Proof Of You Part 20

by purujit dasa

WHAT ABOUT HEART TRANSPLANTS? WHEN WE REPLACE A HEART, IS THE SOUL REPLACED AS WELL? 

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, what about the heart transplant? The spirit soul is within the heart, but when the... in the medical science nowadays, the old heart can be replaced by a new one. So what happens with the spirit soul with the old one?Prabhupāda: But that does not mean that new ones will increase their duration of life. That is our challenge.Svarūpa Dāmodara: But the personality is changed?Prabhupāda: No.Svarūpa Dāmodara: Why not?Prabhupāda: Why changed? Suppose if I sit from this chair to this chair, why I am changed? I can change my seat. It does not mean that I am changed.
Morning Walk -- December 2, 1973, Los Angeles

The point is that the heart is not the source of life. It is simply a seat for the soul. 
Therefore when the soul goes away, these rascals says, "heart failure." Not heart failure, the soul has gone from the heart. Heart is also mechanical thing, but the sitting place of the soul is there. So heart failure means the soul has gone from the heart.
Bhagavad-gītā 13.3 -- Paris, August 11, 1973

Hanumān: Now they're doing this heart transplantation. They're taking the heart of one person...Prabhupāda: The soul changes from this heart to that heart. That's all. Just like you are running your car. It stops. Then you change, this car to that car. That's all. (laughter) This is it. It is very common thing.
Bhagavad-gītā 2.14 -- Mexico, February 14, 1975
Girirāja: Now they have machines that when the person is in coma, the machines artificially keep the heart beating and the other processes...Prabhupāda: Then heart beating will go on, either you apply machine or no machine. Heart beating. But when the heart stops, no machine can revive it. So what is the use of machine? But by nature's way when the heart beating will stop, no machine can help. That is not possible.
Morning Walk -- April 7, 1974, Bombay
(to be continued...)