Text 22]
What Prahlāda Learned in the Womb
65
the soul is within matter. One who has not been trained cannot distinguish between gold and stone. Similarly, fools and rascals who have not learned from an expert spiritual master what is soul and what is matter cannot understand the existence of the soul within the body. To understand such knowledge, one must be trained in the mystic  yoga  system, or, finally, in the  bhakti-yoga  system. As stated in  Bhagavad-gītā  (18.55),  bhaktyā mām abhijānāti . Unless one takes shelter of the  bhakti-yoga  process, one cannot understand the existence of the soul within the body. Therefore  Bhagavad-gītā  begins by teaching:
dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāram yauvanam jarā tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati
“As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.” (Bg. 2.13) Thus the first instruction is that one should understand that the soul is within the body and is transmigrating from one body to another. This is the beginning of spiritual knowledge. Any person who is not expert in understanding this science or is unwilling to understand it remains in the bodily conception of life, or the animalistic conception of life, as confirmed in  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  ( yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tridhātuke . . . sa eva go-kharaḥ ). Every member of human society should clearly understand the instructions of  Bhagavad-gītā , for only in this way can one be spiritually elevated and automatically give up the false, illusory knowledge by which one thinks, “I am this body, and everything belonging to this body is mine [ aham mameti ].” This doggish conception should be rejected immediately. One should be prepared to understand the spirit soul and the supreme spirit, God, who are eternally related. Thus one may return home, back to Godhead, having solved all the problems of life.
TEXT 22
अष्टौ प्रकृतयः प्रोक्तास्त्रय एव हि तद्गुणाः ।
विकाराः षोडशाचार्यैः पुमानेकः समन्वयात् ॥२२॥