If we have a body then some order and some disorder must be there. It is a reactionary world, and so reactions always come and we cannot avoid them.
nṛ-deham ādyaṁ su-labhaṁ su-durlabhaṁ
plavaṁ su-kalpaṁ guru-karṇadhāram
mayānukūlena nabhasvateritaṁ
pumān bhavābdhiṁ na taret sa ātma-hā
(Srimad Bhagavatam: 11.20.17)
[The human body, which can award all benefit in life, is automatically obtained by the laws of nature, although it is a very rare achievement. This human body can be compared to a perfectly constructed boat having the spiritual master as the captain and the instructions of the Personality of Godhead as favourable winds impelling it on its course. Considering all these advantages, a human being who does not utilise his human life to cross the ocean of material existence must be considered the killer of his own soul.]
This body is like a boat floating in the river, and it has given us the opportunity to be 
guided in the consciousness of Krishna by a good captain. In the river there are so many waves and so many obstacles, and many things are possible, but a good captain can take us the proper way, and we must be submitted to that captain.
We are fortunate that we have this form of open consciousness. Trees have consciousness, but it is suppressed. Plants have consciousness, mountains have consciousness, but it is suppressed consciousness. Animals, insects, and so on have a little open consciousness. But our consciousness is more open and with the three qualities of willing, feeling, and thinking. We can proceed, we can feel, we can think, and through that so many discoveries in this world have happened. We can divide those in two ways: one is spiritual discovery, and another is material discovery.
Scientists are making material discovery, but the rishis and munis have made so much spiritual discovery and that has been recorded. Through them we can understand that a spiritual world is existing, and it is different from this material world. Our form is actually spiritual, it is not material.
We are trying to promote ourselves from the material to the spiritual plane. It is depending upon a person’s devotion or dedication. Through dedication we will get the help of an elevator. Some persons go up step by step and some persons go by elevator, standing in one place. Fortunate souls get that help. In this way everything is moving.
We are fortunate that we have got this human body. We do not know where we will go after death, because we cannot avoid our reactions. If we put too much salt in our food, then we will suffer, and if we put too much sugar that will also be the cause of suffering. Then as proper and as appropriate we will try to proceed.
Spoken by Srila Gurudev in Italy, September 2000, during his Sixteenth World Tour.
