The Vedie lircratures inform us that there are 8,400.0 pecies oflife, inchuding aquatic, plant, insect, bird, animal, and human varieties. The conditioned soul, having fallen from
his original position as a loving servant of the Supreme Lord in the spiritual world, enters these various bodies. In the human form, the original nature of the soul is most brilliantly displayed. The human form of life is especially intended for qualifying oneself to return home, back to Godhead, but if the conditioned soul misuses this opportunity, he may descend once more into the lower species.
Just as fire may appear differently as dormant, manifest, weak, brilliant, etc., according to the condition of the fuel, similarly the spirit soul enters a material body and accepts particular bodily characteristics. Although fire may appear and disappear within a particular object, the element fire always exists. Similarly, the eternal soul appears within a suitable body and then disappears from that body, but the soul always exists. Just as fire is different from its fuel, the soul is different from the body. A match makes a tiny fire, whereas the explosion of a huge gasoline tank will send flames soaring into the sky. But still, fire is one. Similarly, one spirit soul may appear in the body of Brahmā and another in the body of an ant, but the spirit soul is qualitatively the same in every body. Due to ignorance we impose the bodily characteristics upon the soul, and thus we label a particular person as American, Russian, Chinese, old, or young. Although such designations apply to the body, they do not apply to the spirit soul, which is described as parah, or a transcendental entity. As long as the bewildered spirit soul remains inimical to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the designations pertaining to the gross and subtle bodies will affect him, keeping him in darkness. When one intellectually identifies oneself with various materialistic philosophies of life, he becomes covered by the subtle mind. Ultimately, everything that exists is part and parcel of the Absolute Truth, Lord Kṛṣṇa. When the living entity realizes this, he becomes nirupādhi, or free from material designations. This is his constitutional position.
By awakening to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one becomes absorbed in the progressive realization of the soul situated within the body. Both the individual soul and the Personality of Godhead are completely separated from the gross and subtle material bodies. If one recognizes one's eternal dependence on the Lord, he will become free from suffering or anxiety, even though one is still situated within the material world. The unlimited experiences of material objects only increase one's anxiety, whereas perception of the Absolute Truth, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, immediately elevates one to the platform of peace. Thus one who is intelligent retires from the world of matter and becomes a fully self-realized Kṛṣṇa conscious person.
As Lord Kṛṣṇa states in Bhagavad-gītā (9.3), "Those who are not faithful in this devotional service cannot attain Me, O conqueror of enemies. They return to the path of birth and death in this material world." Ifone is not a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the eventual result of his activities is simply mrtyu-samsara repeated birth and death.