Prabhupāda: This is very important verse. In the previous verse it has been described, dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). Actually, we living entities, we are within the body. The bodily pains and pleasure are not the pains and pleasure of the soul within. It is simply abhiniveśa. It is called abhiniveśa, absorption or misidentify. The example I have given many times, just like you are sitting in a nice motorcar; another man is sitting on a rickshaw. I have seen in India.
So the rickshaw has come in front of the nice motorcar, and the driver is asking that man who is drawing the rickshaw, "You rickshaw!" Means he is thinking he is sitting in a nice motorcar, so he has become a motor, and the man who is drawing the rickshaw, he has become rickshaw. This is the position. Actually, the man who is drawing that rickshaw, he is also human being.
And the man who is sitting in a nice Rolls-Royce car, he is also human being. But the rascal, because he is sitting on a Rolls-Royce car, he is thinking, "I am a Rolls-Royce and he is rickshaw." This is material conception of life, that according to the body, we are becoming designated, not as the soul. Just try to understand this very good example. Because that poor fellow is drawing rickshaw, he has been taken as rickshaw. And because I am sitting in a Rolls-Royce car, I am thinking, "I am Rolls-Royce."
So this bodily conception of life, when we get out of it, that is real knowledge, paṇḍita. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ.
- vidyā-vinaya-sampanne
- brāhmaṇe gavi hastini
- śuni caiva śva-pāke ca
- paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ
- (BG 5.18)
Paṇḍita means those who are learned. Learned means brāhmaṇa, not śūdra. Śūdras, they are not learned. Mlecchas, yavanas, śūdras, kirāta-hūṇāndhra-pulinda-pulkaśā ābhīra (SB 2.4.18), so many. Learned means brāhmaṇa. Learned means that one who knows that Brahman, Brahman, the spirit soul, is part and parcel of the Supreme Brahman. So one who has come to that knowledge, that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul, ahaṁ brahmāsmi," that is knowledge. Knowledge begins from there. If one does not reach to that point, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, then he is animal.
The animal thinking like that, "I am rickshaw," "I am motorcar," "I am cat," "I am dog," "I am this," "I am that." That is animal thinking. But a person . . . learned thinking is that, "I am not this body; I am part and parcel of the Supreme Brahman, ahaṁ brahmāsmi." And when you are farther advanced from Brahman knowledge . . . the knowledge begins from there. When you make further advancement, then you can understand that "I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa." This is perfect knowledge.
First of all knowledge begins that "I am not this body."
- sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ
- tat-paratvena nirmalam
- hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-
- sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate
- (CC Madhya 19.170)
So long we have got this bodily concept of life—"I am-Rolls Royce car," "I am rickshaw," "I am American," "I am Englishman," "I am this," "I am that"—so long we are in ignorance. The same example: The man is not rickshaw, I am not motorcar, but I am thinking like that. I am asking that poor fellow, rickshaw-wala, scornfully, because I am sitting in a very nice car. This is going on. But when you become learned, then paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). Sama-darśinaḥ means one who is learned, he knows that "Although he is pulling rickshaw, poor man, he is also a human being, and I am, although sitting in a very nice, costly Rolls-Royce, I am also human being. As human being, we are the same."
So dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). All of us, the living entity, soul, is within this body, not this body I am. So one who has realized this thing that, "I am not this body, I am spirit soul, and living by nature's arrangement, I have been allowed to live in such-and-such body," then he is learned. That is the beginning. So Kṛṣṇa, from the previous verse . . . that is actual spiritual education. In the world, these rascals are going on, spiritualists. They do not know the very first thing of spiritual knowledge, that "I am not this body." They are doing so many sinful acts on account of this body; still, they are going as religious or spiritualist. Nobody is spiritualist unless one understands his spiritual identification, neither one is religious.
Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā the last word is sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), because you rascal fools, you have created so many religious system simply on the differences of body. That is not religion. Real religion is that "I am the Supreme Soul, Parambrahma, Kṛṣṇa. And you are My part and parcel. So we have intimate relation, like father and son. So it is the son's duty to obey the father. That is perfection of life." That's all. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. You have created so many religious system on the bodily concept of life—bodily concept of life so strong that even big, big learned so-called religionists, they say that the animal has no soul. The bodily concept of . . .
Because a human body is very much advanced, has got the power to kill animals, therefore they are speaking this nonsense that the animal has no soul. Why the animal has no soul? What is the symptom of possessing soul? I am spirit soul; I am within this body. Everyone can understand. Understand or no understand, if I am a human being, if I have got my soul, why this poor animal has no soul? Why, where is the difference, that you say that the animal has no soul? Where is the difference? Let us analyze. Soul . . . the, I mean to say, existence of the soul within the body, how we can understand? That is very easy. Because yena sarvam idam . . . everything is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Yena sarvam idaṁ tatam (BG 2.17): The soul is existing, spreading its influence all over the body, just like the sun is existing, spreading the sunshine all over the universe. Similarly, God is existing, spreading His consciousness all over the universe, all over the creation.
Therefore He knows everything. Similarly, I am also part and parcel of God. I am also soul, like the sun. My shining, my consciousness, is spread all over the body. Yena sarvam idaṁ tatam. Avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idam. These things, ślokas, will come. "That thing which is spreading all over the body, that is avināśi; that is eternal." Antavanta ime dehāḥ: "But this body is antavat; it is perishable. But within the body, the soul, which is spreading its consciousness all over the body, that is eternal." We shall come to that verse later on. Avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṁ tatam.
Therefore the proof of the soul existing is that the consciousness is spread all over my body. As soon as I pinch any part of my body, I feel pain. Therefore I understand a soul is there. Just like a man who is going to die. So doctor is examining. He sees the pulse. He sees the heart—"Yes, it is beating." That is the sign that still the man is living. Similarly, the soul is there. The proof is that I can feel pains and pleasure on my body. That is explained in this verse, mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya (BG 2.14). Actually the body in touch with the consciousness feeling pains and pleasure. Otherwise body, what is this body? It is a lump of matter. It is a lump of matter—earth, water, fire, air, material combination of matter. Just like you make one doll, combination of matter, earth, water, fire . . . or no fire. Yes, still there is fire, because you dry it in the sunshine; therefore there is fire. Earth, water, fire, and there is air, there is sky—but there is no soul. That is the difference. You can prepare a doll with earth, water, air, fire, all these things, material elements. But you cannot give the soul. That is not possible. That is possible only by Kṛṣṇa. Ahaṁ garbhaṁ dadāmy aham.
Just like man and woman. Actually the woman is giving the ingredients of developing body of the child. But when it is possible? When the man gives the seed. Otherwise a woman could produce a child without the aid of a man. No, that is not possible. When the seed . . . with the seed the soul comes, and when the soul is situated in the womb of the woman, the woman can assist by supplying the ingredients to develop the body. Janmanā . . . karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). So by nature's process, when one gives up this material body, the subtle body is there: mind, intelligence and ego. The subtle body carries the soul, and it is just . . . now, this soul, where it will go? Then the whole calculation is taken: what is his asset and liabilities of the life, daiva-netreṇa, by superior judgment.