According to the Bhagavad Gita (2.22), the soul gives up an old body to acquire a new sort of body (vasmsi jirnni yath vihya), just as one gives up an old shirt to put on a new one. Thus, there are 8.4 million (84 lakh) different sorts of bodies, from which the soul takes on a body after death. However, all of the 8.4 million species' bodies, even the demigods', are vulnerable to birth and death. All such bodies have a finite lifespan, after which they must be surrendered in order to adopt a new body. Death is the process of giving up one type of body and accepting a new one. It is important to highlight that the body dies, not the spirit soul who occupies the body.

All of the bodies inside the 8.4 million species' range will deteriorate and eventually die. As a result, a truly intelligent person recognises the futility of all activities undertaken throughout one's existence, the outcomes of which will be completed at the moment of death. As a result, he strives to grasp the true purpose of human existence, and when he does so, God, Who is seated inside his heart, guides him on the transcendental road, where he realises that one must break free from this cycle of 8.4 million species of life.

Liberation (mukti) signifies putting an end to the journey of 8.4 million species. When this cycle is broken, one is freed from the cycle of birth and death and sent to the spiritual sky, where he receives an immortal body. Because it is constituted of sat (eternity), cit (knowledge), and ananda (bliss), the body he receives in the spiritual realm is devoid of birth and death. There is no way we can return to the terrible cycle of 8.4 million species of life once we enter the spiritual world [yad gatva na nivartante: Bg. 15.6].