The body is a field; the soul is its eternal cultivator—purify yourself by abandoning sin.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Bhagavad-gītā 13.2 — September 25, 1971, Nairobi 710925BG-NAIROBI [41:32 Minutes] Bg-13.02_710925BG-NAIROBI Devotee: [introducing recording] Lecture, evening 25th September, in Nairobi. Prabhupāda: ...rīraṁ kaunteya kṣetram ity abhidhīyate etad yo vetti taṁ prāhuḥ kṣetra-jña iti tad-vidaḥ [Bg. 13.2] The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is instructing Arjuna about the knowledge of kṣetra and kṣetra-jña. Kṣetra means the field, just like here, agricultural land, and there is cultivator. So this body is called the field, and the soul, which is the proprietor of this body, is the cultivator. [feedback sound from microphone] [aside:] What is this, this sound? Devotee: Turn it down. Down. Prabhupāda: So we have got this body, and we have to cultivate.
That is called karma, or work. Just like while coming to your place we saw so many cultivating land—somewhere coffee is being cultivated, somewhere peas, somewhere others, corns. So we have been given this particular type of body for cultivating and getting the required produce according to our desire. That is the gift of God.
God is very kind. ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham [Bg. 4.11] Everyone who wants something from God, God is very kind; He awards, "All right, you take this." Actually, just like father and the son: the son insists upon getting something from father. Father says, "My dear son, don't take this. This is not good for you." But when he insists upon: "Father, I want this," then the affectionate father gives him, "All right, you take it, try for it." Similarly, we are all part and parcel of God. Just like your sons, daughters and children are part and parcel of your body, similarly, we are...
All living entities—not only human beings. Human being is one of the 8,400,000 species of forms. There are 8,400,000 species of forms, and the human body is one of them. That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayaḥ yāḥ [Bg. 14.4] "My dear Kaunteya, Arjuna, as many forms are there in all species of life," tāsāṁ mahad yonir brahma, "this material world is their mother and," ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā, "I am the seed-giving father." Exactly in the same way that we are born, the father gives the seed within the womb of the mother and mother develops the body. So we living entities, we are coming from God in this material world, and the mother, material world, prakṛti, jarā prakṛti, the dull material world, is giving us this body.
And there are 8,400,000 species of body. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi: in the water there are 900,000 species of life. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati [Padma Purāṇa]. And there are 2,000,000 species of life, plants and trees. They're all living entities.
And don't think that they have no soul. It is a wrong theory that only human being has got soul and not other living entities. No. Everyone has got soul… [baby making noises] [aside:] The child is...
It is disturbing. So there are 2,000,000 species of forms, plants and trees: jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati kṛmayo rudra-saṅkhyakāḥ. Insects. From plant life the development is insect and reptiles. There are eleven lakhs, eleven hundred thousand species of life of insects, sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati kṛmayo rudra-saṅkhyakāḥ.