krishna/articles/2010/245

So in the previous verse it has been explained, bhave 'smin klisyanti. This is the problem, klisyanti, simply laboring and... Klisyanti means suffering, suffering the hard work. Everyone. Klisyanti. Everyone is working very hard for maintenance, struggle for existence. Trtiya saktir isyate. Karma-samjnanya trtiya saktir isyate. Here, in this material world, you have to work very, very hard. Just even for maintenance, and what to speak of sense gratification? This is the position. Bhave 'smin klisyanti. Bhave 'smin klisyamananam avidya-kama-karmabhih. If you work hard, at least there is some expectation... Just like ordinarily a man, a boy, takes education, works very hard so that he may be very successful in examination. And then he passes. Then he works hard to get a good job. Then, in the job, in the service, he works very hard so that he get, he may get promotion. So the hard working is going on. You cannot stop it. Klisyanti. But unfortunately they do not know the aim of life, "Why we are working so hard." That is the difficulty. But generally they want -- "We are working hard for sense gratification. That's all, enjoy the senses." That is the whole civilization.

So intelligent persons, they should be aware that "Simply for sense gratification if we are working so hard, then this is being done by the animals also. Then what is the difference between us and the animal?" But they are so mad after sense gratification... Nunam pramattah kurute vi... They are prepared to work for something which one should... Just like stealing or black-marketing and... There are so many things. They are working hard. Even a, a thief, he is risking his life not to work hard, but he's risking his life. Especially in the Western countries, the burglars, they risk their life because there the law is that anyone trespassing within your house, even ordinarily, you can kill him. Is it not? The law is so hard that even if you, if you enter anyone's gate, anyone's property, without permission, he can kill you. Is it not I am right? Yes. Here in India we don't take it so seriously. So many people are passing here and there. But in your country... I know that one of our boy went to pick up some flowers in Los Angeles, and he was fired. Of course he did not like to kill him, but the firing was there. So just see. For sense gratification the thief taking the risk of his life... The working... Not only working hard. Those who are not thief, they are working very hard to get some money, honestly or dishonestly, and those who are not very honest, to steal they make so many plans, so many devices to steal at the risk of life.

So the life in this material world is not very easy-going. Therefore this very word is used, bhave 'smin, bhave 'smin klisyamananam. Everyone is working very, very hard. But they do not know what is the aim. Why they are working so hard, that they do not know. Generally, as I have already explained, that a man works very hard to get some money, some good bank balance, so that in old age he can live very peacefully, without any disturbance. Of course, that is not possible because at that time he may have money, but he is full of anxieties. A family man, old man, is always cinta-magna, cinta-magna, as "This boy is not well-situated. That boy has not educated... His education is not yet finished. And that girl has lost his husband. Husbands are rejected." Where is the peace? There cannot be peace. Klisyanti. Again he tries to adjust that boy, that girl, that grandchildren, that..., going on. Therefore Sankaracarya, he has said, balas tavat kriyasaktah.(?) The children, they are very working hard for playing. They're also getting perspiration, but they are taking pleasure in jumping and this way and that way.

So balas tavat kriyasaktah. And yuva... What is another name of yuvaka?

Devotee: Youth.

Prabhupada: Yes. What is the Sanskrit name? Yuvakas tavad yuvati-raktah,(?) that "Young men, they are busy working very hard: ‘Where is woman? Where is woman? Where is that girl? Where is that girl?' "He's also busy. The boy is busy, and the young man, he is also busy, love affairs, to find out a suitable mate. Similarly... Yuvakas tavad yuvati-raktah. And after young life, when one becomes old, vrddhas tavad cinta-magnah: "The old man is full of anxiety, absorbed in thought, ‘How to do it, how to do that? It is not...' " In this way everyone is busy. Parame brahmane ko 'pi na lagnah: "Nobody's interested in Krsna consciousness." This is the difficulty. That they do not know. They... That the... "This human life, we are working so hard..." Just like we have taken this Krsna consciousness movement. We are also working very, very hard to collect money and to construct temple and to educate people. This is also working hard. But we have got an aim. It is not without aim. Theoretically or practically, we have accepted it that if we can please Krsna, then our future is hopeful. We have got some hope. But what these people have got hope, these karmis? They have no hope. Simply wild goat chasing, that's all. They do not know what is the aim of life. Na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum [SB 7.5.31]. They do not know the real aim of life is to satisfy Visnu, svartha-gatim. Yajna.

Prabhupada's lecture.
Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.36
Mayapura, October 16, 1974