Actually, in this material existence we are forgetting our real, constitutional position, that we are all eternal servant of the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa. Manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati (BG 15.7). But some way or other, we have come to this material world for enjoying, for lord it over the material nature. And that is not possible. You cannot lord it over. The Lord is Kṛṣṇa, but we are trying to be lord. And the endeavor, the labor which we are giving incessantly, that we are thinking happiness.
The nature, the material nature, is putting stumbling block every time. That, to overcome the impediments offered by the material nature and our trial for overcoming that stumbling block, that is our endeavor. And we are thinking this is happiness. Just like you are making one high road and there is . . . material nature is offering a big hill, a big mountain before you. Now you have to make tunnel. You have to call for dynamite and try to penetrate through the hill.
That struggle is known as advancement of material condition. That you cannot. In America and other materialistic countries we see—here also, in Japan—they are laying down one kind of road for plying their motorcars. After some years it becomes a problem—another flyway, another flyway.
So this is going on. This is called struggle for existence. We are trying to conquer over the stringent laws of material nature, and that labor, that useless spoiling of life, we are thinking that we are . . . this is happiness. This is called māyā. We are actually giving service to the māyā instead of giving service to Kṛṣṇa. This is illusion.