We are not a material body, but an immortal spiritual soul.

In truth, each of us is not a body of dense matter, but an eternal spiritual soul. The material body is actually the residence of the eternal spiritual soul that each of us really is. It is because we are under the influence of material energy, in its form of illusion energy, that we mistakenly identify with our material body, thus forgetting our true spiritual identity.

It is the presence of the soul, by its vital force, that the body can live and move. Take the soul from the body, and the body collapses, dead. The corps is actually a mass of inert, lifeless material elements.

The reasons for the imprisonment of the soul in matter.

The Lord says: “If the soul is thus imprisoned, it is because it nourishes an erroneous conception of its identity, and takes itself as the supreme beneficiary. It is this false ego in the living being that compels him to know incarceration within material existence.”

The Lord adds, “The body of a living being (of an incarnate soul) is nothing more than an assembly of the five material elements (earth, water, fire, air, ether), and the being incarnated in this material condition is itself a fragment of My Person. If the soul is thus imprisoned it is because it nourishes an erroneous conception of its identity, and takes itself as the supreme beneficiary. It is this ego in the living being that compels him to know incarceration within material existence.”

Lord Krishna reveals the soul to us.

“Know that what penetrates the whole body cannot be destroyed. No one can destroy the imperishable soul.

The soul is indestructible, eternal and without measure; only the material bodies it borrows are subject to destruction. With this knowledge, engage the fight.

Ignoring the one who believes that the soul can kill or be killed, the wise man knows that it does not kill or die.

The soul knows neither birth nor death. Living, it will never cease to be. Unborn, immortal, original, eternal, it never had a beginning, and never will have an end. It does not die with the body.