Departure Lecture – March 12 1975 london
Let us mix with the big water. Then I become big…" Because here in the material world he tried to become big in so many ways but he could not become big, therefore he wants to merge into the biggest, Brahman, so that he thinks that he will become… He is already Brahman. So the Brahman effulgence is combination of so many sparks of living entities.
So if we simply accept eternity like the Māyāvādīs, then what about the other two items? Or if we simply live in knowledge… Suppose theoretically I know so many things to prepare-rasagullā, sandeśa, halavā, kachorī—but if I do not practically taste what is halavā, what is kachorī, then what is the use of simply having knowledge? So the Māyāvādī philosophy like that, jñāna, simply knowledge.
That knowledge is there in the Bhagavad-gītā in the beginning, the first lesson: dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanam [Bg. 2.13]. “Within the body there is the soul. That soul is eternal.” Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre [Bg. 2.20]. Na jāyate na mriya… This is the first lesson, that "I am Brahman. I am spirit soul. I am eternal. I do not die even after the annihilation…" This is the first lesson. It doesn't require much time, that we have to devote our whole life to understand that "I am Brahman." It can be understood even by a child. It is not very difficult. But how to engage myself as Brahman, that requires education.
Compiled by Damaghosa das