False identification (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"false and not identify" |"false bodily identification" |"false conception of identifying" |"false ego identification" |"false ego of identifying" |"false egoistic identification" |"false identification" |"false impression of bodily identification" |"false intellectual identification" |"false material identification" |"false understanding, identifying" |"falsely identified" |"falsely identify" |"falsely identifying" |"identification is certainly false" |"identifications are false" |"identifying himself with these false things"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Why this fighting? If you know that "I am not this body. I am spirit soul. Why I am falsely identifying myself with the land?"

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Germany, June 18, 1974:

Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means that you are misled and simply bodily conscious of life. Therefore fight. Germany's fighting Englishman. Englishman is fighting in France. France is fighting. Why this fighting? If you know that "I am not this body. I am spirit soul. Why I am falsely identifying myself with the land?" "I am, I am, I am a German because I am born in this land of Germany." That is also false. No land is Germany or France or England. Land is land. You have falsely named it: "This is Germany." What is the Germany? Say, two hundred years or three hundred years, there was no Germany. Just like America. There was no America. The land was there, but the name was not there. So you have, some Europeans, they have colonized. They accept: "It is America. It is..." So this is all designation.

Suppose I have got some dress, black dress. Somebody calls, "You black dress," is that cause of anger? Somebody calls you black dress. So this is simply my false identification with the dress that I become angry.

Lecture on BG 5.26-29 -- Los Angeles, February 12, 1969:

So first thing is that suppose somebody speaks of me very harshly. Naturally we become angry. Just like somebody calls me, "You are dog," or "you are hog." But if I am self-realized, if I know perfectly well that I am not this body so you call me hog, dog, or king, emperor, majesty, what is that? I am not this body. So either you call me, "Your majesty," or you call me a dog or a pig, what I have got to do? I am neither his majesty nor a dog nor a cat—nothing of the sort. I am servant of Kṛṣṇa.

So this requires little training. Actually this is the fact. Suppose I have got some dress, black dress. Somebody calls, "You black dress," is that cause of anger? Somebody calls you black dress. So this is simply my false identification with the dress that I become angry. Actually if I am self-realized, self-disciplined... Self-discipline means not to identify with this body. That is self-discipline. It requires training of course. Caitanya Mahāprabhu teaches therefore, tṛṇād api sunīcena.

This sky and false ego is due to the intelligence. Everything begins from the subtle. The most subtle element is the spirit soul, and little grosser than the spirit soul is the intelligence. And little grosser than the intelligence is the false ego identification.

Lecture on BG 13.6-7 -- Montreal, October 25, 1968:

People are after knowledge. So many there are, departments of knowledge. But according to Bhagavad-gītā, real knowledge is to understand the soul, the Supersoul, and the material world. So He's analyzing these material elements: mahā-bhūtāny ahaṅkāraḥ. Mahā-bhūtāni. There are five gross elements, which are called mahā-bhūtāni, great material elements. And what are those? Khadiny ahaṅkāras tad-hetus tamaso bhūtādi-saṁjño buddhis tad-hetur...pradhāno mahān avyaktaṁ tad-hetus tri-guṇavasthaṁ pradhāna indriyāṇi śrotrādīni,(?) one after another. This sky and false ego is due to the intelligence. Everything begins from the subtle. The most subtle element is the spirit soul, and little grosser than the spirit soul is the intelligence. And little grosser than the intelligence is the false ego identification. And little grosser than the false..., intelligence, is the mind. And from mind, then the senses. And the senses, next the grosser element is the body. So we have to analyze according to the śāstra, because it is not possible. Suppose the modern scientist is given to find out where is the soul in this body. It is not possible.

Human life is meant for tapasya, vairāgya. Here it is said, vairāgyam, anahaṅkāra, and false prestige, false identification. "Oh, am this. I must do this."

Lecture on BG 13.8-12 -- Bombay, October 5, 1973:

Human life is not meant for becoming more and more attached to the material enjoyment. Human life is meant for tapasya, vairāgya. Here it is said, vairāgyam, anahaṅkāra, and false prestige, false identification. "Oh, am this. I must do this." That is... In the beginning it is taught, amānitvam, anahaṅkāram. And then janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam. We are very much busy to make solution of the problems of life. Political problems, economical problems, social problems. They are also problems. But real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi, that you have to take birth, you have to die, and when you are in life, you have to suffer from diseases, jarā-vyadhi, and you have to become old. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha. These are really problems. But who knows that these are the real problems? They have taken it, accepted it.