So Bhāgavata also says like that, that you should be inquisitive for the goal of your life. That goal of life—everyone is searching after happiness, but where I can get uninterrupted happiness, eternal happiness, blissful happiness? That you have to search out. That is the direction of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovidaḥ. Intelligent persons who search out that kind of happiness, na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ, which cannot be achieved even by traveling or covering the whole space... Then one may question that "If I am engaged in searching out the goal of my life, accepting that spiritual realization is the goal of my life, then what about my living condition? I have to work."
So Bhāgavata answers that "You be engaged in your whatever engagement God has ordained to you, and do it honestly. But the gain out of your engagement will automatically come. Don't be very much anxious. You should be anxious to realize yourself." And how it will be achieved, my material needs? The answer is, "As you achieve all these miseries." The miseries are enforced upon us. Nobody desires that such-and-such misery may come upon him. Nobody expects. Just like there is fire brigade always running. Nobody expects that "There may be fire in my apartment or house," but sometimes it takes place, and the fire brigade has to be called for. Similarly, as we do not expect fire but it takes place, similarly, even I do not try for my material happiness, whatever ordained, whatever I am destined to achieve, that will come. That is the answer of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Prabhupada's lecture - Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.5.4 - Los Angeles, January 12, 1968