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We do not know, "What is my father, what is my brother, what I am." But everyone is under the impression, "This body is my father," "This body is my child," "This body is my wife." This is called ignorance

Expressions researched:
"We do not know" |"What is my father, what is my brother, what I am" |"But everyone is under the impression" |"This body is my father" |"This body is my child" |"This body is my wife" |"This is called ignorance"

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

So we become intelligent after death. And while we are living, we are in ignorance. This is the modern civilization. While living . . . just like people have insurance policy to get some money. So that money is received after death, not during life. Sometimes during life also. So my point is that so long we are living, we are in ignorance. We do not know, "What is my father, what is my brother, what I am." But everyone is under the impression, "This body is my father," "This body is my child," "This body is my wife." This is called ignorance.

Dehinaḥ . . . asmin dehe, in this body, as there is soul, dehī . . . dehī means the possessor of this body. I am not this body. If you ask me, "What . . ." Just like sometimes we ask the child, "What is this?" he will say: "It is my head." Similarly, if you ask me also, anyone, "What is this?" anyone will say: "It is my head." Nobody will say: "I head." So if you scrutinizingly analyze in all parts of the body, you'll say: "It is my head," "my hand," "my finger," "my leg," but where is "I"? "My" is spoken when there is "I." But we have no information of the "I." We have simply information of "my." That is called ignorance.

So the whole world is under this impression of taking the body as the self. Another example we can give you. Just like some of your relatives. Suppose my father has died. Now I am crying, "Oh, my father is gone. My father is gone." But if somebody says: "Why do you say your father is gone? He is lying here. Why you are crying?" "No, no, no, that is his body. That is his body. My father is gone." Therefore in our present calculation I am seeing your body, you are seeing my body; nobody is seeing the actual person. After death, he comes to sense: "Oh, it is not my father; it is my father's body." You see?

So we become intelligent after death. And while we are living, we are in ignorance. This is the modern civilization. While living . . . just like people have insurance policy to get some money. So that money is received after death, not during life. Sometimes during life also. So my point is that so long we are living, we are in ignorance. We do not know, "What is my father, what is my brother, what I am." But everyone is under the impression, "This body is my father," "This body is my child," "This body is my wife." This is called ignorance.

If you study the whole world, during living time everyone will say that, "I am Englishman," or "I am Indian," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim." But if you ask him, "Actually are you so?" That . . . because this body is Hindu, Muslim or Christian, because by accident the body is produced in a society of Hindu, Muslim, or the body is born in a particular country, therefore we say: "I am Indian," "I am European," "I am this," "I am that." But when the body is dead, at that time we say, "No, no, the person which was within the body, that is gone. It is a different thing."

Just try to understand how much ignorant we are. We are all in ignorance. This education is wanted because people, by this ignorance, they're fighting with one another. One nation is fighting with another, one religionist is fighting with another religionist. But it is all based on ignorance. I am not this body. Therefore śāstra says, yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). Ātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape, this is a bag of bones and muscles, and it is manufactured by three dhātus. Dhātu means element. According to Āyurvedic system: kapha, pitta, vāyu. Material things. So therefore I am a spirit soul. I am part and parcel of God. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. This is the Vedic education.

Page Title:We do not know, "What is my father, what is my brother, what I am." But everyone is under the impression, "This body is my father," "This body is my child," "This body is my wife." This is called ignorance
Compiler:Nabakumar
Created:2022-10-27, 09:21:33
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1