Day And Night

Dharmasya hy apavargyasya nartho 'rthaya. Generally people go to church, mosque and temple just to beg bread. "Oh, God, give us our daily bread." Thus everyone goes, Hindus, Moslems, Christians, etc.-they all go to church or mosque or temple just to beg some material profit. Srimad-Bhagavatam says: dharmasya hy apavargyasya nartho 'rthayopakalpate. That which is not meant for any material gain is real religion. Na arthaya. Artha means material gains, and paramartha means spiritual gains. Narthaya. "If I don't get money," everyone says, "how shall I live?" Of course we should get money, but that money should not be our whole aim and objective of life. Yavad artha-prayojanam. We can receive as much money as we require to maintain the body; that is not forbidden. But why do we labor so hard all day and night? In New York, London or any other modern city we find so many buses running at all hours. It is a nice arrangement, but often there are no passengers. Nonetheless these buses are made to work hard, to come here and go there quickly. Diva carthehaya rajan kutumbabharena va. This materialistic way of life means sleeping at night and snoring (zz), and getting a woman and having sex. And that is all. Nidraya hriyate naktam vyavayena ca va vayaḥ. There is either sex or snoring. And diva carthehaya rajan: in the daytime one simply has to wonder, "Where is money? Where is money? Where is money?" Then we get money and run to the store. Kutumbabharena va. Then we purchase something, and when we purchase something, our money goes. Then night comes, and again it is time for sex. If we ask a person who is thus engaged where his time is for Krsna consciousness, he says, "No time, sir." This is civilization, a civilization of rascals. It is simply a waste of time: srama eva hi kevalam.

Although the human life is so valuable that one can get out of the pavarga of hard labor, foaming at the mouth, fear and death, no one cares about it. This is because extrication from such life is so difficult for most people. They think, "Oh, let us die. What is that? After death there is nothing." So-called great philosophers and professors adhere to such a view, and all this is going on in the name of civilization and advancement of education. The politicians and religious leaders have no knowledge, and yet they are leading the public. They are all rascals and fools. A rascal is one who has no knowledge. One who is in Krsna consciousness can challenge all such rascals, be they so-called great philosophers, professors or whatever. What knowledge do they have? Their knowledge is simply animal knowledge, for animals work very hard simply to gratify their senses. Real civilization, however, means stopping such animalistic life

Of course, everyone wants to stop working hard. We all have the tendency to want to get away. As soon as materialists get a free moment, they immediately want to leave the city and go to some nice peaceful bungalow in the country. Everyone wants this, but to get such so-called peace one has to work very hard. Why don't we therefore make life simple? We can live anywhere and live by nature's way. There are trees and meadows, and we can live there, keep some cows and get milk, produce some grains and fruits and be happy. In this way our whole economic question can be solved. Why do we have to bother so much with factories and great workshops and large ships and vans going here and there. These are all simply complications. Everything is trying to move so fast. Karma-bandha: that is the entanglement of karma. Sat-sahga chaḍi' kainu asate vilasa. The word sat-sahga indicates that one has given up the association of the Supreme and has taken to the association of material life, thereby becoming entangled in karma. Thus the process of destruction and construction begins again. But we no sooner get something constructed than it is damaged or destroyed, and we get the opportunity to reconstruct again, and again it will be finished. The real business of human life is learning how to end this hard struggle for existence