We have several times discussed in this meeting that a ordinary being, just like we are, we are subjected to four principles of imperfectness. But an incarnation of God or a real representative of God, they are above these, I mean, four principles of imperfectness. That is the way of . . . why we are giving so much stress on the Bhagavad-gītā? There are many books available in the market, full of good instruction, knowledge, but why we are giving so much stress on the Bhagavad-gītā? Because it is spoken by a personality who is above all imperfection.
What are these imperfection? The imperfections are that a conditioned soul just like we are, we are sure to commit mistake. There is nobody in the world, in this conditional state, who can boldly say that, "I have never committed any mistake in my life." Is there anybody? No. We have committed so many mistakes. Even a perfect . . . I shall speak of our country. Our country, Mahatma Gandhi, he was supposed to be a very great, I mean to say, perfect leader of the country. He, He also committed mistakes, so many. And what to speak of us. What to speak of us. So a conditioned soul is sure to commit mistake. That is one imperfection.
And the next imperfection is to accept something in place of something. Just like we are accepting this body as myself, which I am not. Under this illusion . . . everyone is under this illusion, nobody excepted. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13).
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.