When He began to teach Arjuna Bhagavad-gītā, the A-B-C-D lesson was to make him convinced about the soul within the body. That is called ātma-tattvam. And nobody knows. Therefore, bahir-artha-māninaḥ: they are accepting this external feature. Just like we have got external feature. We can understand very easily that this body, this body is external feature. Real "I" am within. As soon as I go away from this body, this external feature, as good as the garbage in the street. That they do not understand. They are busy piling garbage: "Bring more garbage, more garbage." And this is the working capacity. Bahir-artha-māninaḥ. They think, "This garbage will save me." Very important question. Apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). The ātma-tattvam means "I am now within this garbage for the present. And after leaving this, in this garbage, I pile up so many other garbages. And in this way, working uselessly the whole life, then I transmigrate from this body to another garbage body." That I do not know. This is called apaśyatām ātma-tattvam. Apaśyatām means "not seeing." A means "not," and paśyatām means "seeing," "one who sees." He's seeing, "This is garbage is everything." He does not see ātma-tattvam.
Apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu (SB 2.1.2). Gṛheṣu means . . . gṛha means home. So you can take this body as home. Because I am . . . you are all living within this body. So this is also home. And then again, expanded, I am living in this planet. So this is also home. And again living within this universe. That is also home. Or I have got a little home, apartment, ten feet square, that's all. That is also home. So we have got attachment for this home, ten feet by ten feet or millions of feet on millions . . . this is home, within the compact. We living entities, we are within this home. Take this whole universe, apart from other universe, this universe. This is also home because we're living here. And we are changing, from this place to that place. Suppose I have come from India. From Bombay, I have come to Paris. This is all within the home, within the universe, or within this planet. So we see people are very busy. Seventy miles' speed, they're driving car, but within the Paris. Within the Paris. They may go seventy miles, eighty mile, but they cannot go beyond. That, our one countryman, Rabindranath Tagore . . . so perhaps you heard his name. He was a big poet. So when he was in London, so he saw that people are very, walking very fast. So he remarked that, "These people are walking very fast. But there is a very small country. They'll fall down on the sea." You see?
So this is going on. (laughs) A dog in the park is jumping very fast, walking. But as soon as the master, "Come one. Come one," immediately, "Yes, sir." "Give me your neck." "Yes, sir." Chain. Chain. He's thinking that he's very free, but as soon as the master calls, immediately he has to submit. This is our position. We are very busy, but the master is the material nature. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duraty . . . (BG 7.14). The fact is that we are under the stringent laws of material nature. We have no freedom. That we do not know. We are struggling so much. War has been waged in . . . all over the world, especially in Europe, for freedom. You have got that freedom statue. And in America also, there is freedom. But where is freedom, sir? That they do not know. Why? Apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). They do not know what is freedom and whose freedom. That they do not know. Therefore they have created so many newspapers for freedom, the so-called freedom. But there is no freedom. Even big, big leaders, they have no freedom. What we are?
Therefore Kṛṣṇa points out in the Bhagavad-gītā that real freedom is when you get freedom from four different problems. What is that?
- Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-
- duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam
- (BG 13.9)
If you get freedom from these four things—no more death, no more birth, no more eld age, old age, and no more disease—that is freedom. But where is that freedom? The so-called scientists, big, big scientists, they have very scientifically advanced, but they had no freedom from death. They had to die on a fixed-up date. Professor Einstein or any other big, big scientist, they could not manufacture any scientific instrument and keep it in the custody of his student, that "As soon as I die, you just apply this machine. I shall come alive again." Where is that freedom? So this so-called scientific improvement, advancement in civilization, it is just like jumping like the dog, that's all. It has no value. Real value is to understand ātma-tattvam, "What I am? Why death is imposed upon me? I do not wish to die. Why old age is imposed upon me? I do not wish to become old man or old woman. I wish to remain a beautiful young . . ." "No, sir, that is not possible." Then where is your freedom? What for you are jumping so much? As soon as the master will call, "Yes, sir. Bind me." So you are completely under the nature's control.