Is body necessary for the progresss of the soul?

From Tejashri Pardeshi Mataji

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question from Tejashree Pardeshi Mataji. Is body necessary for the progress of the soul? Answer, yes. As long as the soul is in material existence, the body is the tool through which the soul serves Krishna, remembers Krishna, or practices any form of yoga and becomes gradually purified.
And among all the various bodies, it is the human body that offers us the opportunity for spiritual advancement, for self-realization. So, in the non-human bodies, the progress is basically automatic. The soul just evolves from a lower species to a higher species as per the karma that it has accrued in the past, in its previous human existence.
Now, in the human body, the soul’s consciousness is developed enough to perceive and to realize spiritual reality. In the 8th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, in the Bali Maharaj pastime, it is explained how the dharma, artha, kama and moksha are the fruits which can be attained by a person in material existence, but these fruits grow on the tree of the body. Similarly, in the 10th canto, in the conversation between Vasudev and Kamsa, it is described that a person should protect his or her body as long as there is a capacity to do so because through the body one can practice devotional service.
So, in some extraordinary situations when a person is extremely sick, it may be possible to just remember Krishna, either by Krishna’s mercy or by the special association of devotees or by one’s own spiritual advancement that further attracts Krishna’s mercy. But in general, most of us need activity according to our psychophysical nature which also requires a physical body to perform and that enables us to make spiritual advancement. So, those souls who do not have material bodies, that means those who are ghosts of various kinds, they cannot make spiritual advancement themselves.
Although, they can become purified of some of the sinful reactions which they have got and if they hear spiritual sound vibrations, they can in fact move onwards towards spiritual advancement. So, that is called disembodied existence and there are stories in the Puranas about how some people who had become ghosts became purified of the ghostly existence by the practice of… when somebody else practiced devotional service for them, somebody else did a Bhagavata Katha for them or they themselves were present at a place where Bhagavata Katha was happened or the holy name was heard. So, we could call them in some in a limited sense spiritual advancement in the sense that the soul has removed one obstacle on the progress towards Krishna.
The obstacle being not having a body by which to render service to Krishna. So, in some exceptional cases one can with one subtle body alone get some devotional or dharmic vibrations and move a little bit towards God towards Krishna. But in general for most of us we can purify our subtle body and make spiritual advancement by engaging the gross body in Krishna service and that’s why the body is considered very important even indispensable.
Although actually nothing is indispensable. Bhakti is completely independent. It is the relationship of the soul with Krishna.
So, at the absolute platform as it happens in the spiritual world and as it happens for pure devotees even if they don’t have a body in the sense that their body is not functional or they are having a spiritual body, they can still serve Krishna. But for most of us, for all practical purposes we do need a body by which to make spiritual advancement and move towards Krishna.