The eternal soul transmigrates through bodies as we change from childhood to old age and beyond.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Bhagavad-gītā 2.13 — September 8, 1972, Pittsburgh 720908BG-PITTSBURGH [42:03 Minutes] Bg-02.13_720908BG-PITTSBURGH Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [leads chanting of verse] [Prabhupāda and devotees repeat] dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati [Bg. 2.13] Prabhupāda: [indistinct].
Give me my spectacles. dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati [Bg. 2.13] [02:08] This is the problem at the present moment. People are not educated about the vital force of this body. Here in the Bhagavad-gītā, it is explained dehī. Dehī means the proprietor of this body.
Both we all, not only we human being, but also lower than human being, all living entities... There are 8,400,000 forms of living entities. They are called dehī. Dehī means the proprietor of the body.
The dog, the cat, the human being, the president, or higher or lower, there are different species of life, everyone is the proprietor of the body. That we can experience. You know everything about the pains and pleasure of your body. I know what are the pains and pleasures of the body. So this body has been given to us by material nature as our field of activities.
With different bodies we are acting differently. Not that your activities and my activities are the same. The dog's activities and the man's activities are different because the dog has got a different type of body and I have got a different type of body, every one of us. So dehino 'smin yathā dehe [Bg. 2.13].
The dehī, the living entity or the vital force, is within this body. So the body is changing. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. Kaumāram means boyhood, yauvanam means youthhood, and jarā means old age, aged body. So I can remember—I am an old man—I can remember I had a boy's body, I had a young man's body; now I have got this aged body.
So although the boyhood body, the youthhood body are no longer existing, but I am existing. That's a fact. Everyone can understand: he has got past, present and future. You are all young boys and girls present here.