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Elevation to Krṣṇa Consciousness
they are, they reply, “I am Hindu, I am Moslem, I am Swedish, I am American, I am Christian, etc.” These are various identifications or designations of the body, but the fact is that we are not these bodies. The body is simply the field of our activities. We are no more the body than the cultivator of a field is the field.
There are different kinds of bodies and different activities in accordance to the different types of bodies. A dog enjoys one kind of activity, a cat enjoys another, and a human enjoys another. There are differences of activity due to differences of body. When we come to the platform of truth, however, and understand that we are not these bodies, then our activities change from material activities to spiritual activities. As long as we are operating under the bodily conception of life, our activities are material, but as soon as we understand, “I do not belong to this body,  aham brahmāsmi , I am spirit soul,” our activities will be in accordance to that realization, that is to say that they will cease to be motivated from the material or bodily platform. Knowledge of our proper identity as separate from the body is real knowledge, but this knowledge is denied as long as we cling to bodily identification.
In the scriptures it is said that as long as we are in this bodily conception of life, all our activities will be defeated. A child is born into ignorance, and if as he grows older he remains under the bodily conception of life, he lives in darkness. His position is that of a  śūdra . In the Vedic literatures we find that in this age everyone is born a  śūdra ; therefore every-