Text 18] What Prahlada Learned in the Womb 59

na jayate mriyate va kaddacin

nayam bhiitva bhavita va na bhityah
ajo nityah sdsvato ’yarh purano

na hanyate hanyamane Sarire

“For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does
he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and
primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.”” The spirit soul is eter-
nal, being freed from waste and change, which take place because of the
material body. The example of a tree and its fruits and flowers is very
simple and clear. A tree stands for many, many years, but with the
seasonal changes its fruits and flowers undergo six transformations. The
foolish theory of modern chemists that life can be produced by chemical
interactions cannot be accepted as truth. The birth of a human being’s
material body takes place due to a mixture of the ovum and semen, but
the history of birth is that although the ovum and semen mix together
after sex, there is not always pregnancy. Unless the soul enters the mix-
ture, there is no possibility of pregnancy, but when the soul takes shelter
of the mixture the body takes birth, exists, grows, transforms and dwin-
dles, and ultimately it is vanquished. The fruits and flowers of a tree
seasonally come and go, but the tree continues to stand. Similarly, the
transmigrating soul accepts various bodies, which undergo six transfor-
mations, but the soul remains permanently the same (ajo nityah sasvato
‘yarn purano na hanyate hanyaméne Sarire). The soul is eternal and
ever existing, but the bodies accepted by the soul are changing.

There are two kinds of soul—the Supreme Soul (the Personality of
Godhead) and the individual soul (the living entity). As various bodily
changes take place in the individual soul, different millenniums of cre-
ation take place in the Supreme Soul. In this regard, Madhvacarya says:

sad vikarah sarirasya
na visnos tad-gatasya ca
tad-adhinam Sariram ca
jnatva tan mamatam tyajet

Since the body is the external feature of the soul, the soul is not depen-
dent on the body; rather, the body is dependent on the soul. One who
