We are working intelligently while we are awake. Just like we are not asleep, so whatever we work, oh, we work very intelligently, as far as we have got intelligence. Then when you sleep, our intelligence stops. Then mind works.
So according to the mind, mind is taking me sometimes somewhere. I am thinking that "I am flying." I am thinking, "I am on somebody's place" or "I have become king." Or "I have become poverty." Or "Somebody is... Some tiger is eating me," and so many things, you sleeping, you dreaming. This is another stage, active stage. Then sleeping stage.
And then another stage is which is called deep sleep. Deep sleep. Just like you are under chloroform or LSD. That is a kind of sleep only. It is not..., does not mean that you have become free from this material bondage. You are simply under some mental condition, sleeping condition. Suṣuptiḥ. Just like our death. What is this death? Death means a sound sleep for seven months. That's all. A sound sleep for seven months. As soon as I give up this body, I enter into another body in sound sleep. And sound sleep, just like you are sleeping sound, somebody is taking away to another place; you do not know.
I have got experience. I have got..., underwent some, some surgical operation. So I was under chloroform. So I did not know when I was operated, when I was in the operation table, then who brought me again to my bed. And in this way I did not... But when gradually I got my consciousness, I remember still, that I am sleeping and then I am dreaming. Then I come to consciousness, active consciousness. This is the position.
So there are three stages. So when you are very sound sleep, you do not know what is happening, but you are still there; you are not dead. Therefore soul is never dead, even it is unconscious. Just remember this chloroformic condition. You were not dead. Similarly, when you change your body, by nature's way, you wanted certain kind of body, so nature takes you.
Nature takes you to such a father and mother and you are placed into the semina of similar father, and by sexual intercourse the father puts the semina in the mother's body, and the mother develops your body, particular. If you are put into the mother dog, then you develop the body of a dog. And if you are put in the mother god, then you develop the body of a god. This the process.
Daive, uh, daiva-netreṇa. That carrying out, from this body to another body, that is not in your hand. That is not scientific..., scientist's hand or experimental, I say, philosopher's hand. It is completely under the hand of the material nature. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā says that
daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā
[Bg. 7.14].
[This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.]
The material nature is so powerful that your so-called fighting against the material nature is simply waste of time. You cannot. You cannot, by material science, transfer yourself from this planet to another planet or according to your desire. No. That will be managed by laws of nature, material nature.
So you are transferred. You are transferred to a certain body, and you develop a similar body, and then you come out and enjoy. Because you wanted to enjoy certain type of things, so unless you have got certain type of body... Just like the hog: it wanted to eat certain types of nonsense, so therefore it has been given the body so that it can very pleasantly eat stools. You see? Without that hog's body, nobody can eat stool.
So our different kinds of body is being offered by material nature as we want it, and we are enjoying this material world. So Prahlāda Mahārāja says that,
buddher jāgaraṇaṁ svapnaḥ
suṣuptir iti vṛttayaḥ
tā yenaivānubhūyante
so 'dhyakṣaḥ puruṣaḥ paraḥ
[SB 7.6.25]
[Nothing is unobtainable for devotees who have satisfied the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the cause of all causes, the original source of everything. The Lord is the reservoir of unlimited spiritual qualities. For devotees, therefore, who are transcendental to the modes of material nature, what is the use of following the principles of religion, economic development, sense gratification and liberation, which are all automatically obtainable under the influence of the modes of nature? We devotees always glorify the lotus feet of the Lord, and therefore we need not ask for anything in terms of dharma, kāma, artha and mokṣa.]
Now, our point is: never mind what kind of body we are getting next, but I am existing. Whether I am intelligently working during the time when I am awake, or whether I am working under dreams, or whether I am being transferred to another body—I am having sound sleep under chloroform—I am the same. I am the same. I am that eternal soul. This is self-realization. So under all circumstances, either this body or that body, either sleeping or working or under sound sleep, any condition, I am there. This is my identification.
ebhis tri-varṇaiḥ paryastair
buddhi-bhedaiḥ kriyodbhavaiḥ
svarūpam ātmano budhyed
gandhair vāyum ivānvayāt
[SB 7.6.26]
[Religion, economic development and sense gratification—these are described in the Vedas as tri-varga, or three ways to salvation. Within these three categories are education and self-realization; ritualistic ceremonies performed according to Vedic injunction; logic; the science of law and order; and the various means of earning one's livelihood. These are the external subject matters of study in the Vedas, and therefore I consider them material. However, I consider surrender to the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu to be transcendental.]
So how I am being carried to different kinds of body, although I am this eternal and existing? How? Now, the very example is here, that gandhair vāyum. Just like vāyu. Vāyu means air. Air is passing through a, I mean to say, garden of rose. So air is carrying the flavor. The aroma of rose is being carried by the air. Now the air is passing through some filthy place, obnoxious, very bad smell, so everywhere is catching. So air has neither this flavor nor this bad or good, but as it is passing on, according to the association, it is getting certain time of..., certain type of flavor and aroma.
Similarly, by your association, you are getting different types of body. If you make your association with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you get next your Kṛṣṇa body. And if you make your association with non–Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you'll have this material body, and you'll have to undergo birth and death repeatedly.