View source for You ask child, you show him the finger, "What is this?" The child will reply, "It is my finger." The child will never say "I finger." He will say "my." So everything is "mine." "My body," "my head," "my leg." Everything is "mine," but where is the "I"?

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{{terms|"You ask child, you show him the finger, "What is this?" The child will reply, "It is my finger." The child will never say "I finger." He will say "my." So everything is "mine." "My body," "my head," "my leg." Everything is "mine," but where is the "I"}}
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<h2>Lectures</h2>
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<h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
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You ask child, you show him the finger, "What is this?" The child will reply, "It is my finger." The child will never say "I finger." He will say "my." So everything is "mine." "My body," "my head," "my leg." Everything is "mine," but where is the "I"?.
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[[Vanisource:730221b - Lecture BG 02.09-13 - Auckland|730221b - Lecture BG 02.09-13 - Auckland]]
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Because Kṛṣṇa was accepted as the spiritual master of Arjuna, He said in a very gentle way, "My dear Arjuna," aśocyān anvaśocas tvam, "you are lamenting for something which is not the subject matter of lamentation." Because Arjuna was hesitating to fight in bodily relationship. He was thinking that he is this body; his other side, the relatives, brothers or nephews or grandfather, the other side, they are also the bodies. Because bodily concept of life, we hesitate. Because every one of us in bodily concept. That is animal life. And so long we are in the bodily relationship . . . dog, he does not know anything else. He simply knows that he is this body. But a human being, by cultivation of knowledge, by logic, by argument, he can understand that "I am not this body."

Therefore a human being says, as soon as you inquire . . . even a child. You ask child, you show him the finger, "What is this?" The child will reply, "It is my finger." The child will never say "I finger." He will say "my." So everything is "mine." "My body," "my head," "my leg." Everything is "mine," but where is the "I"? That should be the inquiry, that "Everything, I am speaking 'mine.' Where is that 'I'?" As soon as we come to this point, "Where is that 'I'?" then our human sense is developed. Otherwise we are in the animal sense of life.

So Kṛṣṇa is, I mean to say, instructing Arjuna that aśocyān anvaśocas tvam ([[Vanisource:BG 2.11 (1972)|BG 2.11]]): "My dear Arjuna, you are lamenting on the subject matter which is not the subject matter of lamentation." Aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase. Prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase. "You are talking like a very intelligent, learned scholar." Because in the previous chapter he was arguing with Kṛṣṇa, giving evidences from śāstra on the bodily concept of life. But he does not know the śāstras say, "One who is in the bodily concept of life, he is no better than an ass or cow." That he did not know.
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