When you ask me, "Swāmījī, what you are?" Oh, I'll say, "I am Indian." What sort of Indian I am? Because my this body is Indian, made in India or got in India. But I am not this body. I am not this body. So this, this is illusion. So second imperfection. First imperfection, that we must commit mistake. The second imperfection is accepting something which is not real. This is called illusion. The example of illusion is given generally: Just like in darkness, if you find some curling rope, you are afraid, "Oh, here is a snake! " Actually, that is not a snake. That means accepting the curling rope as a snake. This is the example of illusion.
The third imperfection is that cheating. Everyone thinks himself very clever and he can cheat others. Everyone thinks, "Oh, I am so clever. Oh, I shall do it. Oh, I shall cheat him." In every our dealing, it is going on. The customer and the shopkeeper: the shopkeeper thinks that "I am giving him nonsense things and making profit," and the customer thinking, "Oh, I am getting it very cheap." So this is going on, even in ordinary dealing. So this is called cheating process. Now, even in animal you'll find that they are searching after some food, and it is thinking, "Oh, I'm cheating my master and taking this food." That means in the conditional life this cheating propensity is there.
And the fourth imperfection is that our senses are blunt. We acquire knowledge by our senses. Just like we acquire knowledge by seeing. Everyone we say: "Can you show me God?" But the answer is, "Can you see God?" How you can see God? You have no eyes to see God. Even I show you God, you cannot see. Our senses are so imperfect. Just like take for example the eyes. The eyes, it is seeing under certain condition. As soon as you put off this light, you cannot see. So what is the use of having this eyes?
So therefore, we have got our imperfect senses. We have got cheating propensity, we are prone to commit mistake, and we accept illusory things. These four principles of imperfect is in the conditioned soul. But who is liberated soul or who is God, they are not under this conditions. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is considered to be the highest perfectional personality, and Arjuna selected Him as the spiritual master. Śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam (BG 2.7): "My dear Kṛṣṇa, we are talking on the platform of friendship. That will not make a solution." Because friendly talk, sometimes they are not taken seriously, friendly talks.
But when there is talk between the spiritual master and disciple, there is some discipline and there is some gravity. So Arjuna created that gravity and discipline: he accepted Kṛṣṇa as the spiritual master. And as soon as Arjuna accepted Kṛṣṇa as the spiritual master, so as master, He at once chastised him in these words:
- aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ
- prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase
- gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca
- nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ
- (BG 2.11)
"My dear Arjuna, you are posing yourself as a very great, learned man, but I see that you are fool number one. You are fool number one." Why? "Now, because you are lamenting for things which are not to be lamented." This was the first answer of Kṛṣṇa. So a person like Arjuna, he was not an ordinary person; he in the eyes of the perfect personality, he happened to be a fool.
So this material knowledge, if anyone is very proud of his material knowledge . . . just like Sanātana Gosvāmī, a great devotee of Lord Caitanya, when he approached Lord Caitanya, he just inquired from Him: "My dear Sir, people address me that I am a very great, learned man, but I am such a learned man that I do not know where from I have come and where I have to go. I am such a learned man. That means I am fool number one.
"I have come to this world and I am staying here, say, for fifty years or eighty years or, at most, hundred years. Then after finishing this period of my life, where I am going? These two things I do not know. I do not know where from I have come and where I have to go. Then what sort of learned I am man? . . . learned man I am? Although I am posing myself a very learned man, I do not know my past. I do not know my future. I am concerned with this present situation. That's all."