The conditioned being has a body, which is a very complex mixture of material elements, and in this body it struggles alone. Despite his efforts to create social bonds, friendships and loves in this world, no one can help him except Krishna, the Supreme Lord. His only concern should therefore be to act for the satisfaction of Krishna. This is, moreover, the desire of the Lord. Men deluded by the material conditions to which they are subjected seek to unite, but all their attempts to unite men and nations prove futile. To lead his life, everyone must fight alone against the elements of nature. As Krishna recommends, therefore, our only hope lies in surrender to His Person, because He can help us out of the ocean of ignorance. We must remember that each individual is responsible for his own life, and that only he who becomes a pure devotee of Krishna is then freed from the ocean of ignorance.

The ethereal body which contains the soul is covered by sixteen elements, the five organs of perception, the five organs of action, the five objects of the senses and the mind. This ethereal body is a product of the three attributes of material nature; it is made up of irresistible desires as they are so powerful, so that it leads the spiritual being to transmigrate, to be reincarnated from one body to another among men, animals, plants and celestial beings. When he obtains a celestial body, he is certainly very happy with it, but when he assumes the human form, he does not stop lamenting; and when he is born with an animal body, he constantly lives in fear. However, whatever his situation, he is in fact miserable because he must continue his material existence, transmigrating from one body to another. The incarnate being, the seventeenth element, must fight alone, life after life, and its combat is based on material condition. Material nature has an irresistible force. It harasses the incarnated being in various bodies, but if this one surrenders to God, the Supreme Person, he is released from this yoke. Thus, his life becomes a success. The selfish acts performed by the distinct being, whether virtuous or ungodly, are the invisible cause of how his wishes will be met. This invisible cause is at the origin of the different bodies coated by the conditioned soul. Because of her intense desire, she is born in a particular family and receives a body similar to that of her mother or that of her father. The bodies of dense and ethereal matter are therefore created according to his desire. The body of dense matter is a product of the ethereal body.

The Lord said, “It is the thoughts, the memories of being just leaving your body that determine your future condition.”

The thoughts that inhabit the ethereal body at the time of death, result from the activities of the body of dense matter, the carnal envelope. Thus, the body of dense matter acts during our existence, and the ethereal body at the time of death. The