Logos 163
Verily, we are not our body of matter, but a spiritual soul.
As soon as the soul enters the material body, it immediately falls into oblivion of its true identity, of its past and therefore of its previous life. From then on she identifies with her material body, that is the false ego.
The false ego is at the basis of all material activities, which are accomplished according to the three gunas, the three attributes and the modes of influences of material nature; virtue, passion, ignorance. As soon as one deviates from the pure consciousness of God, one becomes more entangled in the traps of matter. However, the stagnation created by materialism is represented by the material mind, from which the senses and material organs proceed.
It is not enough to reach the level of pure consciousness of God, but it is also necessary to demonstrate of great vigilance. The slightest inattention or negligence can lead to a fall. And such a fall is due to the false ego. It is therefore from the state of pure consciousness that the false ego appears, due to the misuse of independence. There is no question of speculating on what could have caused the appearance of the false ego from pure consciousness. In fact, this is always likely to happen, so we have to be very careful and keep God present in our mind by always thinking of him.
Logos 164
The fear that beings feel in front of death is explained by their identification with the body. All beings are afraid of death. In reality, there is no death for the spiritual soul, (which we are) but because of our deep identification with the body, a fear of death develops in us.
Matter proceeds from the spirit. Just as the material elements have their origin in the Supreme Spiritual Being, the body itself is a product of the spiritual soul. Whoever becomes absorbed in this subsequent manifestation of the spirit, the body, dreads death. On the other hand, he who has the firm conviction of being separate from his body, does not conceive the slightest fear with regard to death, for the spiritual soul does not die. If the soul engages in the spiritual activities of devotional service dedicated to God, it frees itself completely from the realm of birth and death. Then for her comes spiritual freedom, or the definitive liberation from any material body.
The fear of death arises through the action of the time factor, which represents the influence of God, the Supreme Person. In other words, time is destructive. All that is created is also subject to destruction and annihilation, which is the action of time.