When we return to the spiritual world, we will find our spiritual body again.

When we speak of the physical body, we are actually referring to two physical bodies: the dense, tangible body of matter, and the etheric body in which the soul resides.

The first is composed of material elements such as earth, water, fire, air, and ether, and the second of subtle elements such as the mind, intelligence, and the false ego.

It is this second that, in reality, transports us from one physical body to another, constantly moving from one species to another, among the 8,400,000 species of material bodies—human, animal, and plant.

Originally, our identity is to be a tiny, eternal fragment of Krishna, God, the Supreme Person, filled with knowledge, bliss, and eternity, free from the defilement and yoke of material energy.

But for having rejected the service of the Lord, we had to fall immediately into the prison of this material world and accept a material body. That is why we had to don our prison garb, our garb of flesh and blood.

It is to serve Krishna, God, the Supreme Person, that we were brought into individual existence; this is the primary reason for our existence.

The Supreme Lord, Krishna, the Sovereign Divine Person, is by nature overflowing with joy, and He multiplies in order to increase His absolute spiritual happiness. And we, individual beings distinct from His divine person, already existed as minute parts of the Supreme Lord for the satisfaction of His divine senses.

The living being, the soul incarnated in a human, animal, or plant body, belongs to the Lord's inner energy and is therefore identical to Him, but it never equals or surpasses God, Krishna. The Lord and other beings all possess their own individuality. Spiritual beings distinct from God can also, with the aid of material energy, exert a certain creative power, but none of their creations equal or surpass those of the Lord.

The spiritual being is but a tiny fragment of Krishna, created by the Lord to contribute to His joy. Just as an organ contributes to the harmonious functioning of the entire body but cannot enjoy itself autonomously, the being distinct from God has the sole role of being united with the Lord in a spirit of cooperation.

The hands, by bringing food to the mouth; the feet, by moving the body; the teeth, by chewing food; the eyes, by observing—all act to satisfy the stomach, the “energy center” upon which the entire organism depends. No part of the body can derive its enjoyment from its actions for itself. One nourishes the tree by watering its roots, not its branches, and the body, by nourishing the stomach.