Understanding God and recognizing oneself as eternal spirit soul frees one from the endless cycle of material suffering.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Interview with Macmillan, Professor Gombrich and English Reporters — September 12, 1973, London 730912IV-LONDON [42:12 Minutes] Interview_730912IV-LONDON [much background noise throughout]
Prabhupāda: I have no spoon. Haṁsadūta: Someone's bringing it. Mukunda's bringing it.
Prabhupāda: Where is? Give me little water. Revatīnandana: Pardon me?
Prabhupāda: Water. Revatīnandana: What? Water.
Prabhupāda: Yes, come here. Reporter (1): I wonder if I could ask you first of all to tell me what is the central point of the teaching of Bhagavad-gītā?
Prabhupāda: Central point is to understand God. People have become so foolish. They have forgotten to know about God, know about himself, what he is. Everyone is under the impression that "I am this body," which he's not.
He's spirit soul. They're so much in ignorance, and there is no education. Even big, big professors. Professor Kotovsky, in Russia, he told me, "Swāmījī, after this body's finished, everything is finished." That is not the fact.