The Vedas describe the heart as a sitting place for the soul

[Guest guest]

LCFL Life Comes From LifeDr. Singh. Srila Prabhupada, what

about heart transplants? We know that the spirit soul is within the heart. But

nowadays doctors can replace an old heart with a new one. What happens to the

spirit soul in each heart? Does the person who receives a new heart also get a

new personality?Srila Prabhupada. No.Dr. Singh. Why not?Srila Prabhupada.

Suppose I get up from one chair and go sit in another chair. Does my

personality change? I may change my seat, but does that mean I have changed?Dr.

Singh. But the heart is changed, and the heart contains the spirit soul.Srila

Prabhupada. The Vedas describe the heart as a sitting place for the soul. So

when they transplant hearts, they simply change the soul's seat. The same soul

remains. If they could prove that by changing the heart they have increased the

patient's duration of life, then that would prove they've caught the spirit

soul. But they cannot increase the duration of life, because people have

acquired their bodies by a superior arrangement. You have this body, and you

must live within it for a certain period. If you simply change one of the parts

of your body, that will not help you prolong your life. That is impossible. The

doctors think that by changing the heart they will increase the duration of

life, but that is not possible.Dr. Singh. So a heart transplant is a kind of

artificial transmigration of the soul from an old heart to a new one?Srila

Prabhupada. Yes, it is something like that. Krsna explains in the Bhagavad-gita

(2.13):

 

dehino 'smin yatha dehe kaumaram

yauvanam jara tatha dehantara-praptir

dhiras tatra na muhyati

 

"As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth

to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The

self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change." Changing hearts is just

a change of material bodily organs. The heart is not the real source of life,

and therefore changing the heart does not prolong the duration of life.Dr.

Singh. Yes, most heart transplant patients live only a very short time after

the operation. But is it ever possible to transplant the soul from one body to

another?Srila Prabhupada. Sometimes certain yogis can do that. They can find a

better body and transfer themselves into it.Dr. Singh. When the doctors perform

a heart transplant, they take a heart from someone who has just died and

exchange it for a weak heart in someone else's body. Does the soul from the

dead heart change places with the soul in the weak living heart?Srila

Prabhupada. No. The soul has already left the dead heart. There is no question

of bringing in another soul.Dr. Singh. Let me see if I understand you

correctly. When the doctors remove the heart of a man who has just died, the

soul has already left his heart. Then, when they transplant his dead heart into

the body of the patient, the patient's soul passes into the transplanted

heart.Srila Prabhupada. Yes. The soul is destined to live in a particular body

for a certain number of years. You may change whatever part of the body you

like, but you cannot change the duration of the life of that body.Dr. Singh. So

the heart is just a machine--an instrument?Srila Prabhupada. Yes. It is the

sitting place of the soul.