This asuric public, they do not know which way their destination is. They say it is self-interest but these rascals they do not know what is the self-interest because their very beginning of life is mistaken. They are thinking this body is the self. So how they will know self-interest? The basic principle is mistaken. Dehatma-buddhi. The dogs, cats, they think that "I am this body." So same interest, asura. They do not know, neither they try to understand. Dehino 'smin yatha dehe [Bg. 2.13]. Within this body the spirit soul is there. They cannot understand. Therefore their self-interest is mistaken. Real self-interest is that "I am spirit soul, I am son of God, my father is very, very rich, opulent. I have given up my father's association and therefore I am suffering." Otherwise there is no question of suffering.
Lecture on Bhagavad-gita 16.7, Hyderabad, 15 December, 1976