We are trying to forget God, and the result is we are more and more in entanglement. This is the defect of the modern civilization. In the universities there are so many departments of knowledge, but there is no department of knowledge, "What is God. What I am. What is my relation with God." There is no such department—the most important department. And this human body, this human life, is especially meant for this purpose: to realize God. Otherwise, what is the reason? (break) We had an animal body.
- āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca
- samānam etat paśubhir narāṇām
- (Hitopadeśa)
Eating, sleeping, sex intercourse and defense—these four principles are common either to the animal or to the man. The animal also eats, the animal also sleeps, the animal also has sex intercourse, and he knows in his own way how to defend. So these things are natural in animal.
So this human being, human society, also becomes simply busy with these four principles of bodily demands, he is no more than an animal. He may be very polished animal, but if we simply follow these four principles of life, demands of this body, then we are simply animal. The only . . . therefore Vedānta-sūtra says, athāto brahma jijñāsā: now, in this human form of life, one should be inquisitive to understand what is Brahman. That is the first business of human society. But they have now forgotten. There is a nice Bengali verse. It is said like this:
- kṛṣṇa bhuliya jīva bhoga vañcha kare
- pāśate māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare
- (Prema-vivarta)