First of all one should know that I am neither American nor Englishman nor Indian. I am spirit soul. Then further education can be possible. So we teach from the Bhagavad-gita this principle first, the basic principle of spiritual education

Expressions researched:
"first of all one should know that I am neither American nor Englishman nor Indian. I am spirit soul. Then further education can be possible. So we teach from the Bhagavad-gītā this principle first, the basic principle of spiritual education"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

First of all one should know that I am neither American nor Englishman nor Indian. I am spirit soul. Then further education can be possible. So we teach from the Bhagavad-gītā this principle first, the basic principle of spiritual education, to understand that one is not this body, he is different from the... Actually, everyone can experience if he is a little intelligent.

720809 - Conversation - London

Prabhupāda: . . . instructed, people must know. Then morality, spiritual education, will develop. But if the basic principle is wrong, then everything you have built upon it is wrong. But at the present moment the basic principle of knowledge is this ignorance, that everyone is thinking, "I am this body." "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am Englishman."

Guest: Hmm. Hmm. Sectionalism.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So this . . . first of all one should know that I am neither American nor Englishman nor Indian. I am spirit soul. Then further education can be possible. So we teach from the Bhagavad-gītā this principle first, the basic principle of spiritual education, to understand that one is not this body, he is different from the . . . actually, everyone can experience if he is a little intelligent. Just like dead man: a dead man is lying, and his relatives crying, "Oh, my father is gone, father is gone, father is gone . . ."

So from argumentative point of view I can say: "Why you are crying? Your father is lying here." "No, no, my father is gone." Then you have not seen your father. You have seen this body. So this body is not your father. You have to admit. Therefore, the person whom you saw, the body, that was all based on ignorance. That is going on.

Guest: Even Mary Baker Eddy (the founder of Christian Science) got on to this one when she said: "Man is not material; he is spiritual." Even she found that out.