The soul is always the same

Continued from the book " perfect questions perfect answers" Chapter 3

Bob: Science may. though, say something. It is said in science that energy is never destroyed; it is changed.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: That's all right. But how the energy is working in the future—that science does not know. How is the energy diverted? How, by different manipulations, is the energy working differently? For instance, electrical energy. By different handling it is operating the heats and it is operating the refrigerator. They are just the opposite, but the electrical energy is the same. Similarly, this energy—living energy—how is it being directed? Which way is it going? How is it fructifying in the next life? That they do not know. But in Bhagavad-gītā it is very simply stated.

vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya
[Bg. 2.22]

You are covered by a dress, by a shirt. When this shirt is unuesable, you change it. Similarly, this body is just like a shirt and coat. When it is no longer workable, we have to change it.

Bob: What is the "we" that has to change? What is constant?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: That is the soul.

Bob: From one life to the next?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: That is the soul—I. What "you" is speaking? You! What "I" is speaking? Identity: ātmā, or soul.

Bob: My soul is different from your soul?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes. You are an individual soul, I am an individual soul.

Bob: You have removed yourself from karmic influences. If I was to remove myself from karmic influences, would our souls be the same or different?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: The soul is of the same quality in all. You are under a certain conception of life at the present moment, and these countrymen of yours [the Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees] were under a certain conception of life, but by training they have taken to another conception of life. So the ultimate training is how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is the perfection.

Bob: If two people are Kṛṣṇa conscious, is their soul the same?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: The soul is always the same.

Bob: In each person? In each person is it the same?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bob: [pointing to two devotees] If these two are Kṛṣṇa conscious, are their souls the same?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: The soul is the same but always individual, even if one is not Kṛṣṇa conscious. For instance, you are a human being, and I am a human being. Even if I am not a Christian, even if you are not a Hindu, still we are human beings. Similarly, the soul may not be Kṛṣṇa conscious, or he may be Kṛṣṇa conscious—it doesn't matter. But the soul is the soul.

Bob: Can you tell me more about this?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Soul—as pure spirit, all souls are equal. Even in an animal. Therefore it is said, paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ: [Bg. 5.18] those who are actually learned do not see the outward covering, either in a human being or in an animal.

To be continued.....