284
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 1, Ch. 6]
PURPORT
As spirit is not annihilated even after the annihilation of the material body, so also spiritual consciousness is not annihilated. Śrī Nārada developed this spiritual consciousness even when he had his material body in the previous  kalpa . Consciousness of the material body means spiritual consciousness expressed through the medium of a material body. This consciousness is inferior, destructible and perverted. But super consciousness of the supramind in the spiritual plane is as good as the spirit soul and is never annihilated.
TEXT 5
नारद उवाच
भिक्षुभिर्विप्रवसिते विज्ञानादेष्टृभिर्मम । वर्तमानो वयस्याद्ये तत एतदकारषम् ॥ ५ ॥
nārada uvāca   bhikṣubhir vipravasite   vijñānādeṣṭṛbhir mama   vartamāno vayasy ādye   tata etad akāraṣam
śrī nāradaḥ uvāca—Śrī Nārada said;  bhikṣubhiḥ —by the great sages;  vipravasite —having departed for other places;  vijñāna —scientific spiritual knowledge;  ādeṣṭṛbhiḥ —those who imparted unto me;  mama —mine;  vartamānaḥ —present;  vayasi ādye —before this life;  tataḥ —thereafter;  etat —this much;  akāraṣam —performed.
TRANSLATION
Śrī Nārada said: The great sages, who had imparted scientific knowledge of transcendence to me, departed for other places, and I had to pass my life in this way.
PURPORT
In his previous life, when Nāradajī was impregnated with spiritual knowledge by the grace of the great sages, there was a tangible change in his life, although he was only a boy of five years. That is an important