The eternal soul escapes repeated birth and death by developing Krishna consciousness and returning to its original spiritual body.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Room Conversation with Graham Hill [Former World Champion Race Car Driver] — July 26, 1973, London 730726R1-LONDON [22:21 Minutes] Conv_730726R1-LONDON Prabhupāda: But death is compelling me to die. There is no science, no philosophy, no hero to conquer over this death. This is our philosophy: how to conquer over the race between life and death. [aside:] Now you find out that verse, janma karma me divyam yo jānāti tattvataḥ tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya [Bg. 4.9] This is Sanskrit language. Śyāmasundara: "One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world..." Prabhupāda: "Does not take his birth again." Śyāmasundara: "...but attains My eternal abode." Prabhupāda: Yes, this is the winning over death.
What is that process? Śyāmasundara: Ah, "One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities." Prabhupāda: Simply if you know what is Kṛṣṇa, why He comes, what are His activities, these things, if you try to understand, then you conquer over death. Graham Hill: And anyone who..., I mean, do you know this answer, and you are telling your followers? Prabhupāda: Yes, this is our philosophy. We are spreading this philosophy, that conquer over death and go back to home, back to Godhead. Therefore our name of the paper is Back to Godhead. Winning over the race between life and death and get your eternal life and go back to home, back to Godhead.
This is our philosophy. Graham Hill: You don't believe, then, in that we come back, rebirth again in another form? Prabhupāda: Yes, transmigration. Just like you also were a boy like him, but where is that body? There is no... That body, that is finished.
But you exist; you remember that you were a boy like him. You remember that boy's childhood body. So that body is finished, but you are not finished. So therefore you, the soul, is eternal.
You are simply changing body. This is called death. Death means changing the body. As soon as the body becomes old enough, no more youthful, then you die. Die means to change the body just like you change your garment.
When the garment is no more useless..., no more useful, then you change to another garment. That is stated: vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya [Bg. 2.22]. [aside:] You come here. Just like jīrṇāni, when old garment, no more useful, you change it to a new garment. [aside:] Come here, find out vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya. Śyāmasundara: He's our Sanskrit scholar. Pradyumna: vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya navāni gṛhṇāti naro 'parāṇi tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny anyāni saṁyāti navāni dehī [Bg. 2.22] "As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones." Graham Hill: And you go back to the Godhead. You go back to home. Prabhupāda: That is ultimate goal.
So long we do not go back to home, back to Godhead, we have to, in our material existence, we have to change from one body to another. That is going on. And there are 8,400,000 forms of bodies. The cats and dogs, they are also living entities, but they have got a different type of body.