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We must save time for enquiring about transcendence. So unless we enquire about the transcendence, then we are two-legged animals. This is culture. This is the aim of life

Expressions researched:
"We must save time for enquiring about transcendence. So unless we enquire about the transcendence, then we are two-legged animals. This is culture. This is the aim of life"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

We dream horrible things more than the animals. So eating, sleeping, sex life and trying for defense, these are common formulas both for the animals and for the man. Therefore a human being is distinguished from the animal when he enquires about transcendence. And that is explained in the great literature Brahma-sūtra, or the philosophy of Vedānta-sūtra, athāto brahma jijñāsā: "Now we have got this human form of life, we must enquire about the Brahman, or Transcendence." So our bodily necessities of life should be simplified as much as it is required. We must save time for enquiring about transcendence. So unless we enquire about the transcendence, then we are two-legged animals. This is culture. This is the aim of life.

Hṛdayānanda: (translating) He says that the goal of life is to achieve the transcendence.

Prabhupāda: Yes, right. The goal of life is realization of transcendence. So that they're forgetting. They have made their goal of life as sense gratification.

Professor: What kind of transcendence would that be?

Prabhupāda: Transcendence means the Absolute Truth. What do you mean by transcendence?

Professor: By transcendence, as I understand it, the universal consciousness. The search for God.

Hṛdayānanda: He said the search for God.

Prabhupāda: Yes, right you are. This life, human life, is distinguished from animal life because the animal cannot inquire about transcendence. The human life, if it is not interested in transcendence, then he is animal. If simply he is interested with the bodily demands of life, namely eating, sleeping, sex and defense, these are bodily demands of life. So if we think that, "Dog is eating on the street, and we are eating very palatable dishes, nicely made, very tasteful. That is advancement of civilization," that is not advancement of civilization, because it is, after all, eating. Similarly, sleeping: the animals sleep on the street and we sleep in very nice apartment. But in sleeping, we dream horrible things more than the animals. So eating, sleeping, sex life and trying for defense, these are common formulas both for the animals and for the man. Therefore a human being is distinguished from the animal when he enquires about transcendence. And that is explained in the great literature Brahma-sūtra, or the philosophy of Vedānta-sūtra, athāto brahma jijñāsā: "Now we have got this human form of life, we must enquire about the Brahman, or Transcendence." So our bodily necessities of life should be simplified as much as it is required. We must save time for enquiring about transcendence. So unless we enquire about the transcendence, then we are two-legged animals. This is culture. This is the aim of life.

Page Title:We must save time for enquiring about transcendence. So unless we enquire about the transcendence, then we are two-legged animals. This is culture. This is the aim of life
Compiler:Nabakumar
Created:2022-10-12, 07:27:27
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=1, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1