We Are Not These Bodies 15

or artist or whatever. Everyone knows something of
everything and everything of something, and this is
generally known as knowledge. But as soon as we
leave the body, all of this knowledge is vanquished.
In a previous life, one may be a great man of knowl-
edge, but in this life he has to start again by going to
school and learning how to read and write from the
beginning. Whatever knowledge was acquired in the
previous life is forgotten. The situation is that we
are actually seeking eternal knowledge, but this can-
not be acquired by this material body. We are all
seeking enjoyment through these bodies, but bodily
enjoyment is not our actual enjoyment. It is artificial
We have to understand that if we want to continue
in this artificial enjoyment, we will not be able to
attain our position of eternal enjoyment.

The body must be considered a diseased condition.
A diseased man cannot enjoy himself properly; a man
with jaundice, for instance, will taste sugar candy as
bitter, but a healthy man can taste its sweetness. In
either case, the sugar candy is the same, but accord-
ing to our condition it tastes different. Unless we are
cured of this diseased conception of bodily life, we
cannot taste the sweetness of spiritual life. Indeed,
it will taste bitter to us. At the same time, by increas-
ing our enjoyment of material life, we are further
complicating our diseased condition. A typhoid
patient cannot eat solid food, and if someone gives
it to him to enjoy, and he eats it, he is further com-
plicating his malady and endangering his life. If we
really want freedom from the miseries of material
existence, we must minimize our bodily demands
and pleasures.
