Only a spotless spiritual master free from the four defects of conditioned life can deliver perfect knowledge.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Prabhupāda: Now, last day we discussed on the last verse of the Third Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. Now today we shall begin the Fourth Chapter. evaṃ buddheḥ paraṃ buddhvā saṃstabhyātmānam ātmanā jahi śatruṃ mahā-bāho kāma-rūpaṃ durāsadam [Bg 3.43] [Thus knowing oneself to be transcendental to material senses, mind and intelligence, one should control the lower self by the higher self and thus-by spiritual strength-conquer this insatiable enemy known as lust.] We have discussed this point that our material bondage is due to hankering and lust for dominating over the resources of matter. We are, in essence, we are pure soul, but circumstantially we are now fallen in this material bondage, and therefore we are undergoing threefold miseries of material existence. And the whole Bhagavad-gītā scheme is how to get out of this material entanglement and be situated in your real, spiritual life of bliss, knowledge and eternal life.
That is the whole scheme of Bhagavad-gītā. Now, the First Chapter... I'm just making a summary of the three chapters which we have already finished... Now, today we are going to begin the Fourth Chapter.
In the First Chapter the situation is created... Just like we are ordinarily entangled in family affairs. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke [SB 10.84.13]. [One who identifies his self as the inert body composed of mucus, bile and air, who assumes his wife and family are permanently his own, who thinks an earthen image or the land of his birth is worshipable, or who sees a place of pilgrimage as merely the water there, but who never identifies himself with, feels kinship with, worships or even visits those who are wise in spiritual truth—such a person is no better than a cow or an ass.] The bondage of accepting this material body as myself, and the extension of bodily relation is accepted as my kinsmen, and the land in which the body is got, that land is supposed to be worshipable—these are analytical study of our material existence. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ.
Bhauma ijya-dhīḥ. We have taken up the land as worshipable, the land of birth, which is, I mean to say, extended in the form of nationalism. This is a material bondage. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke... The Bhāgavata, the Bhāgavata gives us direction that "A person who has accepted this material body, which is composed of three elements..." Three elements means earth, water and fire, which is, in Āyurvedic language it is called kapha-pitta-vāyu.
Now, one who has accepted this material body as his self and one who has accepted the extension of this material body... Extension of this material body means the by-product, the children and the wife with whom we have got this connection with this material body. And the relatives. You go on extending in that way.
So yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ. Bhauma means the land. Ijya-dhīḥ. Ijya-dhīḥ means worshipable. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ, yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile.
Of course, in your country there is no holy land of pilgrimage. In India there are many holy lands of pilgrimage, just like Prayāga, Vṛndāvana, Gayā. You have got, also got. In the water of Jordan the Christian people they go and they take their bath.