The problems of eating, problems of sleeping, problems of defending and problems of mating, or sex life, these problems are there in the animal life or amongst the living entities lower than the human beings. But those problems are solved automatically by laws of nature. The birds, beasts, they are also eating. They have no economic problem. They are also sleeping, and they are having their mates and sex life. And they are also defending in their own way. Human form of life, the most developed consciousness, intelligence, if we are also busy in solving these problems of life, namely eating, sleeping, defending and mating, then we are not very much advanced than the animals, because they have got these problems and they are trying to solve them.
So what advancement we have made, we human beings? We claim to be superior, to possess superior consciousness, and how we are utilizing our consciousness and superior intelligence? Simply just like animals. That requires meditation. That requires meditation, what is actually the problem.
So the meditation means, "What I am?" If you think, meditate, that "Am I this body?" then you'll come to understand that "I am not this body." If you think . . . just to see, see your hand, "Am I this hand?" "Am I this finger?" "Am I this leg?" "Am I this body?" "Am I this head?" every point you analyze, you'll say, "It is my hand," "It is my finger," "It is my head," "It is my . . ." Everything "mine." And where is "I"? That you have to find out by meditation, where is "I".
That is answered in the Bhagavad-gītā. How it is answered? It is said that:
- avināśi tu tad viddhi
- yena sarvam idaṁ tatam
- (BG 2.17)
One thing, avināśi; and another, vināśi. Avināśi means eternal, and vināśi means perishable. So this body is perishable, everyone knows. Either it is young body or old body or child's body or boy's body—anyone's body—today, tomorrow or one hundred years after or fifty years after, it is perishable. There is no doubt about it. But what is that thing imperishable? That imperishable is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, yena sarvam idaṁ tatam (BG 2.17): "That thing is imperishable which is spread all over your body." That is very easy to understand. What is that? If you pinch your body, any part of your body, you feel pain. That means your consciousness. Your consciousness is imperishable.