Prabhupada 1031 - All Living Beings, They Are Dressed by the Material Covering
740628 - Lecture at St. Pascal's Franciscan Seminary - Melbourne
So God, or the Supreme Truth, Absolute Truth, is that from whom everything has come. So that is the beginning of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1), "Absolute Truth is that from whom everything has come into existence." Now, what is the nature of the Absolute Truth? "Everything" means... There are two things: matter and spirit. Two things. Just like this table is matter and we living entities, we are spirit, the spirit soul. This material body is my covering, just like dress. Every one of us is dressed, covered by some kind of dress. Similarly, all living beings, they are dressed by the material covering. The gross dress or coat and the subtle dress. The gross dress is made of five material elements: earth, water, air, fire, ether, and the subtle dress is mind, intelligence and ego.
So we, the spirit soul, part and parcel of God. At the present moment we are covered by two kinds of dresses—the subtle dress: mind, intelligence and ego; and the gross covering. Subtle means we know there is this thing, but we cannot see it. Just like you know I have got mind; I know you have got mind, but I don't see your mind, you don't see my mind. I know you have got intelligence, you know I have got intelligence, but we don't see what is that intelligence. Similarly, identification. I am this consciousness, that also you have got consciousness, I have got consciousness, but we don't see. So things which are not visible to these material eyes, that is called subtle. And spirit soul is still subtler. So human life is meant for understanding that spirit soul and the Supreme Soul.