Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.47
—
Los Angeles, May 9, 1973
Anyone who is thinking this bag of bones and flesh as the "I am," "I am this body," and out of this misconception, yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke, sva-dhīḥ, "Out of this body or in relationship with this body, the persons, men and woman, they are my kinsmen. They are my nationality, they are my society..." Sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ [SB 10.84.13]. "And where this body is produced, that land is my land, motherland." "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am German," "I am this." And we are mad after this, this, these nationalists. In this way, yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ, yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicit. They go to the place, holy places of pilgrimage, and they take their bath. In India you will see, so many people are going to Haridwar, Vṛndāvana, and take their bath and shave their head, and then come back: "I went to tīrtha, holy place." That is not tīrtha. Tīrtha means to meet a high-grade saintly person. Tīrtha. Tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni. They make tīrtha holy place. Anywhere a saintly person is there, that is tīrtha.
That is holy place. Not that I have to go Haridwar, five thousand miles from here. Wherever there is experienced holy persons, that is tīrtha. But they do not know. They go five hundred, five thousand miles away. Sometimes from your country they go to find out a guru in India. (laughs) And the guru who is canvassing here, he is useless. He is useless. So these things. Anyone who is of such conception of life, they have been described as asses and cows, means an animal.