The other day I explained that suppose you are destined to live for fifty years. Now, you cannot make it fifty-one years or fifty years one month by spending any amount of money. Just like a man is dying. He's very rich man. The doctor says that "He will die at such-and-such time." And if somebody says, "My dear doctor, kindly increase the time little more.
You say that 'He will die at 10 o'clock at night.' Now make it next day 10 o'clock. We have got some business," so that is not possible. That is not possible. If you spend millions of dollars and bribe the doctor, "Please extend the life. We have to get him sign some document before he dies," "Oh, that is not possible."
Therefore just try to understand, the duration of life, how much it is valuable. It is not in your power to increase even by moment. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja says that "Don't spoil your life for so-called sense gratification. That is already arranged there.
Don't spoil your valuable life simply for sense gratification." Just see. These instructions are to be noted by human being, that we should not spoil even a second of our life uselessly. Uselessly. How? The . . . how we spend our life? Na cen nirarthakaṁ nītiḥ, ka ca hānis tato 'dhikā.
Just the other day I told you about the version of Cāṇakya Paṇḍita: āyuṣaḥ kṣaṇa vidhvāṁsi kalpānta-sthāyino guṇaḥ. The Paṇḍita, the Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says that this āyuḥ, the duration of life, we do not know when we shall end. It is assure it will end. But kalpānta-sthāyino guṇaḥ, but if you are Kṛṣṇa conscious, then your that spiritual qualification will continue to eternity.
There are many instructions in Vedic literature. So here also the same thing is repeated. Tat-prayāso na kartavyo yata āyur-vyayaḥ param: you should not try to spoil your life, spoil your valuable life, for something which is not very much beneficial for you. And what is that thing beneficial? Self-realization. Self-realization, "What I am."
This is the product of meditation. If you want to meditate, meditation means to attempt to understand oneself, "What I am." That is real meditation. Meditation does not mean that. . . .Of course, this voidness, meditation in voidness, is another negative attempt that This body is nothing. But actually, I am not void; I am spirit soul. And because I have no information of the spirit soul, therefore I simply try to think of the negative side of this bodily existence. That is called voidness.
Simply negative . . . now, I am not this body. I am not this body. I am not this body, that's all right. But that is not perfect self-realization. When I understand that I am not this body; I am spirit soul, that is partial self-realization. And when I understand that I am not only spirit soul, but I have got spiritual activities, that is still more advancement. And when you are actually situated in spiritual activities, that is the perfection of life. Just try to understand.
First thing is, I am not this body. That's all right. Then what you are, or what I am? The next stage is to understand that I am not this body; I am spirit soul. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. The exact Sanskrit language is that to understand that I am spirit soul. All right, then is that finished? No. Still you have to go further.