Category:Body of a Child
Theme Analysis
The concept of the "child's body" provides one of the most accessible and logical proofs for the existence of the eternal soul. Śrīla Prabhupāda uses this biological stage to demonstrate that the physical form is never static; it is a fleeting manifestation that appears, develops, and vanishes. The key insight is that the development of the child's body—from a pea-sized embryo to an infant—is entirely dependent on the presence of the spiritual spark. Furthermore, the fact that every adult can remember having a child's body, even though that specific body no longer exists, proves that the observer (the self) is distinct from the changing matter. This continuous shifting of bodies within a single lifetime serves as a microcosm for the ultimate transmigration of the soul at death.
- The Active Principle of Growth: Matter does not grow independently; a child's body develops from the womb only because the spirit soul is present. If the soul leaves, the development stops immediately.
- The Disappearing Body: The body of a child is not a permanent fixture; it transforms into the body of a boy and then a youth. The "childhood body" is effectively dead and gone, yet the person remains.
- Memory as Evidence: The continuity of memory—knowing "I was a child"—establishes that the identity of the individual is constant, while the biological vessel is mutable.
- Microcosm of Reincarnation: The change from childhood to youth is a form of reincarnation that happens in this very life, proving that the final change of body at death is a natural continuation of this process.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Child's Body and Eternity of Soul.
Pages in category "Body of a Child"
The following 70 pages are in this category, out of 70 total.
A
- A baby has got a shoe, but when he gets the child's body the shoe does not fit. You have to take another shoe. Similarly, when the same child grows or changes body, he requires another shoe
- A child gives up his childhood body and accepts the body of a boy, and the boy gives up his boyhood body to accept a youthful body, which he then gives up for an old body
- A child, he knows that his body will be changed. Nobody will remain a baby. Nobody will remain a child. Nobody will remain a boy. Next life is awaiting. It is very simple philosophy. And then after this body, another body is waiting. That's a fact
- After a child is born, he grows, and his body develops, but if the child is born dead - if the spirit soul is not present - the body will not develop. Therefore the spirit is the basis for the development of matter, and not vice versa
- After death you have to change the body. As you are changing from childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood, similarly this old body, when it is no more usable, that means death
- After the baby's body I had a boy's body; then I had a youthful body, and now I am in this body. Where are those bodies? They are gone now. This is a different body. It is explained in BG that when I give up this body, I will have to accept another body
- After the relatives had discharged their duties by performing the proper funeral ceremonies and burning the dead child's body, they gave up the affection that leads to illusion, lamentation, fear and pain
- All of us had at one time the body of a small baby. Where is that body? That body is gone. Presently I am an old man, but I remember that I was once a small baby
- All our leaders they are blind, they have no perfect knowledge, they do not know what is after this body. As we have... everyone of us this experience that we had a body like a child, we had a body like a boy, like a young man
- As I am getting one body after another, baby's body, then another body, child's body, then another body, boy's body, you may say: "It is growing." Growing or not growing, it is another body
- As I have got consecutively from boyhood to childhood, I have, from childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood, aged body, so why not next body? This is simple truth, that the living entity, or the soul, is transmigrating from one body to another
B
- Bhagavad-gita says, tatha dehantara-praptih (BG 2.13). As we are changing this body from childhood, from babyhood to childhood, childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood... This is practical
- By intelligence, you can understand that although the body is changed, the soul is there. The same soul which was existing in the body of the child is still continuing in the body of the old man
F
- For a while, he (the living entity) is a child, but he has to become a boy. From a boy, he has to change into a youth, and from youth to manhood and old age. Finally, when the body is no longer workable, he has to accept a new body in a different species
- For ten months the child's body develops from the blood and nutrients of the mother's body, but the child is a living entity, not matter
I
- In the beginning the body is the size of a pea. Then it grows to become a baby, then a child, a young boy, a youth, a grown man and an old man, and finally, when it becomes useless, the living entity changes into another body
- In the beginning when I am child, boy, I think of my body only, and when I grow up, I get my wife. Then I think of two bodies. Then from the two bodies, when there are many other bodies, children, we think of. This is our sphere of activities
- In this child body, she is naked, but people enjoy it. But when she is grown up and she is ladylike, she is young girl, if she becomes naked, oh, that is ridiculous
- It is natural to conclude that when one gives up one's old body, one will have to accept another body; again one will accept the body of a child
- It is simple fact. You are changing. From your childhood body, this body is different. Either you take it that it has grown or either you take it that the body has changed, the same thing. But actually it has changed
J
- Just like we have got several types of body: babyhood to childhood, child to boyhood, youth-hood, old body. Then after this, he is... Vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya (BG 2.22). When we give up this body as dress, old and rotten, we get another
- Just like you are being incarnated from baby's body to child's body, child's body to boy's body, boy's body to youthhood body, this is reincarnation. There is no question of believing. It is a fact. If you do not know it, it is ignorance. But it is a fact
- Just like your body, my body - progress means from babyhood, childhood, boyhood, youthhood. That is, up to that, youthhood, progress. Then as soon as youthhood passed, old age comes in, then dwindling, then finish. That means janma-sthiti-pralaya
M
- Modern scientists have to accept continuous changes of body which appear from childhood to boyhood and from boyhood to youth and again from youth to old age. From old age, the change is transferred to another body. BG 1972 purports
- My childhood body, my babyhood body is finished. It is no longer existing. So how I am existing? Therefore his statement that body is finished and the soul is finished is wrong. We see practically. The body is finished, the soul is existing
O
- One should not be very anxious about the body's changing from childhood to boyhood, from boyhood to old age and then to apparent annihilation. Rather, one should be very seriously concerned about the soul within the body
- Owing to the (pregnant) mother's eating bitter, pungent foodstuffs, or food which is too salty or too sour, the body of the child incessantly suffers pains which are almost intolerable
S
- Since every living entity is an individual soul, each is changing his body every moment, manifesting sometimes as a child, sometimes as a youth, & sometimes as an old man. Yet the same spirit soul is there & does not undergo any change. BG 1972 purports
- So long the soul is there within the body, the child from the babyhood will come to childhood, then childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood. In this way the body will change. We have changed so many bodies, every one of us
T
- Tatha dehantara-praptih. As the soul is changing body, from babyhood to childhood, childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youth-hood, like that. Similarly, after finishing this body, it may be invisible to you, but the subtle body is there
- The body is sometimes child and sometimes boy, sometimes young man, sometimes old man. So the body is changing. - Who cannot understand this?
- The body of a child is like a tumor, and if a tumor is operated upon and thrown away, no sin is involved. The same argument could be put forward in regard to the King and his queens
- The body of the child develops from the body of the mother, and when the child is separated from the body of the mother, it is separated by cutting the navel joint. And that is the way the Supreme Lord manifested Himself as separated many
- The change of body means a change to a different field of activities. Similarly, when the body of the boy changes into that of a youth, the boyish activities change into youthful activities
- The child is changing body to boy. The boy is changing his body to youth. But young man does not like to change his body to old age. Rather, the old man wants to come back to his youthful ages
- The child is giving up his childhood body, accepting the boyhood body. The boy is giving up his boyhood body, accepting youthhood body. Similarly, this body of old age, when giving up, natural conclusion is that I will have to accept another body
- The childhood body is changed to the youthful body, and the childhood body is gone. Similarly, when the boyhood body is gone, you'll have to accept a body like mine, an old man's body
- The knowledge in the body of a child is not as perfect as the knowledge in the body of an adult man
- The living being, the soul, is constantly changing bodies one after another. Even in the present life, the body changes from childhood to boyhood, from boyhood to youth, and from youth to old age
- The living entities are allowed to transmigrate from one body to another, exactly as a person transmigrates from the body of an infant to a child to a boy to a youth to a man. This process is constantly going on
- The living entity does not suffer due to the body's fatigue. Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti gives an example of a child heavily decorated with ornaments; although the child's body is very delicate, he does not feel fatigue
- The living entity is within the body & that the body is changing from childhood to boyhood & from boyhood to youth & from youth to old age, and the person who owns the body knows that the body is changing. BG 1972 purports
- The living entity transmigrates from the body of an infant to a child to a boy to a youth to a man
- The master claims full right to the bodies of slaves because the master feeds them. It may also be questioned whether the body belongs to the father, who is the seed-giving master of the body, or to the mother, who develops the child’s body in her womb
- The mother may not know how from her body another body has been created, but when the body of the child is fit, the child takes birth
- The principle of the soul is eternal, and it exists in this body or in another body. Even in this lifetime we experience existence in a child's body, a youth's body, a man's body & an old body. After the annihilation of the body, we acquire another body
- The spiritual body is within the material body. The material body is changing, going through childhood, youth, then old age, and then it vanishes
- This is self-realization. That active principle is soul, and the soul is migrating from one body to another as you are migrating from childhood to babyhood, babyhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood. So the soul is the same. The body is different
- This is the proof. There is no difficulty to understand. As I am still living, in spite of my changing childhood body, babyhood body, boyhood body, youthhood body, so naturally it should be concluded when I give up this body
- This we can experience, that as soon as the spirit is entered into the womb of the mother, they develops skin and the child develops body. So this is very practical, that first of all, not that simply by sexual intercourse a child is born
- Too much salt, chili, onion and similar food is forbidden for the pregnant mother because the child's body is too delicate and new for him to tolerate such pungent food
- Transmigration of the soul is very clearly explained in this verse (of SB 10.1.41). One sometimes forgets his present body and thinks of his childhood body, a body of the past, and of how one was playing, jumping, talking and so on
W
- What comes from material nature is not the life, but the body. The living entities accept particular types of bodies from material nature, just as a child takes its body from its mother
- When a child is born, it is to be understood that his particular type of body is the beginning of another set of activities, and when an old man dies, it is to be understood that one set of reactionary activities is finished
- When any material object displays development, it must be understood that there is a spiritual soul within the manifestation. The gigantic universe has developed gradually, just as the body of a child develops
- When the body of the child is completely formed at the end of six months, the child, if he is male, begins to move on the right side, and if female, she tries to move on the left side
- Where is that body when I was a child? Where is that body when I was a boy? Where is that body when I was young man? I have got my photograph, my studentship. "Oh, Swamiji, you were like this?" Where is that body? Where it has gone
- While existing in the present body, the same subtle body carries him from one stage of life to another (for example, from childhood to boyhood) by mental development
- Within the body of a child, for instance, the spiritual principle is present, and therefore changes take place in the body and it develops. But if the spirit leaves the body, the development stops. This law is applicable to every material object
Y
- You apply your arguments and you will find, "Yes. I was a child." So that body is no longer existing; I am existing. Therefore the conclusion is, we must conclude logically, that body may be finished but I will exist. That is the eternality of the soul
- You can remember that you had the body of a child, but that body of the child is no longer existing. You are in a different body, but you know that you are existing. That is the proof that after this body, you will have another body
- You were a child; that body is finished. So you have got a different body. But this simple truth they do not understand; that is their folly. If the body is finished, then why you were a child, you have become a young man?
- Your childhood body is no longer existing, but you know that you were a child. You remember your childhood days. Therefore, you are different from the body