Elevation to Krsna Consciousness - Original 1973 ... - Prabhupada

34 Elevation to Kqa Consciousnessthey are, they reply, "I am Hindu, I am Moslem, Iam Swedish, I am American, I am Christian, etc."These are various identifications or designations ofthe body, but the fact is that we are not these bodies.The body is simply the field of our activities. We areno more the body than the cultivator of a field isthe field.There are different kinds of bodies and differentactivities in accordance to the different types ofbodies. A dog enjoys one kind of activity, a catenjoys another, and a human enjoys another. Thereare 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, thenour activities change from material activities to spiritualactivities. As long as we are operating under thebodily conception of life, our activities are material,but as soon as we understand, "I do not belong tothis body, aham brahmiismi, I am spirit soul," ouractivities will be in accordance to that realization,that is to say that they will cease to be motivatedfrom the material or bodily platform. Knowledge ofour proper identity as separate from the body is realknowledge, but this knowledge is denied as long aswe cling to bodily identification.In the scriptures it is said that as long as we are inthis bodily conception of life, all our activities willbe defeated. A child is born into ignorance, and if ashe grows older he remains under the bodily conceptionof life, he lives in darkness. His position isthat of a sudra. In the Vedic literatures we find thatin this age everyone is born a sudra; therefore every-