In the Vedic way of thinking, in the material world, there are four stages of development. They are called dharma-artha-kāma-mokṣa (SB 4.8.41, CC Adi 1.90), namely following the religious principles, economic development, sense gratification and liberation. Just like in the Christian church, people go there to ask, "God, give us our daily bread." So dharma. People generally think that "If I become religious, then my economic condition must be very nice." And when one's economic condition becomes very nice . . . he wants to make economic condition very nice, he wants some monetary, financial adjustment.
This financial adjustment, or financial improvement, people generally want for sense gratification. Dharma-artha-kāma. Dharma means religion, artha means financial facilities and kāma means sense gratification. And then, when one is baffled in sense gratification, he wants liberation. These four principles are generally followed by the materialistic men. Liberation . . . when one is baffled in adjusting things to his satisfaction, he wants to become one with the Supreme or with the void.
But Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, or this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is above these four principles of materialistic way of thinking. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means to inquire the value of life and the destination of life. We advocate that human form of life is meant neither for religious ritualistic performances or economic development or for sense gratification or for so-called searching after liberation.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavata says that jīvasya tattva-jijñāsaḥ. We have to accept economic development so far as we keep our body and soul together, fit for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We do not recommend that unnecessarily you should give trouble to the body. We do not recommend any man to go to the forest for spiritual realization. We simply recommend that you try to understand what is your constitutional position.
If you actually think or meditate very cool-headed what is your actual position, first of all you shall realize that you are not this body. If you meditate in a solitary place . . . meditation means to keep yourself alone and in a solitary place. So in the beginning, if you meditate as to "What I am? Am I this body? Am I this mind? Am I this intelligence?" in this way, if you search out, you will find that you are neither of these. Ultimately, you'll search out that you are consciousness.