The human being, if he does not realize God, he's simply engaged in animalistic way of life—eating, sleeping, mating—then nature will call, "All right, sir, again become animal." Punar mūṣiko bhava: "Again become a mouse." You know this story, punar mūṣiko bhava? There is a story. There is a very nice story. One rat, a mouse, he came to a saintly person. Everyone comes to saintly person for some blessing, you see. Real blessing they don't want. Some material blessing. Real blessing, Kṛṣṇa, they don't want. But if you give him some blessing that "You become very rich man and this . . ." they'll be very much pleased. So this mouse also came and begged the saintly person, "Sir, I am in difficulty. If you give me some blessings?" "What is that?" "Now, the cat chases after me always. I'm very unhappy." "So what do you want?" "Now, if you make me a cat, then I can get relief from this." "All right, you become cat." So he became cat.
So after few days, again he comes: "Sir, again I am in trouble." "What is that?" "The dog is chasing me." (laughter) Don't laugh; hear seriously. "Dog is chasing." "All right, then what do you want?" "Now, make me a tiger." "All right, you become a tiger." So when he became a tiger he was staring on the saintly person like this. So he asked, "Why you are staring upon me? You want to eat me?" "Yes." So he again curses, punar mūṣiko bhava: "Again you become mouse. Again you become mouse."
So that is our position. We are advanced in civilization; now we want to kill God. So we are again going to be uncivilized, to remain in the forest and to remain naked. Actually, they are practicing that: nature's life. So again they are going to be aborigines. And that is being practiced. They are going to the forest; they remain naked. So actually, punar mūṣiko bhava: "Again become mouse." Civilized human being means God conscious, happy life, no trouble, no enviousness, everything happy, no hard labor. Why hard labor? Everything is there. You just employ your little intelligence, you get sufficient food by grains, by fruits, by flowers, milk. There is no difficulty if we remain in our own way.
So that is the difficulty, that we do not know that our ultimate goal of life is God-realization. Then God has got all arrangement. You cannot produce fruits and grains in factory. They are given by God. Why? That "You eat them and be Kṛṣṇa conscious and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." But we don't want that. We want slaughterhouse, unnecessarily. Actually, if you go to the store . . . there are so many storehouses. How many stores are selling only meat? It is not possible. Ninety-nine percent fruits, vegetable, grains you are taking, and maybe a little percentage of meat. So why you cannot give up this little percentage? If you think that meat is very palatable, why don't you live on meat? Russia is also trying like that. That has become the fashion. In Moscow, it was very difficult to find out nice grains. With great difficulty Śyāmasundara used to spend two hours daily to secure these things.
So this is the problem. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31). They are trying to be happy by the arrangement of these material activities. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās te 'pīśa-tantryām. They do not know that the material nature is so strong that you cannot get out of it unless you are prepared to suffer more and more. If you take to natural life and live peacefully and take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is your real life. And if you simply increase botheration and problem, then you'll have to suffer. That is the position of modern civilization.