Excerpts from books, lectures, and videos by Jagad Guru Chris Butler (Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa).

Life attracts life. We may think we are attracted to the body of a beautiful woman, but actually it is the spark of life that attracts us. When Marilyn Monroe “died,” when the life force left the material body, the body was no longer attractive. All that was left was a lump of unattractive matter that was thrown in the dirt. So is it logical to think that material energy is all-attractive? No. Life force or spirit is the attractive element.

Without the presence of this atma, without life, you see a body for what it really is: just a hunk of blood, guts, flesh, bones, teeth, stool, mucus, hair, urine, bile, and so on—a bag of chemicals.

It is the presence of the life particle—the person—that makes the physical body valuable. If this atma is not present in the body, then the body has no real value. As soon as the person, the atma, leaves the body, the body becomes worthless. The closer you are to this understanding, the closer you are to wisdom and sanity.

The material body is valuable only when the infinitely valuable person is present within the body.