Anyone who is within this material world must work. This is material world. Just like in the prison house, it is not possible that he will sit down and he will be honored just like son-in-law. No. In the . . . in our country son-in-law is very much worshiped. "Worshiped" means flattered. Never divorce the daughter. Therefore, nobody should expect that we may speak something humorous about son-in-law in India. Formerly . . . it is still the system that the daughter must get married. That is the responsibility of the father. It is called kanyā-dāna. A father may not get his son married. That is not very great responsibility. But if there is a daughter, the father must see that she is married. Formerly it was ten years, twelve years, thirteen years. Not more than that. That is the system. That was the Vedic system. Kanyā. Kanyā means before attaining puberty. Kanyā. So kanyā-dāna. She must be given in charity to somebody.
So, in the kulina brāhmiṇ, brāhmiṇ, very respectable community, so it was very difficult to find out a suitable son-in-law. Therefore, formerly one gentleman may become a businessman simply by marrying. In my boyhood, when I was a student, a school student, so I had one class friend, he took me to his home. So I saw one gentleman was smoking, and he told me, "Do you know this gentleman?" So I asked, "Oh, how can I know?" That "He is my aunt's husband, and my aunt is the sixty-fourth wife of this gentleman." Sixty-fourth. So these kulina brāhmiṇs, they . . . their business was like that: marry somewhere, stay there some days, again go to another wife, again go to another wife, again go to another. Simply going to the wife, that is business. This was a social system we have seen. Now these things are now gone. Nobody will marry the husband who has married sixty-four times. (laughter) But (laughing) it was there. So son-in-law, in that case, is very much honored. There are many stories. We should not waste our time in that way. (laughter)
So here in this material world, who is born, he should not think himself that, "I am honored guest or honored son-in-law." No. Everyone has to work. That you see the whole world. In your country there is president—everywhere—that he is also working hard day and night. Otherwise he cannot keep his presidency. It is not possible. The whole brain is congested with political affairs. So many problems, solutions. He has to work. Similarly, a man on the street, he has to work also. This is the nature, material nature. You have to work. It is not the spiritual world.
Spiritual world means there is no work. There is simply ānanda, joyfulness. That you see from reading Kṛṣṇa Book. They are not working. Kṛṣṇa is going with the calves and the cows. That is not working; that is amusement. That is amusement. They are dancing, they are going to the forest, they are sitting down on the bank of the Ganges. Sometimes the demons are attacking, Kṛṣṇa is killing. This is all pleasure, amusement. Ānanda-mayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). That is spiritual world. Just like, take a sample of spiritual activity, we are. We have got so many branches, so many members, but we are not working. Simple, a sample of spiritual life. Our neighbors are envious: "How these people dancing and chanting and eating?" (laughter) Because they are working hard like cats and dogs, and we have no such responsibility. We haven't got to go to office or factory. Just see, practical example.