It is well known that, deprived of consciousness, the material body is a lifeless object, which nothing can revive. Consequently, it is clear that consciousness comes from the soul, and not from some combination of material elements.

A person of perfect intelligence can perceive the soul, whose measure is in the infinitely small. It floats, carried by the five kinds of air. Located in the heart, it dispenses its energy to the entire body. Once purified of the contamination of these five kinds of material air, it reveals its spiritual power. Hatha yoga serves to control, through various postures, the five breaths enveloping the pure soul. Its practice is not aimed at deriving any material benefit, but at freeing the infinitesimal soul from the matter that imprisons it.

The infinitesimal soul resides in the heart of every being, from where its influence spreads throughout the body. There is no doubt that if the energy necessary for the functioning of the organism originates from the heart, it is because both the individual soul and the Supreme Soul are present there. The blood cells, which carry the oxygen stored in the lungs, draw their energy from the soul. This is why the blood ceases to circulate and perform its functions as soon as the soul leaves the body. The soul provides the body with its vital energy, and the heart is the seat of all bodily energies.

The individual and individual souls of God, part of the spiritual whole, of Krishna, can be compared to the innumerable luminous molecules composing the rays of the sun, spiritual sparks; they compose the radiance of the Supreme Lord and constitute His superior energy.

The soul is indestructible, eternal, and immeasurable; only the material bodies it borrows when incarnating are subject to destruction. The material body is, by nature, perishable. Whether it will die in an instant or in a hundred years, it is only a matter of time; it is impossible to keep it alive indefinitely.

But the soul, so tiny, how could an enemy destroy it if he can't even see it?

The soul is so small that it cannot even be measured. Seen from one angle or another, the loss of the body is not worthy of tears, lamentations, or sorrow, since one cannot kill the being itself, that is, the soul.

As for the body, it is in any case impossible to protect and preserve it indefinitely. And it is essential for man to observe religious principles during his earthly life, because the material body in which he will be reincarnated will be the fruit of the deeds performed in this life.

The original holy scriptures call the living being, the soul, a particle of the supreme light, God, “light.” The “light” of the soul keeps the material body alive. As soon as the soul leaves the body, it decomposes; it cannot live without it. The body itself, therefore, matters little.