88 Sri Isopanisad

The material bodies of all animals and men are foreign to the
living entity, and change according to the desire of the being for
sense gratification. In this cycle of evolution one changes bodies

one after another: from aquatic life—when the world was full of
water—to vegetable life, from vegetable life to worm life, from
worm life to bird life, from bird life to animal life, and from
animal life to the human form.

The highest development of life is this human form when it is
possessed of a full sense of spiritual knowledge, and the highest
development of spiritual sense is described in this mantra of the
Veda: one should give up this material body to be turned into |
ashes, and allow the living air to merge into the cternal reservoir
of air. The living being’s activities are performed within the body
by movements of different kinds of air, and this is called, in
sum, the prana-vayu. The yogis generally study to control the
airs of the body, and the soul is supposed lo rise up from one
circle of air to another till it rises onto the brahma-randhra, or
highest circle of air. Then the perfect yogi can transfer himself —
to any planet he likes. The process is to give’ up one material
body and then enter into another body, and the highest: per-
fection of such a bodily change is possible when the living entity
is able to give up this material body allogether, as is suggested .
in this mantra. He may then enter into the spiritual atmosphere, {
where he develops a completely different’ quality of body—a
spiritual body—which never has to meet death or change.

Here in the material world one has to change his body,
forced by material Nature on account of his different desires
for sense gratification. These desires are represented in’ the
various species of life, from the germs to the most perfect
material bodies, those of Brahma and the demigods. All of these
have bodies of matter in different shapes, and the intelligent
person sees oneness not in the varicly of bodies, but in the —
spiritual identity.

The spiritual spark which is the part and parcel of the
Supreme Lord is the same either in the body of a hog or in the
