I do not know. "I do not know" means I cannot remember what I did in my past life and what is going to happen in the next life. In ignorance, tamasā. Ajñas tamasā upāste. This is tamo-guṇa. The present life as it is, we try to enjoy, that's all, without caring for the next life or without understanding what was my past life. But human being should be intelligent enough that "Why . . .? I am enjoying or I am suffering. The other person, he is differently enjoying or suffering differently. Why the differences are there?" This is intelligence. Why not one kind of enjoyment? Why not everyone millionaire? Why not everyone pauper, or poor? There are varieties. So they do not consider it. They are so fool, they . . . They should, that "Why I am put into this condition? Why he is put into another condition? Why the other is put in another condition?" That is called tamasā. They do not care to know also. Tamasā. Tamase ca.
So this is not life. This is animal life. Therefore Vedic injunction is, "Don't keep in this animal life." Tamasi mā: "Don't keep yourself in this darkness." Jyotir gama: "Come to the light." So jyotir gama means . . . That is tapasya. To come to the platform of light, it requires tapasya, austerity. That is required. The human life is meant for tapasya, to come to the life platform. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattva (SB 5.5.1). Tamasic or tamas, or darkness, means just like a person is attacked with tuberculosis, but he doesn't care for it. But intelligent man goes to the physician, asks that "Why I am suffering? What is the medicine?" That is intelligence. So human life begins when one is inquisitive to know, "Why I am suffering?" That is human life. And if he keeps himself in darkness—"Oh, this is . . . Suffering is suffering. Let me enjoy . . ." Sometimes they want to forget the suffering by another suffering, drinking or LSD, to forget suffering. That is another suffering, another suffering so much so that one becomes crazy and commits suicide. This is going on, a very precarious life. And human life is the only opportunity to rectify these mistakes and come to his original position, constitutional position, means the spiritual platform.
- brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
- na śocati na kāṅkṣati
- samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
- mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām
- (BG 18.54)
That is wanted. Brahma-bhūtaḥ. As soon as one becomes brahma-bhūtaḥ, then immediately he becomes prasannātmā, jubilant. Just like one is suffering from a disease, and some way or other, when he is relieved from that disease, immediately he becomes jubilant. That is required. That is wanted. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). And when one becomes jubilant, then in that attitude, one can enter into devotional service of the Lord, not in the material condition, which is always suffering. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). But we go on suffering just like animal. Animal is being taken to the slaughterhouse; still, he is eating very jubilantly. Next item, he will be killed. So this kind of consciousness is called animal consciousness.
- yasyātma-buddhiḥ kunape tri-dhātuke
- svā-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ
- yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij
- . . .sa eva go-kharaḥ
- (SB 10.84.13)
Go-kharaḥ.
So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means to deliver people from this ignorant. . . ignorance platform and bring him to the light platform, or. . . and knowledge platform, so that one can understand what is his constitutional position, how he can stop the sufferings of life, and how one can become eternally blissful life of knowledge. (break) . . .consciousness. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He has given us the Śikṣāṣṭaka. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). By chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra . . . (break) . . .in the Bhāgavata says tapasā. Tapasā means by undergoing severe austerities, penances. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena damena vā (SB 6.1.13). This is the instruction in the śāstra. One has to become perfect by tapasā, by austerities. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa. And becoming brahmacārī, celibate. What is called? Celibate life? Eh?
Jagadīśa: Celibacy.
Prabhupāda: Celibacy, yes. Life of celibacy, controlling the sex desire. This is tapasya. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena damena vā (SB 6.1.13). These things are education. And what is this nonsense education how to become a big mechanics of motorcar parts? This is not education. This is śūdra, śūdra education. It is not education. It is called śilpa. Śilpa-vidyā, brahma-vidyā. Vidyā means brahma-vidyā. Therefore, in the Vedic society, education was meant for the brāhmaṇas. Education was not meant for the śūdras. Education was meant for the brāhmaṇas, and partially of the kṣatriyas, neither of the vaiśyas nor of the śūdras. What education? Vaiśya's livelihood is, or his occupational duty is, how to produce food, how to give protection to the cows, and if there is excess stock, how to trade with it. So anyone can learn by seeing only. It doesn't require any high education. If the father is tilling the field, the son can learn it by seeing it. If the father . . . Just like in Vṛndāvana, we . . . Kṛṣṇa . . . Kṛṣṇa was going to tend the cows and calves of Nanda Mahārāja. There was no education. It can be learned simply by seeing others doing that.
So at the present moment education means many Indians are coming to America to learn how to polish motorcar parts or how to create technology. So this is not education. This is not education. But the Europeans and Americans, they are going to India for learning brahma-vidya. That is education. The Europeans and Americans, when they go to Vṛndāvana and Māyāpur, they do not go there to see how we have manufactured cycle and machine for sewing. They have seen enough of this. We may be very proud in India: "Now we are manufacturing cycle and sewing machine or some motor parts, advanced." This is not advanced. Education means how to make one brāhmaṇa, how to teach him how he become sense controlled, śama, dama, mind control, how to become truthful, how to become clean, how to become simple, how to become full of knowledge, how to apply knowledge in practical life, how to know God. This is education. This is education.
So the present situation of the human civilization is very, very dark, tamasā. They want to live in the city without working for producing their food. And there are butchers, they kill innocent animals. And in the city they eat the meat, and to digest they drink and work like hogs and dogs whole day and night. This is civilization. This is not civilization. This is darkness, darkness of life. So we are in the darkness of life at the present moment because it is Kali-yuga, and . . . The system is always there so long the material world is there and the living entities are fallen in this material world. So they are implicated more or less. So in the Satya-yuga, Tretā-yuga, Dvāpara-yuga, they were not so implicated as they are implicated at this moment, Kali-yuga, because the age of misunderstanding . . . And the duration of age is also very short. Prāyeṇa alpa āyuṣaḥ. In this age people are living not very long. Although the limit is hundred years, nobody is living hundred years. It is reduced, reduced, more and more. In the Kali-yuga the memory will be reduced, the duration of life will be reduced, the strength of the body will be reduced, people's sense of mercifulness will be reduced. In this way there are eight items mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it will be reduced.
So this is the age of Kali, and we are in darkness, and a mode of life just like animals. So this is our position. But the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, He is sympathetic. He comes, therefore. He comes . . . He came in the Dvāpara-yuga, by the end of Dvāpara-yuga, and He left behind Him this Bhagavad-gītā, being merciful upon these conditioned soul, that "You make your life perfect by reading this Bhagavad-gītā. I am leaving behind him. Arjuna is My friend." So in the way of questions or answers and in the way of Arjuna's falling in difficulty . . . Arjuna was not difficulty. He is personal friend of Kṛṣṇa. But in order to derive the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, he showed himself as in ignorance. The benefit is our. . . that we have got this Bhagavad-gītā. But still, we are so fallen. Because Kṛṣṇa said that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, therefore people misunderstood. Again Kṛṣṇa came in this Kali-yuga as Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya nāmne. The Rūpa Gosvāmī, he prayed to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, namo mahā-vadānyāya. Kṛṣṇa came. That's all right. But He was not so liberal. He wanted first of all surrender.