Nitāi: "Thus being fixed, one must render service unto the Supersoul situated in everyone's own heart by His omnipotency. Because He is the Almighty Personality of Godhead, eternal and unlimited, He is the ultimate goal of life, and by worshiping Him one can end the cause of conditioned state of existence."
Prabhupāda:
- evaṁ sva-citte svata eva siddha
- ātmā priyo 'rtho bhagavān anantaḥ
- taṁ nirvṛto niyatārtho bhajeta
- saṁsāra-hetūparamaś ca yatra
- (SB 2.2.6)
So last night we discussed that why one should bother about his maintenance and go to beg from a person who is very proud of his wealth. He can arrange his own living condition. The living condition is āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ (Hitopadeśa 25). So far one is in the renounced order of life, so he should first of all renounce the sex life and the state of fearfulness. That is renounced. Just like here there are many brahmacārīs, sannyāsīs. They are supposed to be renounced order, especially the sannyāsī, and vānaprastha, brahmacārī. Renounced. First renunciation is to renounce sense gratification. Therefore the person in renounced order is called svāmī. Svāmī means master. Or gosvāmī. So go means "senses," and svāmī means "master." One who has become master of his senses, he is gosvāmī or svāmī. Otherwise, if one is servant of his senses, how he can be svāmī or gosvāmī? Every word has got meaning. So one has to renounce. This is material life. Material life means everyone is engaged for sense gratification, and that is taken as the advancement of civilization. The same sense gratification in different way, same intoxication, same meat-eating, same sex life; either go to club or naked club or this club. Therefore the practice is the same. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30), repetition of chewing the chewed. This is material life.
So renounced order means to stop; not stop, at least control sense gratification. That is renounced order. And without being in renounced order you cannot go to the spiritual world. Just like if your…, your hand is there, you have got something which is not very good within your hand, and if you want to take something better, so you have to throw it away and take it, the better one. You cannot keep the both things. That is not possible. Therefore, what is the difference between material life and spiritual life? Material life means simply full of problems, every step. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ (SB 10.14.58). Simply dangerous. We are riding very nicely, comfortably, in a Cadillac car or motorcar, but we are riding on danger, that's all. We are driving; any moment the car may be smashed, especially in your country. Any moment. So shall I sit down at home? No. At home also there may be so many dangers. We are in dangers. Simply we are trying to counteract it. That is called advancement of civilization. The animals, they depend on nature's protection. But we are human being; we are utilizing our higher consciousness, higher intelligence—the same thing. The Russia is manufacturing an, what is called, weapon, an atom bomb. So...
Devotee: Nuclear weapons.
Prabhupāda: Nuclear, yes. And America is also trying to. And the cat and dog, they are trying to protect by their nails and teeth. So the real question is defense. So the defense is… It is not that because we have got better life than the cats and dogs we haven’t got to defend. We have to defend. This is…, but in a better way. Not better way—after all, we have to die. So anyway, we think that is a better way of defense.