Sankaracarya's Vivekachudamani 384

अत्रात्मत्वं दृढीकुर्वन्नहमादिषु संत्यजन् ।

उदासीनतया तेषु तिष्ठेत्स्फुटघटादिवत् ॥

atrātmatvaṃ dṛḍhīkurvannahamādiṣu saṃtyajan |

udāsīnatayā teṣu tiṣṭhetsphuṭaghaṭādivat |

(Sankaracarya's Vivekachudamani 384)

By strengthening one‘s identification with this Self and by renouncing all identifications with the ego etc., one must live with no concern for them, as if they were trivialities like a broken pot or the like.

Human society is not animal society. The difference between animal society and human society is that a human being, whoever he may be, can if he is taught if he is given training, if he is educated, he can understand his real position, that he is not this body, but he is pure consciousness; he is spirit soul. But in animal society, however, a big animal may be, either he may be a lion or a tiger or an elephant or any other big animal, he cannot be taught about the constitution of the soul, although he has got the soul also. A lower animal, he has also got the consciousness. He has got also a soul. But unfortunately, he hasn't got the facility, the bodily facility or developed intelligence by which he can understand that, what he is. So that is the difference between animal and human beings. So in human society, if they do not care to understand this factual position of his soul or consciousness, then he is no better than the animal. Yes. That is the Vedic version.

You can understand what you are. You are present all over your body. You are present all over your body. Wherever you can try by pinching your body, you will feel some pain, this, this part of this body or this part of this body. And this pain feeling will be stopped as soon as the consciousness is taken away from this body. The dead body, where there is no consciousness, the dead body does not feel even he is chopped up by some chopper because the consciousness is gone. Therefore, it is not very difficult to understand that "I am the consciousness. I am not this material body." We have discussed all these points. Now, so far scriptures are concerned, there are different scriptures all over the world in the civilized society, but Bhagavad-gita, the Lord says that "The essence of all scripture is to understand my constitutional position." That's all. All the rituals... We should not be stuck up to the rituals or to the formulas of the... Of course, in the preliminary stages, we require to stick to the formulas of religious scriptures. But we must know that the whole idea is targeted to understand my real position. That is the whole idea of all scriptures. In the Bhagavad-gita, it has been very nicely described, yavan artha udapane tavan samplutodake.

yavan artha udapane

sarvatah samplutodake

tavan sarvesu vedesu

brahmanasya vijanatah

[Bg. 2.46]

Brahmanasya vijanatah. One who knows the constitution of the soul, he is called brahmana. Because the soul is Brahman. The soul does not matter. So one who knows the constitution of the soul, is called brahmana. We have already discussed this matter, that brahmana does not mean a particular class or born in a particular country. A brahmana means who knows the position of the soul, or the constitution of the soul. He is a brahmana. Just like a person who is conversant with medical science. He is called a medical man or a doctor. It doesn't matter whether he is born in India or born in America or whether he is black or white. It doesn't matter. One must have the qualification of a medical man, and he is called a doctor. Similarly, Bhagavad-gita also accepts the brahminical culture, the brahminical culture. Brahminical culture means the social position in which everyone is assisted to elevate himself to the highest position of understanding the position and the constitution of the soul. That should be the aim of human society.