Bombay, December 19, 1974
So we have been accustomed to this habit of material disadvantages. We have no information of spiritual life. Therefore śāstra says that we should try... This life, human life, is not meant for suffering but to make endeavor to end suffering. That is human life. Human life is not meant for suffering like the animals. Just like the life of pig. Is that very good life? Whole day and night they are searching after stool, "Where is stool? Where is stool?" because that is their enjoyment. Actually, if you give a pig halavā and, side by side, stool, he would prefer to accept the stool than the halavā because he is habituated to that kind of food. Therefore Ṛṣabhadeva says that human life... He was instructing to His sons, "My dear sons, don't be like pigs. You just become like human being." Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye: [SB 5.5.1] "My dear sons, don't try to get happiness like the pigs, dogs, hogs." Kaṣṭān kāmān. With hard labor, you get some food, and then you enjoy sex life. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham [SB 7.9.45]. Material life means to work very hard day and night and get some money and then eat sumptuously. Eat, drink, be merry and then enjoy sex life. That's all. So Ṛṣabhadeva said, "My dear sons, this kind of standard of life is available in the life of pigs." Kaṣṭān kāmān arhate ye viḍ-bhujām. Viḍ-bhujām means stool-eaters.
Then what is human life? If this is not life, then what is real life? That, He recommends, tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam [SB 5.5.1]. Sattva, your sattva, your existence, is now impure. It is covered by this material nature; therefore it is impure. So you have to purify. That is real life. And to purify means tapasya. Tapo divyam [SB 5.5.1]. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa [SB 6.1.13]. That is the way. That is Vedic civilization. That is Vedic civilization, or you may call Indian civilization or Hindu civilization. Actually, it is Vedic civilization. Therefore you will find in India, in the history of India, Mahābhārata, greater India, that many people, they are engaged in tapasya. A part of life must be engaged for tapasya. The Bharata Mahārāja, Bharata Mahārāja, under whose name this planet is called Bhāratavarṣa... So you will find in the Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam his life. He enjoyed his kingdom, then voluntarily he left. After the end of his material way of life, he divided the property to his sons and left. And he was living alone at Pulahāśrama near Haridwar, and undergoing severe tapasya. That is human life, to accept tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvaṁ yasmād brahma-saukhyam anantam [SB 5.5.1]. You are searching after happiness, but why don't you see that in this material life your happiness is conditioned? That is not easily going or flowing. There are so many conditions. If you have to become a millionaire, before becoming millionaire there are so many condition. So this is not happiness, after going through so many conditions, and which we get, that is also not for good.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.26.7