Just as fire may appear differently as dormant, manifest, weak, brilliant, etc., according to the condition of the fuel, similarly the spirit soul enters a material body and accepts particular bodily characteristics. Although fire may appear and disappear within a particular object, the element fire always exists. Similarly, the eternal soul appears within a suitable body and then disappears from that body, but the soul always exists. Just as fire is different from its fuel, the soul is different from the body. A match makes a tiny fire, whereas the explosion of a huge gasoline tank will send flames soaring into the sky. But still, fire is one. Similarly, one spirit soul may appear in the body of Brahma and another in the body of an ant, but the spirit soul is qualitatively the same in every body. 

Due to ignorance we impose the bodily characteristics upon the soul, and thus we label a particular person as American, Russian, Chinese, old, or young. Although such designations apply to the body, they do not apply to the spirit soul, which is described as a transcendental entity. 

As long as the bewildered spirit soul remains inimical to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the designations pertaining to the gross and subtle bodies will affect him, keeping him in darkness. When one intellectually identifies oneself with various materialistic philosophies of life, he becomes covered by the subtle mind. 

Ultimately, everything that exists is part and parcel of the Absolute Truth, Lord Krishna. When the living entity realizes this, he becomes free from material designations. This is his constitutional position. By awakening to Krishna consciousness, one becomes absorbed in the progressive realization of the soul situated within the body. Both the individual soul and the Personality of Godhead are completely separated from the gross and subtle material bodies. 

If one recognizes one's eternal dependence on the Lord, he will become free from suffering or anxiety, even though one is still situated within the material world. The unlimited experiences of material objects only increase one's anxiety, whereas perception of the Absolute Truth, Sri Krishna, immediately elevates one to the platform of peace. 

Thus one who is intelligent retires from the world of matter and becomes a fully self-realized Krishna conscious person. As Lord Krishna states in Bhagavad-gita, "Those who are not faithful in this devotional service cannot attain Me, O conqueror of enemies. They return to the path of birth and death in this material world." If one is not a devotee of Lord Krishna, the eventual result of his activities is simply repeated birth and death.