Matchboxes

Such is material life, but people are so foolish that they think that these principles represent advancement. Is this advancement? By working very hard a person may get a very nice large house and a car, and in this way one may think that his life is successful, but after fifty years, the house is only good for demolition. One matchbox goes up, and another comes down. This is constantly going on. Punaḥ punas carvita-carvananam. "All right, you require a house, and now you have a nice one. Why are you demolishing it again?" "It's a new fashion," is the reply. This, then, is contemporary civilization. Houses are constructed with hard labor, and again they are demolished with hard labor, and once again they are constructed with more hard labor. And people have become such rascals that they do not think, "What am I gaining by this hard labor?" Real religion shows one how to get out of this cycle of hard labor.

In Srimad-Bhagavatam it is said: nayam deho deha-bhajam nrloke kastan kaman arhate viḍ-bhujam ye. The word kaman indicates the fact that we require some necessities of life, for in this material body we require to eat, sleep, have sex and defend ourselves. So we do this, for there is no prohibition; we eat, sleep, have sex and defend, and do them all as easily as possible. But we do not have to labor very hard for these and make it difficult. We have to eat, and that's all right; we can eat. The birds and bees are also eating without hard labor, and why have we manufactured such a nonsensical civilization that we have to work so hard simply for a piece of bread? And why must we work in order to be able to sleep peacefully? There is so much hard labor for these things that now people have become disgusted and have given them up. Thus the hippies say, "We don't want to work." But after a while, when they find it very difficult to live without work, they again come to work. Punaḥ punas carvita-carvananam. People work, then they leave work, saying, "We shall not work," and again they take up work and work very hard, then again they give it up. This is called punaḥ punas carvita-carvananam: chewing the chewed. We give up work, but we return to work because there is no other way to live. This is the problem. Na te viduḥ svartha-gatim hi visnum. Foolish people do not know what the aim of life is. Everyone says that he is interested in his own welfare, or self-interest, but no one knows what real self-interest is. Therefore people are mistaken and are simply frustrated by working hard. They work so hard that foam comes from their mouths. All this is going on.

Dharma indicates the end of such a civilization of rascals. That is real dharma. Therefore Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita:

"Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear." (Bg. 18.66)

"Just come to this side," Krsna says. "Simply surrender, you rascal, and just give up all these so-called religions. They are not giving you any relief, and you are simply wasting your time." Srama eva hi kevalam. By so-called religions, no one really develops an understanding of what God actually is. People are going to temples and churches and mosques, but they do not know what God really is. If we ask anyone, any religious man, "so you know what God is?" he will say, "Oh, He is sublime … He is this, and He is that …" All we get is a vague idea. However, one who is devoted to Krsna knows definitely that here is God-Krsna. Here is His eternal consort-Radharani. Here He is, enjoying in this way. Thus the Vedas give definite information about God and His activities.

"I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, the first progenitor, who is tending the cows and fulfilling all desires in abodes built with spiritual gems, surrounded by millions of wish-fulfilling trees, always served with great reverence and affection by hundreds and thousands of Laksmis, goddesses of fortune." (Bs. 5.29)