Prabhupāda: . . . I have got the opportunity of seeing you and your Rādhā-Vṛndāvana-Candra, who is so kind upon you. So, real happiness is here. Rādhā-Vṛndāvana-Candra is staying here, and He's pleased with your service. This is the perfection of life. Keep Kṛṣṇa always with you and serve Him sincerely, then all happiness will come, without any endeavor. The foolish people, they do not know. They are trying to improve their economic condition, position, and wasting their time. It has no value. Of course, modern people will take it as very revolting that there is no need of this endeavor for economic development. Actually you, if you study minutely, what is the benefit by economic development? Prahlāda Mahārāja said that . . . What is that verse? Only waste of time. Prayateta? Na tasyeta prayateta, āyur-vyayaḥ param (SB 7.6.4).
This modern civilization . . . It is not modern, but in modern civilization it has become very prominent, that to improve the economic condition. Economic condition means we improve the standard of sense gratification. This is called going on economic condition. But we require a little sense gratification. Dharma artha kāma mokṣa. This is the gradual process of evolution. Real purpose is mokṣa, how to become free from this entanglement of repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. This is the real aim of life. But because we are coming from the lowest grade of living condition, jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati (Padma Purāṇa)—like that, 8,400,000 different species of life—our tendency is only for sense gratification. Because in the lower grade of life there is no other pleasure except sense gratification: āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca. A small ant, some information has come to him that on the third floor there is a grain of sugar, and he's running there. Āhāra: something eatable is there.
So sense enjoyment means these four things: eating, sleeping, sex and defense. This is called sense enjoyment. But this is common to everyone.
- sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā
- deha-yogena dehinām
- sarvatra labhyate daivād
- yathā duḥkham ayatnataḥ
- (SB 7.6.3)
Now, if you study the lower grade of life, they are having all these things without any plan for economic development. Lower grade, just like animals, say, other lower grade . . . Lower grade means less than the animal or the aquatics, the plants, the insects, the birds, then come to the beast, then come to the human form of life, civilized . . . uncivilized, then civilized. In this way there is a gradation. So this happiness, sense gratification, that is already there. Prahlāda Mahārāja says, sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā deha-yogena dehinām. The sense gratification is there in different bodies, but the standard may be different. Standard means our calculation; otherwise, the standard is also the same. The sex life between dogs and sex life between human beings, the pleasure is the same. There is no change. There is no change. You don't think that when the dogs on the public street enjoy sex life their standard is lesser than our sex life in a very nice, decorated apartment, and so many things, nice dress, nice bedding. No. The pleasure is the same. Just like if one has got typhoid fever. It is not that the poor man will suffer more than the rich man. No. The fever temperature is the same. The doctor, after taking temperature, he will say the temperature is the same, diseased man . . . It does not mean that because the rich man has got typhoid fever, his suffering is less than the typhoid fever for the poor man. No. That is not possible.
So we think that the standard of sense gratification is pleasure. No. The standard of pleasure of this eating, sleeping . . . We are taking pleasure in eating nice foodstuff. Just now Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja gave me. And another animal, he's also eating something very abominable to our consideration. Just like the pig eating stool. He's also getting the same pleasure. So economic development does not mean that you can improve the quality of pleasure. That is not possible. Therefore I was speaking that the dog is running with four legs and we are running with four wheels, but it does not mean the pleasure of running is different. The dog is also enjoying by running here and there—perhaps you have seen sometimes—with four legs, and we are also. The standard does not improve. The superficial change, I may think that this is advancement. No. That is not advancement, because the real thing is that your sense pleasure.