True knowledge means understanding oneself as spirit soul and serving Krishna with equanimity, not pursuing useless activities.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Morning Walk — October 19, 1975, Johannesburg 751019MW-JOHANNESBURG [46:33 Minutes] Walk_751019MW-JOHANNESBURG Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: ...cutting trees.
Prabhupāda: Because they are also living being, so you cannot take their life unnecessarily. You are responsible. You can cut trees when they are dried like this; otherwise not. [break] ...cutting trees indiscriminately for manufacturing paper, some bundles of papers nobody reads.
Every day... Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They throw away.
Prabhupāda: ...they are publishing hundreds of thousands of copies for wasting, and for that paper it requires so many lives. Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No one has ever considered such things before. Prahupada: No, where is the man? All animals.
Man will think. One who has knowledge, he will think. And what the animal will think? Anyone who is not a devotee, he is animal. Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ [SB 2.3.19].
The big animal is being worshiped by a small animal. That's all. A lion in the forest is worshiped by the small animals. So does it mean the lion is not animal?
Prabhupāda: He is also animal. So similarly, all these leaders, these scientists, these philosophers, they are applauded by the small animals, but they are also animals, big animal, that's all. The test is whether he understands the spirit soul different from the body. If he does not understand, he is animal, that's all.