A child may see in the street oh, how a nice motorcar is passing with so much speed. He is struck with wonder that, "Without any horse, how the motorcar is going on?" I mean, those who have no experience how machine works. Just like in India . . . of course, I heard this story from my professor when I was a student of logic in my I.A. class. And this example was given by my professor, Dr. Purnachandra Sena, I still remember, that when first railway was started from Howrah to Burdwan, about sixty-four miles, during British period, say about two hundred years before, now the cultivators on both sides of the line, they were seeing the railway engine going with wonder: "Oh!"
So somebody . . . this story was cited in connection with chapter of hypothesis. In logic there is a chapter of hypothesis. So somebody suggested that, "There must be horse within the engine. Otherwise it cannot go." Because they have got experience that without horse, nothing can be pulled on. It is horseless, so the hypothesis was that, "There must be horses within the engine. Otherwise it cannot go." So similarly, the machine, the machine, however wonderful it may be, so if not horse, at least if there is no driver it cannot move. It cannot move.
The whole world is moving by combination of matter and spirit. That's all. The whole material world. Just like my body is moving due to the presence of my self as soul, similarly—it is very easy to understand—the whole cosmic manifestation is working due to the presence of the Supreme Soul, whom we call God or the Supersoul or Paramātmā or Bhagavān. Whatever name you may call, that doesn't matter. But you must understand that as without presence of the soul, the body cannot move, similarly, the whole materialistic world, cosmic atmosphere, is moving due to the presence of the Supersoul.
Now, in Bhagavad-gītā you will find that we individual souls are parts and parcels of the Supersoul. So we have got eternal relation with the Supreme Soul. We have got eternal relation with the Supreme Soul qualitatively, qualitatively, not quantitatively. We are one with the Supreme qualitatively. Just like a drop of ocean water qualitatively is equal to the mass water in the ocean. The mass water in the ocean is salty, and the drop of ocean water, if you taste it, you'll find it is also salty. So the chemical composition of the water, either in drop or in vast mass, is the same. But the drop of ocean water is never equal to the vast, I mean to . . . mass water in the ocean. That is our position. We are in quality . . . just God is, similarly, we are also in quality the same, chemically or constitutionally or qualitatively. But God's power and my power is different. Just like the mass water in the ocean, it can play a havoc. But a drop of water, that . . . it is not possible by the drop of the water.
Similarly, that is the difference between ourself and God. We are minute particles, minute particles, just like the sun and the sun rays. The sunshine, the sun rays, they are also combination of molecules of some shining material, material. Shining material . . . so that sunshine is not different from the sun, but at the same time, sunshine is not the sun. This is called simultaneously one and different.
This philosophy was, I mean to say, expounded by Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, acintya-bhedābheda. Acintya-bhedābheda, "simultaneously one and different." Now, in order to keep our position intact, that is to . . . that theoretically we understand or we have understood that "I am not this body, but I am consciousness, pure soul," that is our theoretical . . . not theoretical, but it is practical. Anyone can understand. Any sane man can understand that "I am not this body: I am the soul."
Now, to keep myself fixed up in that conviction, we require to work for it. Otherwise, as I was explaining to you, just like a child, a boy, he is, I mean to say, very much addicted to play. But if you want to give him . . . if you want to stop his mischievous activities and if you want to stop him, then you must give him some good engagement. If you simply stop the child that "Don't play," by threatening or by some other way, you can stop him artificially for some time. But as soon as he gets opportunity he will again play. So you must engage him with some good task so that he may have attraction and he may be engaged in that good task so that he may not spoil or waste his time by playing or by mischievous activity.
Similarly, consciousness is active. So to be in the consciousness plane, if you do not give engagement to the consciousness, then naturally consciousness will act through this body. We have to act in such a way that . . . at the present moment I am within this body. So we have to make utilization of a bad bargain. I don't require this body. Somehow or other, I am now entrapped or encaged in this material body, and all my sufferings are due to this body. Therefore the whole aim of human life is to get away from this material body and to be situated in the spiritual life.