"The Body Is Like a Garment To The Soul..."

Shrimad Rajchandraji's Reply to Gandhiji's Questions


Gandhiji asked... "It is said that after death, a man may, according to his actions, be reborn as an animal, a tree or even a stone. 
Is this fact ?


Shrimadji replied... "After the soul has left the body, it attains a state according to the merit it has earned through its actions; hence, it may be born even as a lower creature, or may have even to assume a body of earth (probably as a particle of organic matter in the earth) and, devoid of the other four senses, suffer the fruits of its karma (through the sense of touch alone.) 


This does not mean, however, that it becomes pure stone or earth. 


The soul assumes a body of stone, but, even then, it exists as soul, though its existence is not manifest to us. 


Since, in that condition, the other four senses are unmanifest, the soul may be described as having an earth-body. 


In the course of time, the soul leaves such a body after it has enjoyed the fruits of its karmas and then the stone material exists merely as atoms and, because the soul has left it, does not possess the instinct of food, etc. 


In other words, the idea is not that stone itself, which is pure matter, becomes a soul. 


It is in order to enjoy the fruits of those karmas which, because of their hard nature, compels the soul to take on a body possessing only one sense, the sense of touch, the other senses remaining unmanifest, that it is born in an earth-body; it does not, however, become pure earth or stone. 


The body is like a garment to the soul, and is not its essence..."