View source for If we think this lump of matter as "myself," then we are no better than the dog

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{{terms|"if we think this lump of matter as"|"myself"|"then we are no better than the dog"}}
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{{compiler|Rishab}}
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[[Category:If We]]
[[Category:Think]]
[[Category:this]]
[[Category:Lump of Matter]]
[[Category:My]]
[[Category:Self]]
[[Category:then]]
[[Category:We Are Not]]
[[Category:No Better Than]]
[[Category:Dog]]
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Lectures" text="Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures"><h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonBG93MelbourneApril211976_0" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="304" link="Lecture on BG 9.3 -- Melbourne, April 21, 1976" link_text="Lecture on BG 9.3 -- Melbourne, April 21, 1976">
<div class="heading">You are the proprietor of this body. But if we think that "I am body," then that is the same thinking as the dog is thinking. Therefore I have given in the statement that if we think this lump of matter as "myself," then we are no better than the dog. The dog is also thinking like that.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG 9.3 -- Melbourne, April 21, 1976|Lecture on BG 9.3 -- Melbourne, April 21, 1976]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">So real aim of life is to stop the cycle of birth and death. That is real aim of life. If we do not know this, then we are ignorant. We are ignorant. First of all we must know that "I am eternal." That is... In the beginning of the Bhagavad-gītā it is very nicely explained that antavanta ime dehā nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ: ([[Vanisource:BG 2.18|BG 2.18]]) "My dear Arjuna, this body is destructible, but the proprietor of the body, he is eternal." That is the first instruction. I am not this body, I am the proprietor of this body. You are not this body. You are the proprietor of this body. But if we think that "I am body," then that is the same thinking as the dog is thinking. Therefore I have given in the statement that if we think this lump of matter as "myself," then we are no better than the dog. The dog is also thinking like that. That human form of life is meant for understanding that "I am not this lump of matter; I am..." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am spirit soul." That is required. The whole Bhagavad-gītā teaching is based on this principle, first of all to understand that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul, Brahman." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi.</p>
:brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
:na śocati na kāṅkṣati
:samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
:mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām
:([[Vanisource:BG 18.54|BG 18.54]])
<p>If from this material conception of life, somehow or other you come to the understanding that you are not this body, lump of matter—you are spirit soul; you are different from this body—that is called brahma-bhūtaḥ state. And as soon as you become on the brahma-bhūtaḥ status, then symptom will be na śocati, prasannātmā—you become happy immediately. Everyone is unhappy in this material world. That's a fact. And because... Why we are unhappy? Because we have accepted, misaccepted, wrongly accepted, this body, "myself." This is the defect of modern civilization. So long you do not understand that you are not this body, you are different from this body, you are Brahman, you are part and parcel of God, then your activities become different. Because at the present moment we are acting on the bodily concept of life. "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am Australian," "I am white," "I am black," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am śūdra," "I am this, that"—only this bodily concept of life. And the Kṛṣṇa consciousness begins when you are free from this bodily conception of life. That is called brahma-bhūtaḥ.</p>
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