Reaching Life’s Perfection 277

animal society. Animals have no power to understand what is God and
their relationship with God. Their only interests are eating, sleeping,
mating, and defending. If we are only concerned with these things, then
what are we? We are animals. Therefore the Bhagavad-gita says that
those who ignore this opportunity are the ‘‘lowest of mankind.”’ They got
this human form of life after evolving through 8,400,000 births and yet
did not utilize it for God realization but simply for the animal propen-
sities. Therefore they are narddhama, the lowest of mankind. And there
are other persons who are very proud of their knowledge. But what is that
knowledge? ‘‘There is no God. I am God.”’ Their actual knowledge has
been taken away by maya. If they are God, then how have they become
dog? There are so many arguments against them, but they simply defy
God. Atheism. Because they have taken to the process of atheism, their
actual knowledge is stolen away. Actual knowledge means to know what
is God and our relationship with God. If one does not know this, then it
is to be understood that his knowledge has been taken away by maya.
So in this way, if we try to understand our relationship with God, there
are ways and means. There are books, and there is knowledge, so why
not take advantage of them? Everyone should take advantage of this
knowledge. Try to understand that in the Bhagavad-gita and other Vedic
literatures, everywhere, it is said that God is great and that although we
are qualitatively one with God, we are minute. The ocean and the minute
particle of water have the same quality, but the quantity of salt in the
drop of water and the quantity of salt in the ocean are different. They are
qualitatively one but quantitatively different. Similarly, God is all-
powerful, and we have some power. God creates everything, and we can
create a small machine to fly, just like the small machines with which
children play. But God can create millions of planets flying in the air.
That is the qualification of God. You cannot create any planets. Even if
you can create a planet, what is the benefit of that? There are millions of
planets created by God. But you also have the creative power. God has
power, and you have power. But His is so great that yours cannot com-
pare to it. If you say, ‘‘Iam God,”’ that is foolishness. You can claim that
you are God, but what acts have you performed so extraordinary that you
can claim that you are God? This is ignorance. The knowledge of one
who thinks himself God has been taken away by the spell of maya. So our
relationship is that God is great and we are minute. In the Bhagavad-gita
Krsna clearly says, ‘‘All living entities are My parts and parcels.
Qualitatively they are one with Me, but quantitatively they are dif-
ferent.’’ So we are simultaneously one with and different from God. That

