Only due to ignorance does a person think, "I am a demigod," "I am a human being," "I am a dog," "I am a cat," or, when the ignorance is still further advanced - I am God

Expressions researched:
"I am God" |"I am a cat" |"I am a demigod" |"I am a dog" |"I am a human being" |"Only due to ignorance does a person think" |"or, when the ignorance is still further advanced"

SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13

Our main business, therefore, should be to get out of this conditioned life and again become situated in spiritual existence. Only due to ignorance does a person think, "I am a demigod," "I am a human being," "I am a dog," "I am a cat," or, when the ignorance is still further advanced, "I am God." Unless one is fully self-realized, one's life of ignorance will continue.

SB 10.4.26, Translation and Purport:

O great personality Kaṁsa, only by the influence of ignorance does one accept the material body and bodily ego. What you have said about this philosophy is correct. Persons in the bodily concept of life, lacking self-realization, differentiate in terms of "This is mine" and "This belongs to another."

Everything is done automatically by the laws of nature, which work under the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There is no question of doing anything independently, for one who has put himself in this material atmosphere is fully under the control of nature's laws. Our main business, therefore, should be to get out of this conditioned life and again become situated in spiritual existence. Only due to ignorance does a person think, "I am a demigod," "I am a human being," "I am a dog," "I am a cat," or, when the ignorance is still further advanced, "I am God." Unless one is fully self-realized, one's life of ignorance will continue.