Human beings, those who are here, their image is constant. Once they are gone, is their living image also gone from here? Why?
Based on Vedic concepts, my understanding is that there are three basic elements to a human being, a jivatma or spirit soul, a subtle body, and a gross body.
We only see the gross body, and when it’s gone it’s gone, and the ingredients are reintegrated into material nature.
The jivatma and subtle body are transferred to a new gross body which develops around them. That we can see after birth and for its duration. The jivatma is the same but the subtle body is modified to fit the new gross body so that the person identifies with the new body as the self.
Although the subtle body is constant, because it is always changing due to various influences and desires, it would be unrecognizable after some time even if we could see it.
When we say someone has changed, although sometimes it refers to the physical body, more often it refers to the subtle aspects of mind, consciousness, attitudes etc. So a person can change to become nicer or nastier while their body, (allowing for age), stays basically the same. So the change is on the subtle level not the gross level.
The jivatma never changes, but it also never manifest as itself until it is liberated from the gross and subtle bodies. So we never see the real person, we only see the gross body that is based on the subtle body, neither of which are the jivatma, the actual person.
These points are covered in Bhagavad Gita.
The material body of the indestructible, immeasurable and eternal living entity is sure to come to an end; therefore, fight, O descendant of Bharata. Bg 2.18
For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain. Bg 2.20
As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones. Bg 2.22
The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another, as the air carries aromas. Thus he takes one kind of body and again quits it to take another. The living entity, thus taking another gross body, obtains a certain type of ear, eye, tongue, nose and sense of touch, which are grouped about the mind. He thus enjoys a particular set of sense objects. Bg 15.8–9
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