We accept the body as our self, thinking, I am this body. However, we are not the body but rather the owner of the body, just as we are not our apartment but rather the owner or resident of the apartment. The soul is called dehi, one who possesses a body. When we study our body, we say, This is my hand, this is my leg. We do not say, I am this hand, I am this leg. Yet the illusion that we are the body persists. The body is nothing but a vehicle for the soul. Sometimes a new motorcar is wrecked in an accident, and the driver is overwhelmed with the sense of loss, forgetting that he is not the motorcar. That is the effect of ahankara, false ego, or false conception of proprietorship.

Because we are covered by ignorance, we have forgotten what our previous body was. Even in this life we do not remember that we were once babies on the laps of our mothers. So many things have happened in our lifetime, but we do not remember them all. If we cannot even remember things that have happened in this life, how can we remember our last life?

A person engages in sinful activities because he does not know what he did in his past life to get his present materially conditioned body, which is subjected to the threefold miseriesthose produced by his own body and mind, those caused by other living entities, and those arising from natural disasters. As stated by Lord Rsabhadeva in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (5.5.4), nunam pramattah kurute vikarma yad indriya-pritaya aprnoti: a human being who is mad after sense gratification does not hesitate to act sinfully. Na sadhu manye: this is not good. Yata atmano yam asann api klesada asa dehah: because of such sinful actions, one receives another body in which to suffer as he is suffering in his present body because of his past sinful activities.

A person who does not have Vedic knowledge always acts in ignorance of what he has done in the past, what he is doing at the present, and how he will suffer in the future. He is completely in darkness. Therefore the Vedic injunction is tamasi ma: Dont remain in darkness. Jyotir gama: Try to go to the light. This light is Vedic knowledge, which one can understand when one is elevated to the mode of goodness or when one transcends the mode of goodness by engaging in devotional service to the spiritual master and the Supreme Lord.