So, we have to go to the platform of soul. That is spiritual education. But there are so many other stages. Somebody’s stopping in the mind. He’s thinking that this is the final. Philosophy, poetry, imagination, the mind, mental… As we see that mostly your Western philosophers, they are stuck up on the platform of mind. That’s all. They’re thinking this is the final. So far I’ve studied, only Socrates has reached up to the point of soul. Otherwise, all Western philosophers, they’re on the mental platform.

So anyway, we have to go farther, farther. So the dreaming is the function of the subtle body, namely mind, intelligence and false ego. You’re not free, the subtle body. So those who have no knowledge how material things are acting, covering the soul, they utmost they can think of the mind, the activities of the mind—thinking, feeling, willing, psychology, or writing some books, some mental speculation philosophy. They think this is final. That is not final. You have to go farther to the intellectual platform, then egoism, then soul. That is described in the Bhagavad-gita:

indriyani parany ahur indriyebhyah param manah manasas tu para buddhir buddhes tu ya para sah [Bg. 3.42]

Krishna is giving all intelligence. That is, through gross understanding, this indriya, the senses.

So those who are in the lowest stage of knowledge they are in the bodily concept of life—the indriya, the senses. Just like cats and dogs, they cannot think more than that. So, but Krishna advises, “No, don’t stop here.” Indriyani parany ahur [Bg. 3.42] Bodily concept of life, sense pleasure, they think it is all.

There is no more other. Those who are little above the bodily concept of life, they find pleasure in the mind. And farther, they find pleasure in intellectually. And in this way the thing is very complicated. It requires very cool brain to understand all these things. But those who are meat-eaters, they are very troubled. They cannot understand. For them the subject matter is very, very difficult. That is described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam,

nivrtta-tarsair upagiyamanad bhavausadhac chrotra-mano-’bhiramat ka uttamasloka-gunanuvadat puman virajyeta vina pasu-ghnat [SB 10.1.4]

Pasu-ghna. Pasu means life, or living entity. Pasu-ghna, ghna means killer. So unless one who is killing himself or killing this animal… Both are killing. The killing of the animal in the slaughterhouse, that is gross killing. And another killing is one who is killing himself without knowledge. That is also killing. He got this human form of life, but without sufficient knowledge he’s killing himself. Mam aprapya. He cannot understand God. That is killing himself. This human form of life was given to him by nature’s way, that “Now you understand God.” But he’s wasting time by surfing in the water. You see? He got the chance of understanding God—he doesn’t care for that. He’s unnecessarily laboring whole day in the sea, so that he’s developing the mentality at the time of, you think of swimming in the water, and the subtle body will carry him to the fish journey.

The subtle body, the transmigration of the soul means when the gross body stops. The subtle body… Just like… This is very easy to understand. Little brain is required. Just like when you sleep, your gross body is on the bed, but the subtle body takes you somewhere. So the transmigration of the soul takes place carried by the subtle body. And mukti means when there is no more working of the subtle body also. This death, this elimination of this gross body, that is not mukti, because the subtle body will work and subtle body will carry you to the next gross body. The soul will be carried by the subtle body and, according to its mentality, nature will put him into the semina of a certain father, and the father will inject the semina within which the soul is there, and then again, with the mixture of ovam and semen there will be formation a pealike body, and the soul is there, and he’ll develop. Then there will be nine holes and hands and legs, and when the complete he comes out, again begin your chapter—either as cat, or as dog or as human being or as tree or as plant, as aquatics. There are so many, 8,400,000. So subtle body’s working. Nature’s work is so fine that everything… Just like this Yamaduta, immediately there, “Yes, we have come to take.” Now if you become a criminal, if he comes attack, one has to phone to the police that “Here is a thief who has come.” He does not… Nature’s work is going on so nicely there is no necessity of phoning Yamadutas. They will come. (laughter) But this rascal civilization do not know this, how things are going on.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.28-29
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Honolulu, May 28, 1976