In the human society, they are meant for keeping balance. What is that balance? They do not know that . . . it is just like balance. One side spirit, another side matter. We are now, actually, we are spirit soul. Somehow or other we have been encaged within this body, material body. For that purpose, so long we have got this body, we have got necessities of the body—eating, sleeping, mating, defending.
These are the necessities of the body. Soul does not require all these things. Soul has nothing to eat. That we do not know. Whatever we are eating, that is . . . that is for keeping of this body. So the bodily necessities are there, but if you simply look after the bodily necessities and do not care to look after the necessity of the soul, that is foolish civilization. No balance. They do not know.
Just like a rascal: he's simply washing the coat, but does not take care of the body. Or a bird is in the cage, and if you take care of the cage and don't take care of the bird within the cage . . . the bird is crying, "Keh-keh. Give me food. Give me food," but you are taking care of the cage. This is foolishness. So why we are unhappy? Why, in your country especially . . . you are supposed to be the richest country in the world. You have no scarcity—no scarcity of food, no scarcity of motorcar, no scarcity of bank balance, no scarcity of sex. Everything is there, complete, in full abundance.
And still, why a section of people are frustrated and confused like the hippies? They are not satisfied. Why? That is the defect. Because there is no balance. You are taking care of the bodily necessities of life, but you have no information of the soul. And there is necessity of the soul also, because soul is the real subject matter; body is the covering only.
So it is said that . . . now, I'm explaining that verse: dharmasya glānir bhavati. This is dharmasya glāniḥ: pollution of duty. dharma means duty. dharma is not a kind of faith. In English dictionary it is said religion means a faith. No, no. It is not. dharma means the actual, constitutional duty. That is dharma. So if you have no information of the soul, if you do not know what is the need of the soul, simply you are busy on the bodily necessities of life, bodily comfort . . . so bodily comfort will not save you.
Suppose a man is very comfortably situated. Does it mean that he will not die? He'll die. So simply by bodily comforts you cannot exist—survival of the fittest; struggle for existence. So when we simply take care of the body, that is called dharmasya glāniḥ, polluted. One must know what is the necessity of the body and what is the necessity of the soul. The real necessity of life is to supply the comforts of the soul. And the soul can be comforted not by material adjustment. Because soul is a different identity, the soul must be given spiritual food. That spiritual food is this Kṛṣṇa consciousness.