The holy man does not establish segregation between castes, races, or living species, celestial beings, human beings, animals, and plants. From a social perspective, the sage may differ from the untouchable (the lowest category of man, due to his karma), just as, from the point of view of species, the dog, the cow, and the elephant differ. But these bodily distinctions are of no importance to the spiritualist established in true knowledge, knowing that Lord Krishna, God, the Supreme Personality in His Primordial, Original, Infinite, and Absolute form, is present in the hearts of all beings in His form as the Supreme Soul, His plenary emanation; He sees each of them in relation to the Absolute.

The Lord is equally kind to all beings, for He always treats them as a friend, regardless of their bodily form. However, as the Supreme Soul, He remains independent of the conditions that afflict individual beings distinct from His Person. Although the fleshly sheaths of the learned sage and the untouchable differ, the Lord dwells in each of them in the form of the Supreme Soul.

These material sheaths, produced by the interaction of the three attributes and modes of influence of material nature: virtue, passion, and ignorance, take various forms. But the separate soul and the Supreme Soul, both present in every body, partake of the same nature—spiritual, conscious, blissful, and eternal. The separate soul (which each of us actually is) is present in only one particular body and conscious of only that body, whereas the Supreme Soul is present in all bodies and conscious of each of them.

One who is in Krishna consciousness, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, possesses knowledge that enables him to realize the magnitude of these truths. As a true scholar, he sees all living things with equal eyes, and grants gold, pebbles, and clods of earth the same value.

Such is true knowledge.

The Lord said: Seek spiritual knowledge rather than material knowledge, knowing that the former is eternal and the latter perishes with the body.

Only transcendental knowledge, of which God is the source, the Propagator, and the Supreme Teacher, provides humanity with the fundamental data relating to God as He truly is, to existential and absolute truth, enlightens them as to their true spiritual identity, reveals to them the real and ultimate purpose of existence, and, through the pure knowledge acquired, allows them, by developing intelligence, to abide in pure virtue.

Know that just as man is a spiritual soul incarnated in a human body, all terrestrial and aquatic animals, as well as all plants in their diversity, are all equally spiritual souls incarnated in bodies belonging to the animal or plant kingdom.