Prabhupāda: When there is discrepancies in the discharge of dharma... Dharma means the prescribed rules by which one elevates himself to the transcendental life. That is dharma, religion. Why in human society there is religion? The purpose is to elevate himself to the transcendental position. That is religion. Where there is no such aim to raise one from the fallen condition to the liberated state, that is not religion. That is sentiment. Religion means that one should be raised from the fallen condition to the highest elevated condition. Therefore there are so many rules and regulations. In the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord says, yad icchantam, yad icchantam brahmacaryaṁ caranti. Yad icchantam. (aside:) Just open the... I think it is in the Eighth Chapter. Eighth Chapter, fifteenth verse. Open it. (pause) Read it.
Devotee: Mām upetya punar janma (BG 8.15).
Prabhupāda: No. Then, before that.
Devotee: Ananya cetaḥ...
Prabhupāda: Before that.
Devotee: Oṁ iti...
Prabhupāda: Yad icchantam. The śloka is yad icchantaṁ brahma... You don't find it. Let me. Let me have the book. (pause) Yes, here. Eleventh.
- yad akṣaraṁ veda-vido vadanti
- viśanti yad yatayo vīta-rāgāḥ
- yad icchanto brahmacaryaṁ caranti
- tat te padaṁ saṅgraheṇa pravakṣye
Here is the transla... "I shall briefly describe to that state which the knowers of the Vedas call the imperishable, which the ascetics, freed from passion, enter, and desiring which, they lead a life of self-control." Not... Brahmacarya is celibacy. Translation is not here. Celibacy means completely ceasing from sex life. Yad icchanto brahmacarya. Brahmacarya means celibacy. No sex life. Therefore the brahmacarya āśrama is recommended. The first basic principle of religious life, according to Vedic principle, the students are expected to go to the spiritual master's place and learn how to live without any sex life. For twenty-five years or at least for twenty years, the student is trained up in that way. Then he's allowed to enter into the gṛhastha life to marry. So there is a process. Religion means there must be process. It is not simply mental speculation. Yad icchantaṁ brahmacaryaṁ caranti. Yad icchantaṁ brahmacaryaṁ caranti tat te padaṁ saṅgraheṇa pravakśye. These things are described in the Bhagavad-gītā.
So to understand, to elevate oneself from the fallen condition to the highest liberated condition, one has to be trained up, one has to follow the rules and regulations as they are prescribed. Otherwise, simply some recreation, spiritual recreation, talking something—"This is that; this is that," "Neti neti"—and I lead my life like anything... That will not help us. Therefore the taṭastha lakṣaṇa. Therefore we accept anyone and everyone as incarnation, because we are not trained up who is incarnation, to see. And, because we want to be cheated, there are so many cheaters who comes as incarnation and this and that, and the society's going on like that. Not only here—in everywhere, every part of the world. They are not very serious, what is the ultimate aim of spiritual life. Spiritual life and material life is that when you want to enjoy, when we want to be lord of these material resources, that is material life. And when you want to become servant of God, that is spiritual life. They..., there is not much difference between the activities of material life and spiritual life. Only the consciousness has to be changed. When my consciousness is to lord it over the material nature, that is material life, and when my consciousness is to serve Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, here, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is spiritual life.