The soul's inquiry into its true nature marks the boundary between human consciousness and animal existence.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Room Conversation with Indian Guests — September 2, 1973, London 730902R1-LONDON [86:52 Minutes] Conv_730902R1-LONDON Guest (1): ...Yes, yes. I ask him why, after such a long lapse of time we could see this trait of Hindu dharma. Prabhupāda.: Yes. Not Hindu dharma...
Prabhupāda: ...but spiritual, satisfaction of spiritual starvation. Because we are spiritual being. That I was trying to explain, that we have bodily necessities, at the same time we have spiritual necessities. This Western civilization, they are simply after the bodily necessities.
Just like here is a qualified medical man. He's made... What for, medical man? He knows how to satisfy the medical necessities of the body.
He has no information of the spirit soul. Is it not a fact? Have you got any idea what is spirit soul? Guest (2) [Indian Doctor]: Not from the medical knowledge, certainly not.
Prabhupāda: Therefore I say that these universities, educational institution, all over the world, they are simply concerned with this body. According to our Vedic culture, to remain satisfied with the bodily necessities of life is the business of animals. Sa eva go-kharaḥ. yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ [SB 10.84.13] These are animal conception. So anyone who is accepting this body as the self, he is sa eva go-kharaḥ.
Go means cows, and kharaḥ means asses. So this civilization based on the bodily necessities of life is animal civilization. Because we are not this body, we are spirit soul, as it is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: dehina asmin dehe... Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ [Bg. 2.13]. The soul is within the body, and it is transmigrating from one type of body to another, even in this life.
Just like I was in the baby's body, I was in a child's body, I was in a boy's body. Those bodies are gone. But I remember that I was in such-and-such bodies. But I am now in a different body.