Suppose I have passed my M.A. examination, and in the, in the university, in the convocation meeting, I get the degree and people applause me; but if one is situated in consciousness, he will understand, "What is this degree? This degree is due to my this body. As soon as this body finishes, all these degree will finish. Because, if it is a fact that <i>vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāyai> (BG 2.22), if I have to take another body after leaving this body, then everything in bodily connection will finish as soon as I give up this body and take another body. That is my position."
Therefore, one who is convinced, one who knows actually that "I am not this body; I am pure consciousness," so these degrees . . . or some good, palatable foodstuff I have been offered by some friend, I am eating. "Oh," I am thinking, "oh, how happy I am!" But what is that happiness? That happiness is due to my tongue only. But I am not this tongue. So these things are . . . will appear, one who is purely consciousness. You see? But that, that does not mean that I shall not eat or I shall not associate in the society. No. I shall be. Everything I shall be, but I must always know that "I am aloof from this. My position is that I am subordinate to the supreme consciousness, and I, I have to act in that position."