Formerly, people were very happy so far material conditions were concerned. They had no complaint. Everyone was happy, everyone was getting ample food. And why they shall not get? The birds, beasts, they are getting their ample food, even up to death. There is no complaint amongst the birds and beast, unless one is in the human society. Otherwise in the jungle there are major portion of the animals and birds.
They have no complaint. They do not come in the city that, "We have this complaint." They are happy. They are getting ample food; life is very happy. They have got their eating, they have got their sleeping, they have got their mates for sex life and they know how to defend. Everything is there. There is no problem. Only in the human society they have created problems, because they have no knowledge. The so-called knowledge is useless. Unless you cannot (sic) solve the problems, what is the meaning of this knowledge? Therefore Kṛṣṇa says knowledge means one must know this is my real, acute miserable condition of life, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). This is knowledge.
So to begin with knowledge, Kṛṣṇa recommends amānitvam, humility. Because the real disease of material life is that he is not humble. He is always proud, little possession. Svalpa-jala mātrena . . . (indistinct) . . . just like the big fish in the ocean. They are deep within the water, and if you find out a small lake, little water, you'll find small fishes, "parput-parput," they're doing there. So there is no depth of knowledge. Simply they're perplexed.