Gross body-The body that grows on food is known in Sanskrit as the sthūla-sarira, the gross body. It is a combination of the gross material elements moved about by the soul under the spell of the three modes of material nature. This body is ever-changing, transformed by birth, growth, maturity, reproduction, old age, and death. The living entity who rides within the heart of the body attempts to find satisfaction through sense happiness. But sense happiness is inseparable from sense distress. By Vedic knowledge, the body can be engaged in acts of sacrifice that liberate the soul from the duality of happiness and distress. The body of a pure devotee, who keeps himself always in Krsna consciousness, loses its ordinary material qualities, just as a piece of iron loses its usual qualities when it is kept within fire. As the iron becomes fiery, similarly the body of a pure devotee is spiritualized. See Ecstasy, Elements, Modes of nature, Soul, Subtle body.