Prabhupada, May 23, 1974, Rome: ..But you Irish people, you are never tired to fight.
O’Grady: No. We’ve been fighting for three thousand years now.
Prabhupada: I think the fighting is going on still.
O’Grady: Very much so. Very badly, very bad now, very bad. What do you do about that? And that’s a serious question. Is it morally correct to be sitting here, for me to be sitting here…
Prabhupada: You see, so long people will remain under the bodily concept of life, that, “I am this body,” “I am Irish,” “I am English,” “I am American,” “I am Italian,” so long this misconception will go on, fight will go on. You see? Yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatu… There is a verse in Srimad-Bhagavatam. Just like you cannot stop fighting between the dogs and cats.
Why there is fighting? Because the dog is thinking, “I am dog.” The cat is thinking, “I am cat.” Similarly, if I think as Irishman, “I am Englishman,” it is the same thing. As the dog is thinking, “I am dog,” so if I think, “I am Irishman,” “I am Englishman,” I am no better than the dog. So as we cannot stop the fighting between dogs, similarly, so long people will remain in bodily concept of life, the fighting cannot be stopped.
O’Grady: What was Mahatma Gandhi fighting in the House of Commons in England?
Prabhupada: Yes, that is also another dogism. Because there is no difference. Just try to understand. The dog is thinking, “I am dog.” Why? Because he has got the body of a dog. Similarly, if I am thinking, “I am Indian” because I have got the body in the Indian soil, where is the difference? There is no difference.
O’Grady: The Englishman thinks there’s a difference.
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