You know, this idea that the person or the self, that the spirit soul is eternal, continues to exist even after the body is finished, this is… that, in other words, the life particle is by nature alive, whereas matter by nature is dead. There is no question of a life particle dying. A life particle is what brings matter to life, or makes matter appear like it's alive. Matter by nature is dead and a life particle is in essence intrinsically alive. So whatever, it is… there's no question of life dying. Because it's not matter, you see, it's another distinct element and one of its characteristics is it exists. Okay?
So I exist. My existence is not going to cease. Where and when I’m in connection with matter, then matter appears to be alive, okay? But matter by nature is always dead. So there’s no question of matter being alive. It’s just a question of matter appearing to be alive because it comes into contact with a life particle. There’s no question of the life particle no longer being alive. Life is life. Life is alive. Life is life. So I am life. I am a life particle. That’s why I’m… there in ancient Greece, Socrates was going to be poisoned due to teaching these kinds of strange doctrines, okay? So, he was asked by his student, Crito, he said, “How, Socrates, how would you want to be buried?” You know. “How are you going to want to be buried? What should we do?” And Socrates says, “You can do whatever you want with me.” Basically, he says, “But first, you’ll have to catch me.”
Audience: Laughter
Jagad Guru: And Crito is trying to figure it out, you know, and Socrates says, “Crito’s problem is he thinks I’m this dead body that he sees here sitting, sees sitting here.” The body is already dead, it’s just that the life particle… the person is in it and therefore it appears to be alive. And the body takes on its natural characteristic - dead, dead body -when the life particle leaves it. So, this is a very traditional view. I mean, this slight… it’s… there’s various views. I mean we could get into intricate discussions on differences on this view, like the so-called Christian view or the Buddhist view or the Muslim view or the Hindu view or whatever all these, whatever they are. Different views. But this is the basic, general idea - that there is another world view - that it’s not just matter out there, you see? It’s not just material energy that exists. But, rather, there’s another fundamental element, a spiritual element, an element that continues to exist, okay? That a person is of this other element, of this spiritual element, this non-material element.
Siddhaswarupananda - founder of Science of Identity Foundation 
