Learned scholars have no idea that there is soul | Bhagavad-gita Lecture, Bombay

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Prabhupada, Bombay, October 2, 1973: […] In the West, I have talked with big, big professors, learned scholars. They have no idea of next life.

I talked with Professor Kotovsky in Moscow. He said, “Swamiji, after annihilation of this body, everything is finished.” They have no idea that there is soul. And in India even the poorest man, he knows that, “There is next life. I existed in the past, and I will exist in the future.” This Vedic conclusion is known even to the poorest man, illiterate man. That is, of course, the difference between East and West.

So anyway, our position is that we should not identify this body as self. Krishna says here that,

adhyatma-jnana-nityatvam tattva-jnanartha-darsanam etaj jnanam iti proktam ajnanam yad atah anyatha

Adhyatma-jnanam, to understand oneself as the spirit soul, that jnanam. Adhyatma-jnanam, tattva-jnanartha-darsanam. Philosophy should be utilized. Logic and philosophy should be utilized for self- realization, not for simply mental speculation.

We find nowadays, big, big philosophers write volumes of book, simply theorizing without any understanding of the spirit soul.
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