- anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād
- bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje
- lokasyājānato vidvāṁś
- cakre sātvata-saṁhitām
- (SB 1.7.6)
Sātvata means eternal, and saṁhitā means Vedic literature. Vedic literature. . . Veda means knowledge. There are two kinds of knowledge: material knowledge and spiritual knowledge. Material knowledge means regarding these necessities of this body. So our educational system, the university, everything, that is simply imparting material knowledge. But material knowledge is superfluous because this body is also superfluous. Every one of us, we know that this body is nonpermanent. It is temporary. We create a certain type of situation, and we get a particular type of body, and we enjoy or suffer. There is no question of enjoyment; it is suffering. Just like we are running on this fan because the body is suffering. Otherwise, there is no necessity of this fan. And we require this light because without light the eyes will suffer.
So actually our material knowledge, we have discovered this electricity just to counteract these sufferings of this material body. Kaṣṭān kāmān (SB 5.5.1). This body is therefore anartha. Anartha means things which are not required. That is called anartha. Artha means things which we require, positive. And anartha means things which we do not require but unnecessarily imposed upon us. So that is suffering. We are thinking that we are enjoying this electric fan, but actually we are suffering; therefore the electric fan is required. So why this electric fan is required? Because the body is anartha; it has created the situation. The same electric fan will be a trouble, a misery, in winter season. The same body, the same electric fan—sometimes it is pleasing, and sometimes it is not pleasing. Therefore the conclusion is this body is anartha, not required. But people do not know that without this material body we can exist. Actually we are existing in spiritual body, and this material body is a covering of the spiritual body. Just like your shirt and coat are covering of your real body, similarly, this material body is covering of the spiritual body. We have got our spiritual body. So when a person comes to the understanding that "This body is anartha, unnecessarily imposed upon me," that is called knowledge. That is called brahma-jñāna. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54).
So in order to educate people to this understanding. . . That is the basic principle of all Vedic knowledge, that "I am not this body. I am spirit soul, and I must find out the ultimate goal of the spiritual body, or the spirit soul." So some of the transcendentalists, they think that if the spirit soul is merged into the Supreme Soul—that is called brahma-liṅ, to become one with Brahman—that is the solution of this anartha. Anartha means this body. And some of them, they think that with our spiritual body, spiritual vision, if we can observe continuously the Supreme Spirit, Paramātmā, then that is the solution of anartha. That is the yogī. Jñānī, yogī. And the karmīs, those who have no knowledge, ajānataḥ, fools, rascals. . . Ajānataḥ means one who does not know. That is the karmīs. Karmīs, they think that "If I can satisfy the senses of this body, that is perfection of life."