Every one of us will know it. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām (SB 10.14.58). Those who are living in Bombay city, they know it very well: when you pass through the road in taxi-cab or motorcar, so much congested, and at any moment there may be some danger, padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām. In America also, the cars are running in seventy-mile speed, and if one car collides with another, immediately four, five cars—disaster.
So actually you are living in such a condition. Pādaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām. Every moment there is danger. It is not very peaceful living at the present moment. We are running, we are flying in the sky, we are . . . we do not say that this should be stopped, neither it can be stopped, but you do everything in Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that even danger takes place, ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ (SB 2.1.6), you can at least remember Kṛṣṇa at the time of death.
Then your life is successful. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran loke tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6), Kṛṣṇa says. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi. At the time of death our remembrance to a certain thing gives me next body. If I think like a dog, then I become next life a dog, and if I think like a god, then I, next life I become god. That is the test at the time of death.
So unless you practice, how you can remember Kṛṣṇa at the time of death? Therefore Saṁrāj Kulaśekhara, the great emperor devotee, he is praying to Kṛṣṇa:
- kṛṣṇa tvadīya-pada-paṅkaja-pañjarāntam
- adyaiva viśatu me mānasa-rāja-haṁsaḥ
- prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ
- kaṇṭhāvarodhana-vidhau smaraṇaṁ kutas te
- (MM 33)
"My dear Lord Kṛṣṇa, now I am healthy. I am thinking rightly. Kindly give me immediately death, and I can be entangled with Your lotus feet tight, like the swan entangles itself with the lotus stem." You have seen, the swans take pleasure by entangling itself with the lotus stem. It goes down the water and catches the stem and binds itself. In this way, it is a sporting of the swan.
"So Samraj Kulaśekhara says, mānasa. Kṛṣṇa tvadīya-pada-paṅkaja-pañjarāntam adyaiva viśatu me mānasa-rāja-hāmsaḥ: "At the present moment my mind is just like the swan. It is playing with Your lotus stem. So let me die immediately. Otherwise, if I die ordinarily," prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ, "The three elements kapha, pitha, bile, they will overwhelm me, and I may not remember You at that time. I may forget You. So Kṛṣṇa, give me immediately death so that I, remembering, I may die You."
This is process. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means somehow or other try to remember Kṛṣṇa at the time of death, ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ. Then your life is successful. Just like Ajāmila. Ajāmila, he was a great sinner—we shall one day describe about Ajāmila's life—but at the time of death, out of his affection for his youngest son, whose name was Nārāyaṇa, he thrice called, "Nārāyaṇa! Nārāyaṇa!"
But the original Nārāyaṇa took notice of it: "Oh, this man is calling Nārāyaṇa." Immediately sent His personal assistant to take him back to home, back to Godhead. Ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ (SB 2.1.6). Somehow or other. He was not remembering the original Nārāyaṇa, but Nārāyaṇa was the name of his son. Therefore according to our Vedic system we keep God's name our children or family member, so that somehow or other—there are thousands of names of Kṛṣṇa—if we remember one of them, our life is successful. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
So Sūta Gosvāmī says that kāmasya nendriya prītiḥ. We have got some demands of body—eating, sleeping, mating. That's all right. But don't use it . . . don't spoil it by sense gratification. You can eat; there are so many nice thing, kṛṣṇa-prasādam. Why should you eat meat? Why should you eat, drink and all nonsense? Be little frugal. No. Aindriya prītiḥ, kāmasya nendriya prītiḥ jīvetayāvatā. You simply taste such foodstuff, kṛṣṇa-prasāda, so that you can live very healthy life and execute your Kṛṣṇa consciousness business. It is not that you have to voluntarily starve and make yourself weak. No.
In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is said, yuktāhāra-vihārasya, yoga bhavati siddhi hā. Artificial starving, artificial vairāgya has no meaning. You should live nicely, but not for sense gratification. That is the recommendation of the śāstra. Don't indulge in sense gratification, but live very healthy life so that you can execute Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Kāmasya nendriya prītiḥ jīveta yāvatā-jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā. The real business is jīvasya. Our . . . we living entities, our real business is tattva-jijñāsā. This tattva-jijñāsā . . . therefore Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is commentary on the Brahmā-sūtra, Vedānta-sūtra. As Vedānta-sūtra gives the code, athāto brahma jijñāsā: this life is meant for brahma-jijñāsā, inquiry about Brahman. The same, brahma-jijñāsā and tattva jijñāsā is the same thing. Here also the same thing, as Bhāgavata begins, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). You'll find all the codes of brahma-sūtra or Vedānta-sūtra in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, very nicely explained. It is practically the explanation of Vedanta-sutra.