Bhagavad-gītā begins with this point, that one should know that he is not this material body. That knowledge is lacking at the present moment throughout the whole world. Yes. Everyone is identifying with this body like the animals. Therefore Kṛṣṇa chastised Arjuna that "You have got animalistic concept of life, and still you're speaking like a very learned scholar. No learned scholar laments on account of this body." It is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Dhīra . . . Dhīra means one who is sober by education. He is not disturbed. Just like when a man dies, his relatives lament, cry, "My father is gone. My father is gone. My father is no more," or "My son is no more." Anyway, they lament like that. But if he is little sober, he can understand, he can study, that "I am lamenting, 'My father is gone,' 'My son is gone,' but he's not gone. He's lying on the bed or on the floor. Then why I am speaking 'gone'?" If some friend asks him, "Why you are lamenting, 'My father is gone,' 'My son is gone'? He's lying here," but still he will say, "No, he's not. He may be lying there, but he's gone." That is puzzle. He's lying there and gone? What is this contradiction? That is the point to understand about the soul. The relative is lamenting, crying, "My father is gone." That means he never saw his father; he saw the body only. But at the time of death of his father he understands that this father is not this body; that is soul.
So when we come to this understanding that every one of us, we may be in different body, but we are not this body, we are spirit soul, so that time our actual knowledge begins. Now Kṛṣṇa is describing what is the nature of that soul. He says . . . Whenever we sit down together we say "I," "you" and "they," first person, second person and third person, "I," "you," or "he." There cannot be more than these three. I can say "I," I can say "you," and I can say "he." So Kṛṣṇa says in this verse that na tu eva ahaṁ jātu: "Either I, you, or he, none of us ever born." Because we are not this body, the birth takes place of the body, not of the soul. The soul is described here that he does not take birth. It is not that he was not existing in the past; now he has taken birth. It is not like that. It is not like that, that the soul did not exist in the past; now he's existing. There are some philosophers, they think like that, that the living symptom was not existing before, and by the combination of matter the living force is there. But that is not the fact. The living being is there; therefore the life symptoms are there in the body. Therefore when a man dies, because we do not know about the living force, we cry that "My father, my son, has gone."
So we should acquire knowledge from the authority. Kṛṣṇa is the authority. He says that "All of us—you, Me, and all the others who have come to join this fighting—it is not that they did not exist in the past. They existed, we existed, all, in the past; we are existing now; and after so-called death, or after quitting this body, we shall still exist." Now, the question will be, "How I shall exist, either as American, Indian, or something else?" So that is very intelligent question. First of all, we have to understand that I, you, every one of us existed in the past, so how I existed in the past . . . (child crying) (aside: This child should be . . .) . . .and how I shall exist in future? So past is past; that is gone. Now I am existing as a human being, it is my duty to understand how I shall exist in future. That is intelligence. If we do not prepare for the next life, then we are animals. Just like the human society, there is education. The father gives education to the child, thinking about his future. The cats and dogs, they do not give any education, neither they know what is the meaning of education. That is the difference between human being and animal. So if we are not educated in the matter of understanding what is our future, then we are no better than the animal. Yes.