Young woman: All right. You answered my question. Thank you very much for answering my question. You said that . . . I asked you what goodness was swamiji. . .
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Young woman: And you said goodness was knowledge.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Young woman: Now could you explain what you meant by knowledge? What? Spiritual knowledge or . . .?
Prabhupāda: No. First of all what is knowledge?
Young woman: Knowledge is material.
Prabhupāda: Knowledge means that you must know what you are. This is knowledge. If you don't know what you are, then what is the meaning of your knowledge? So real knowledge means that ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am not matter, I am a spirit soul." That is real knowledge. On the basis of this real knowledge, whatever is done, that is done in knowledge; otherwise it is done in ignorance. That is the difference. Knowledge and difference.
Knowledge is not that you have to get degrees from the university, big, big degrees. No. Real knowledge is that, "I am . . ." ahaṁ brahmāsmi, "I am spirit soul." If one has realized this one word only, then he is knowledge. He's in knowledge. One who has not realized this thing, he's in ignorance. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). Anyone who has accepted this body, which is made of three elements, sva-dhiḥ kalatrAdiṣu bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ, and therefore accepted the bodily productions as his own or the place or the land where this body is produced is worshipable . . . there are so many other things. Naturally, at the present moment, knowledge means that "This is my country." "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am Chinese." Why? "Because my body is produced from this land."
So this is ignorance. Your body . . . why your body? The cow's body is also produced from this land. Why do you kill? It has got also right. But because he has no knowledge actually, therefore he is trying to protect his body, but he's not protecting the other's body produced from the land. This is want of knowledge. If he has real knowledge that, "I am Brahman, I am spirit," then he can see, samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu (BG 18.54): "Oh, the spirit. The cow is also spirit soul, the dog is also spirit soul, I am also spirit soul. Otherwise how I am moving?" The cow is moving, the dog is moving.