28 THE SCIENCE OF SELF-REALIZATION
Mike Robinson: And what difference would it make to someone— being
taught how to be a Hare Krsna person?
Srila Prabhupada: His real education would begin. The first thing is to
understand that you are a spirit soul. And because you are a spirit soul,
you are changing your body. This is the ABC of spiritual understanding.
So, when your body is finished, annihilated, you are not finished. You get
another body, just as you may change your coat and shirt. If you come to
see me tomorrow wearing a different shirt and a different coat, does that
mean you are a different person? No. Similarly, each time you die you
change bodies, but you, the spirit soul within the body, remain the same.
This point has to be understood; then one can make further progress in
the science of Krsna consciousness.
Mike Robinson: I am beginning to understand, but what I’m finding
difficult is how this ties in with the large numbers of your people we see
handing out Hare Krsna literature on Oxford Street.

- Srila Prabhupada: This literature is meant to convince people about the
need for spiritual life.
Mike Robinson: And you’re really not concerned whether or not they
join the Hare Krsna movement?
Srila Prabhupada: It doesn’t matter. Our mission is to educate them.
People are in ignorance; they are living in a fool’s paradise, thinking that
when their body is finished, everything is finished. That is foolishness.
Mike Robinson: And you are basically just concerned to tell them that
there is a spiritual dimension to life?
Srila Prabhupada: Our first concern is to tell you that you are not this
body, that the body is your covering (your shirt and coat) and that within
the body you are living.
Mike Robinson: Yes, I think I’ve got that now. If we could go on from
there—you said that how you lived made a difference in your life after
death, that there are natural laws that determine your next life. How does
the process of transmigration work?
Srila Prabhupada: The process is very subtle. The spirit soul is invisible
to our material eyes. It is atomic in size. After the destruction of the gross
body, which is made up of the senses, blood, bone, fat, and so forth, the
subtle body of mind, intelligence, and ego goes on working. So at the
time of death this subtle body carries the small spirit soul to another
gross body. The process is just like air carrying a fragrance. Nobody can
see where this rose fragrance is coming from, but we know that it is being
carried by the air. You cannot see how, but it is being done. Similarly, the
process of transmigration of the soul is very subtle. According to the con-
