34 Elevation to Krsna 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 spiri-
tual 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 brahmasmi, 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 con-
ception of life, he lives in darkness. His position is
that of a sudra. In the Vedic literatures we find that
in this age everyone is born a sudra; therefore every-
