Krsna Defeats All the Princes 367

“Besides that,’ Balarama continued, “the consideration that a person is
neutral or is one’s friend or enemy is generally made by persons who are in
the bodily concept of life. Such foolish persons become bewildered by the
illusory energy of the Supreme Lord. The spirit soul is of the same pure
quality in any embodiment of matter, but those who are not sufficiently
intelligent see only the bodily differentiations of animals and men, literates
and illiterates, rich and poor, and so on, which cover the pure spirit soul.
Such differentiation, observed purely on the basis of the body, is exactly
like differentiation between fires in terms of the different types of fuel
they consume. Whatever the size and shape of the fuel, there is no such
variety of size and shape of the fire which comes out. Similarly, in the sky
there are no differences in size or shape.”

In this way Balarama appeased them by His moral and ethical instruction.
He stated further: “This body is part of the material manifestation. The
living entity or spirit soul, being in contact with matter, is transmigrating,
due to illusory enjoyment, from one body to another, and that is known as
material existence. This contact of the living entity with the material
manifestation has neither integration nor disintegration. My dear chaste
sister-in-law, the spirit soul is, of course, the cause of this material body, as
much as the sun is the cause of sunlight, eyesight and the forms of material
manifestation. The example of the sunshine and the material manifestation
is very appropriate in the matter of understanding the living entities’ con-
tact with this material world. In the morning, there is sunrise, and the heat
and light expand gradually throughout the whole day. The sun is the cause
of all material production and shapes and forms; it is due to the sun that
integration and disintegration of material elements take place. But as soon
as thesunisset, the whole manifestation is no longer connected to the sun,
which has passed from one place to another. When the sun passes from the
eastern to the western hemisphere, the result of interaction due to the
sunshine in the eastern hemisphere remains, but the sunshine itself is
visible again on the western hemisphere. Similarly, the living entity
accepts or produces different bodies and different bodily relationships in a
particular circumstance, but as soon as he gives up the present body and
accepts another, he has nothing to do with the former body. Similarly, the
living entity has nothing to do with the next body which he accepts. He is
always free from the contact of this bodily contamination. Therefore, the
conclusion is that the appearance and disappearance of the body have no-
thing to do with the living entity, as much as the waxing and waning ofthe
moon have nothing to do with the moon. When there is waxing of the
moon, we falsely think that the moon is developing, and when there is
