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Old man means

Expressions researched:
"Old man means"

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

I was also young man like you, but now I am an old man. Old man means my body is different, old body. Your body is different. So Kṛṣṇa giving this very nice example.
Lecture on BG 16.1-3 -- Hawaii, January 29, 1975:

Dehinaḥ. I am dehī. Dehī. This body is deha, body, but I am not this body. You think over. If you take this finger, you study, am I this finger? No, the conclusion will come: "It is my finger, not I finger." Simply little knowledge required. How? Now, Kṛṣṇa gives this example, that dehinaḥ, asmin dehe yathā dehinaḥ kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. He has explained in different ways, but the beginning is this, that this body is changing. You had a small body, baby's body. Where is that body? If I say, "Where is that body?" what you will answer? But you know that "I had a small body." I know. Everyone will know. But where is that body? That body is not existing. I was also young man like you, but now I am an old man. Old man means my body is different, old body. Your body is different. So Kṛṣṇa giving this very nice example. As the baby is changed into a boy, a boy is changed into a youth, a youth is changed into old man, so this changing is going on, but I or you, we know that "I had such body."

I have several times spoken to you that in my, when I was about six months old, I remember, I remember I was lying down on my eldest sister's lap, and she was knitting. I still remember it very vividly. And so many things I remember. But where is that body, lying down on the lap of mother or sister? You cannot say... Either you say it has grown, grown or not grown... According to medical science, it is not grown; it is changed. The body is changing. Just like in a film spool, you will find so many bodies. One hand is like this, one hand is like this, one hand is like this, and when they are taken together, it moves like this. This is the film. Film means there are different bodies in different position and when they are taken at once, it, likes that it moves. The picture is not moving. Similarly, we are changing of the different body, but it is taking place so quickly and so imperceptibly by Kṛṣṇa's energy. The machine is so nice that we are thinking that it is growing. It is not growing, all different bodies, all different. Every moment, every second. That is the scientific. The blood corpuscles are changing, and the body is different.

So this is the preliminary knowledge of advancing in spiritual knowledge. You do not know what is spirit and what is the spiritual knowledge. This is spirit, that spirit is there. Asmin dehe, in this body, there is the spirit soul, and the spirit soul is permanent. The spirit soul is permanent, and it is expressing in different way according to the change of body. Just like this child is now just like ordinary animal. But this body, when he will change, he will express in a different way. He will express in a different way. Similarly, if you get the cat's body, you will express in a different way. If you get a dog's body, you will express in a different way. If you get the body of a tree, that you cannot express. You will have to stand simply. You have to suffer. You cannot protest. Somebody is taking, cutting, take your fruit, cutting your branch, but you cannot protest.

So this is going on perpetually, not perpetually, at least for many, many millions of years, for many, many millions of years. But we are, because we are fool, especially in this age of Kali, we do not understand it. Therefore it is said, sattva-saṁśuddhiḥ. You require to be cured of your, this disease, ignorance. That is called... Just like when you become infected with some disease, you go to a physician, and he gives you some injection or some medicine so that you may be cured of the extra fever or extra pain due to your disease. Similarly, those who are advanced in knowledge, their sattva, existence, is cured. That we require. Or everyone requires to be cured of this disease of ignorance. The ignorance, disease of ignorance, means "I am this body. I am this body." I am not this body. So therefore it is said, abhayaṁ sattva-saṁśuddhiḥ, sattva-saṁśuddhiḥ. And jñāna, this sattva-saṁśuddhiḥ, this purification of my existence, is possible. It is simply jñāna. Jñāna means knowledge. Because I am in ignorance, therefore I am thinking, "I am this body." So it requires a little jñāna, knowledge. Then we will understand that "I am not this body; I am different from this body." And because I am in ignorance, therefore I am thinking, "I am this body," "I am this white body," "I am this black body," "I am this American body," "I am this Indian body," "I am this cat's body" and "dog's body," so many different consciousness on account of this... Basic principle is this ignorance. Ignorance. So that we have to cure.

Page Title:Old man means
Compiler:Rishab
Created:26 of Jan, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1