But point has length and breadth. Aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān. Therefore a certain class of philosophers, they are astonished simply by seeing the great magnitude of the Lord, but there is smaller, smallest, aṇor aṇīyān. These are much smaller than the atom, but that is beyond our experience. Therefore we say, nirākāra. Nirākāra means we cannot calculate the ākāra, the actual form. Nirākāra does not mean that it has no form. It has form. Just see. That they say, that the point has no length and breadth. Similarly, the soul has everything, length and... Within that point it has got his head, leg, everything, consciousness, everything there. And because it is beyond the calculation of our human knowledge, therefore they are disappointed: "Nirākāra, nirākāra, nirākāra." Not nirākāra. It has ākāra. But we are so, our senses are so blunt that we cannot calculate.
Now, now, this, in these days of scientific advancement you take a dead man. You sit down. Now, we shall see how the soul transmigrates from this body to another. You cannot see. You cannot see. Our eyes are not qualified to see it. Therefore the all the senses, they should be spiritualized. If we want to see the spirit whole... The Lord is spirit whole. We cannot see even the spirit part. Our, our... We are very much proud of our senses, but our senses are so imperfect that... Now I see with my eyes, but I cannot see my eyelid. You see? The eyelid is always attached with my eye, but I cannot see. So our power of using the senses, that is very limited. So we should not depend only on the senses. Pratyakṣa. It is called pratyakṣa-anumāna. There are three kinds of evidences, pratyakṣa, anumāna, and aitihya. Pratyakṣa means that you can directly perceive. That is called pratyakṣa. And anumāna. Anumāna means you can conjecture, make an..., "It may be like this. It may be like this. Perhaps it is like this." This is called anumāna. And the other evidence is aitihya. Aitihya means to take evidences from the authority. So according... Out of these three evidences, this aitihya evidence, just like we are taking instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, sound, sound vibrated by the greatest personality, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, that sort of pramāṇa is acceptable. That is the best. This is the best way of acquiring knowledge. Because so far direct evidence is concerned, it is impossible. Because our senses are so imperfect, we cannot have anything. We can, we can have some direct experience of certain things, but not for all, especially for these spiritual things which is beyond our experience.
So pratyakṣa means direct evidence you cannot have. And anumāna means speculation, simply, "It may be like this. It may be like that." Oh, that is also imperfect because our thinking is also limited, because our senses are limited. So our thinking power, mind, is one of the senses. Out of the ten, mind is considered to be the eleventh sense. There are five karmendriya and five sensory organs and working organs, ten, and the mind is the chief. So mind is also considered as one of the senses, the chief senses. You see? So because it is sense, it is imperfect. So by mental speculation we cannot have a into right conclusion, by mental speculation. Those are simply speculating on mind, they can make some progress to a certain extent, but they cannot reach the ultimate goal. It is not possible by mental speculation; neither it is possible by direct evidence. The only, only possible evidence is authority, authority. Just like yesterday also I gave you that example. Just like if a child asks his mother that "Who is my father?" now the mother says, "Here is your father." Now, if the child says, "I don't believe it," so he has no other source of knowledge. Except the mother's version, that "Here is your father," he has no other alternative to know who is father. It is such a thing that neither he can imagine, speculate, "Oh, he may be my father, he may be my father, he may be my father." Lots of father he can gather. That is not possible. And neither it is possible for direct perception. The only possibility is the mother's evidence. Similarly, as the mother is authority for the child, similarly, the śruti, the Vedas, they are called mother, mother of knowledge.