Kṛṣṇa orders prakṛti, the material nature, that “He wants to enjoy in this way; you give him a suitable body like that.” You… “He wants to enjoy by becoming a tiger: ‘Immediately I shall jump over an animal.’ ” Because nūnaṁ mahatāṁ tatra, the weak is the food for the strong. So sometimes we think that we shall be strong like tiger or lion. Kṛṣṇa is sitting within you. He says, “All right, you become a tiger.” He sees that “To become a tiger is my success life,” a very strong body. They are exercising, very strong, to become very strong, stout. So Kṛṣṇa will give you, whatever you want—but in this material world. In the spiritual world you cannot become a competitor of Kṛṣṇa. That is not possible. In this material world you can become a false competitor of Kṛṣṇa. Your position is false. Because you are not this body, but you wanted a body like that to enjoy. Just like a pig is given a body. He wanted to enjoy stool. As a human being, possessing a human body, nobody can eat stool. But if one gets a suitable body just like pig, you can very nicely eat stool.
So why there are different types of bodies? Because you wanted a particular type of enjoyment under the influence of material nature. As already explained, there are three material nature quality—sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. Now, we mix them. Three into three, it becomes nine. And nine multiplied by nine, it becomes eighty-one. Therefore there are 8,400,000 species of life, according to the material quality. That is explained here. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān (BG 13.22). Prakṛti-jān guṇān. To possess different types of body means to satisfy different types of desires, under the influence of the modes of material nature. Full freedom. Therefore when one is advanced in consciousness, he doesn’t want to enjoy anything of this material world, any way. He doesn’t desire either to become the king or Lord Brahmā or the stool, or, I mean to say, the worms of the stool.
These are the different varieties. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati (Padma Purāṇa). According to our desire we get body. In the water, nine hundred thousand forms. Similarly, in the botanical garden, they have given signboard, “This is this, this is this.” But there are two millions types of trees and plants. How many they know? Two million. If you search out through the whole botanical garden, hardly you will find two thousand, three thousand species. Or even find ten thousand. Still, what it is? There are two millions. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. This is knowledge.
Source: Bhagavad Gita 13.22-24 Lecture Melboune by Srila Prabhupada
