First-class religion awakens unmotivated love for God, independent of all material conditions and worldly achievements.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.6 Hampstead Hall — August 6, 1971, London 710806S2-LONDON [44:37 Minutes] SB-01.02.06_710806S2-LONDON Devotee: [introducing tape] Side 2, track 2, London lecture number 4, evening, 6th August, Hampstead Hall. Prabhupāda: Ahaituky apratihatā yayātmā suprasīdati [SB 1.2.6]. Ātmā means this body, ātmā means this mind, and ātmā means also the soul. So yaya ātmā samprasīdati, to satisfy the ātmā, it means for satisfaction of the body, for satisfaction of the mind and for satisfaction of the soul. We are situated in three strata, covering. Just like you all ladies and gentlemen, you are covered by the shirt, coat. Similarly you, as spirit soul, is covered by two layers.
The first layer is very subtle: mind, intelligence and ego; and the second layer is this five gross material elements: earth, water, air, fire, like that. So..., but all of them, in one sense they are one, because it is created on the basis of ātmā. Just like our body—your body, my body, anyone’s body, cat's body, dog's body—these bodies are developed on the basis of the spirit soul. After sexual intercourse of the man and the woman there is an emulsification of the secretion, and they form into a material body just like a pea, and the ātmā, the spirit soul, takes shelter within that pea, and therefore it develops gradually in the embryo. It develops, then there are different holes, nine holes, and that holes different way develop two eyes, two ears, one mouth, one rectum, one genital, one navel, in this way.
So the spirit soul is covered by this matter. The first layer is called subtle, sūkṣma—mana, buddhi, ahaṅkāra: mind, intelligence and ego. Now we are under the false ego. Exactly if you have got a nice dress you become very proud, that "I have got this very nice, costly dress." But you are actually not the dress.
That's his misunderstanding. If you have got a nice car, Rolls-Royce car, if you sit on it, you feel very proud. So this misidentification is called māyā. The Bhāgavata says that everyone is trying to be happy according to different layers of consciousness. One who is… [aside to devotee:] One man is smoking.
Stop. One man who is under bodily consciousness, that "I am this body," "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am man," "I am woman," this is bodily consciousness. He is trying to be happy in a different way. They are called karmīs. Another person, who is little advanced, thinking that "I am mind, intelligence, ego," taking part in nice philosophy, poetry, ideas, they are identifying with the subtle body: mind, intelligence and ego. But there are other persons, who are far advanced, they are identifying with the soul.
And actually we are that. Unless we come to the platform of identifying ourselves with the spirit soul, our existence is impure. Therefore in our Vedic literature the idea is to understand his real constitutional position, which is called ātmā-jñāna, or self-realization. So the authorities, they say parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto [SB 5.5.3]. Abodha-jāto means everyone is born ignorant, fool, anyone, even the human being, because he does not know what he is.
He is under the bodily concept of life, just like animal. Therefore he is called abodha-jāto. Abodha means no knowledge, and jātāḥ means born. So the Vedic literatures indicate that a person born fool, rascal, abodha-jātaḥ, if he go on acting on that platform, that foolish platform… Foolish platform means identifying oneself either with the body or with the subtle body: mind, intelligence and ego.