The soul is eternal and ever-existing; only the body changes, like changing clothes.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Room Conversation with African Intelligentsia — September 23, 1971, Nairobi 710923R1-NAIROBI [132:41 Minutes] Conv_710923R1-NAIROBI Introduction: [introducing recording] Evening, September 23rd, continuation of questions by African intelligentsia. Prabhupāda: ...yesterday? Hmm? Śyāmasundara: [to guest] ...yesterday you asked a question. Do you remember? "What is our beginning?" Is that it?
"Why are we existing?" Prabhupāda: Hmm? What is that question? Śyāmasundara: [to guest] You ask. Prabhupāda: That I have already answered, that there is no beginning, because we are part and parcel of God. God is ever-existing; therefore His parts and parcels are also ever-existing. There is no beginning.
The…, we are taking into account of beginning because we have got this material body. The material body has beginning, just like this material body is taken into account when it is born. But the spirit soul is ever-existing. The beginning is, means, the beginning of this material body.
The spirit soul has no beginning, no end. Just like in this present life you can realize that, as I explained yesterday, that you had a body of babyhood, then you had a body of boyhood, now you have got a body of youthhood. The body is changing, but you are the same. You can remember when you were playing with other children in your childish body. The same you, who is still existing in this body, he was in that childhood body.
Similarly, when you get old, old means your body gets old. Just like I have got. I am old man; I can remember my childhood, I can remember my youthhood. So this soul is existing, but the body is changing. Therefore this soul existed before getting this body, and soul continue to exist after annihilation of this body.
Is it clear? Therefore the soul is ever-existing: there is no beginning, no end. The end and beginning is calculated in terms of this body, material body. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly stated there that this change of body is going on, so when this body will be changed, tathā dehāntara-prāptir [Bg. 2.13]: āntaram, another.
After giving up this body, the soul gets another body, dehāntaram. Dhīras tatra na muhyati: those who are sober, those who are educated, intelligent, they do not bewilder. They know that this soul has now left this body and it has gone to another body. Just like if I leave this apartment, any one of you will understand that I have gone to another apartment. Does not… Because I have left this apartment, it does not mean that I am no longer existing.