Father Tanner: I think I'm almost only teaching them to love one another.
Prabhupāda: Yes. No. One another, that is going on in so many ways. You see? That has never become successful. Neither it will become successful. That is a fact. Because here the atmosphere is so surcharged with material ideas that even if I want to love you, you may not like it. That is the position here. So you cannot be successful to teach people to love one another. That will never be successful. That has never been successful. But if you can teach people how to love God...
Mrs. Wells: How about teaching them how to love themselves?
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Mrs. Wells: How about teaching them to love themselves.
Prabhupāda: Everyone is loving themselves. That is...
Mrs. Wells: Do you think so?
Prabhupāda: That does not require teaching. How to eat... You love your body, therefore you eat.
Mrs. Wells: I didn't mean that sort of love.
Prabhupāda: Then what kind of love?
Mrs. Wells: Loving your own being for what God gave you. Loving yourself as you are, accepting yourself. That's very difficult, you know.
Prabhupāda: I do not follow. What is that, they are...
Father Tanner: Loving your own personality.
Prabhupāda: Loving your personality... First of all you know what you are, what is your personality.
Father Tanner: But...
Prabhupāda: If you do not know what you are, then how you can love yourself?
Mrs. Wells: This is the problem.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And what you are. If I ask you what you are, can you answer?
Mrs. Wells: No.
Prabhupāda: Then? What kind of love...?
Father Tanner: But I would say that, that I am so many...
Prabhupāda: But if you do not know what you are...
Father Tanner: No, no. I'm saying I do know.
Prabhupāda: If you know, then tell me what you are.
Father Tanner: So many things it would take a long time to say.
Prabhupāda: Why long time? You can speak in short shell, nutshell, that "I am this."
Father Tanner: No, no. Not... You know, in some ways...
Prabhupāda: We can say. We can say.
Father Tanner: In some ways, I am very intolerant. In some way, I am very tolerant.
Prabhupāda: That, that is another thing. First of all I must know what is my identity.
Father Tanner: But my identity is made up of so many... It's not one thing.
Prabhupāda: But that one... First of all one. Just like we say that "My identity is that I am eternal servant of God." This is my identity.
Father Tanner: Well, this is the inner being, but then it finds expression in me...
Prabhupāda: Now, as servant of God, I may have many activities. But my identity is that I am eternal servant of God. This is our identity. So if I love myself, because I am eternal servant of God, therefore, if I actually I love myself, I must always engage myself in the service of the Lord. This is love.
Father Tanner: But there must, in your self, there must be times when you're angry, times when you're...
Prabhupāda: I can become angry for God.
Father Tanner: Times when you're proud, times when you're humble.
Prabhupāda: For God's sake... Suppose you are serving some master. For the master's satisfaction, you sometimes become angry.
Father Tanner: Hm, but I think what Susan was saying is that our personality...
Prabhupāda: No, no. I'm... First of all, if you keep your identity fixed-up, even if you become angry, it is not bad.
Father Tanner: No. But you can become it... what, you know, we are saying is...
Prabhupāda: Suppose just like I tell you that a dog is your servant. It is standing on the door. Some thief is coming. If the dog becomes angry, "Baw! Gaw! Gow!" so that, to become angry is not bad for the dog...
Father Tanner: No.
Prabhupāda: ...because he's serving the master. So similarly, if you are fixed-up in your business as servant of the Lord, so even if you become angry for Lord's service, that is not bad.
Father Tanner: But you..., the dog might bite his master.
Prabhupāda: No.
Father Tanner: Yes, he can.
Prabhupāda: I don't think a... Anyway, that is dog. I... That's a crude example. But a spirit soul, when he's fixed-up in the service of the Lord, he does not bite his master. (laughter) He does not... He only serves. So we must know, if I actually love myself, first of all I know what I am. If I know, then I can properly love myself. If I do not know what I am if I think that "I am this body," oh, this conception the dog has also. He's also thinking, "I am this body." To keep this body in fitness, to eat nicely, to sleep nicely, this consciousness is there in cats and dogs. So therefore, as spirit soul, as human being, first of all you know that "Whether I am this body or something else?"
Father Tanner: But you know what you are and what you become. I hate what I am. I want to become something different.
Prabhupāda: No, that is your freedom. You can do.
Father Tanner: Now, this is the same as a material man saying "I want to become spiritual or God conscious or what have you." But, you know, because I want to become this, it doesn't mean that I am this. Because I want to become God's servant, it doesn't mean that I am God's servant.
Prabhupāda: No, you don't, you do not want, you want or not want, that is not the question. First of all you must know what is your real identity. You do not want and do want, that independence you have got always. That is a different thing. But first of all you must know what is your identity. Your identity is... That I have already explained. The... You are part and parcel of God. So far we understand, our philosophy is... From the Bhagavad-gītā. Mamaivāṁśaḥ. The whole thing is one unity, unit, and everything is part and parcel of God, His energy. So we, the marginal energy, living entities, we are also part and parcel of God. As part and parcel of God, what is my duty? Just like this finger. There is itching. Immediately it comes, serves. (end)