26 On the Way to Krsna

similarly passes into another body at death. The self-
realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.”
(Bg. 2.13)

Although the body is changing, the dweller within
the body remains the same. Although the boy grows
into manhood, the living entity within the body is
not changed. It is not that the self who was there as
a boy has gone away. Medical science agrees that at
every moment the material body is changing. Just as
living entities are not bewildered by this, an enlight-
ened man is not bewildered when the body under-
goes its ultimate change at death. But a person who
does not understand things as they are laments. In
the material condition we are simply changing bodies
all the time; that is our disease. It is not that we al-
ways change to a human body. We may change to an
animal body or a demigod body depending on our
activities. According to the Padma Purana there are
8,400,000 species of life. We can take on any of them
at death. But Krsna promises that one who knows
His birth and activities in truth is freed from this
cycle of transmigration.

How does one understand Krsna’s birth and activi-
ties in truth? This is explained in the Eighteenth
Chapter of Bhagavad-gita:

bhaktya mam abhijanati
yavan yas casmi tattvatah

tato mam tattvato jriatva
visate tad-anantaram

“One can understand the Supreme Personality as He
is only by devotional service. And when one is in full
