If I am habituated to smoke, if I am habituated to illicit sex life, if I am habituated to intoxication and gambling, etc., this is my pravṛtti. But if we can stop it by practice, that is called tapasya. And human life is meant for this tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddyeta satyam (SB 5.5.1). Ṛṣabhadeva's instruction, "My dear sons, you practice tapasya." The human life is meant for tapasya. "I have got tendency to do this, but that will not help me, that will degrade me." So tapasya means instead of being degraded, be elevated. This is called tapasya. Tapo divyam. This human life is meant for this purpose, to practice tapasya, or to practice nivṛtti. Then our life is successful. Tapo divyam putra . . . why tapasya? Why nivṛtti? Yena śuddhyena sattva. Sattva means here existence is impure. Impure means that you are eternal, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), you do not die after the annihilation of this body, but I am subjected to repetition of birth and death, in different species of life. This is my disease. It is not pure condition of life. Pure condition of life, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, yad gatvā na nirvartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama.
- mām upetya kaunteya
- duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam
- nāpnuvanti mahātmanaḥ
- saṁsiddhiṁ paramaṁ gataḥ
- (BG 8.15)
That is pure life. If you go to the spiritual world, to Vaikuṇṭhaloka, or Kṛṣṇa's loka, then you get your original, eternal sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1), live there eternally. Just like in Vṛndāvana they are always with Kṛṣṇa enjoying life. This is nivṛtti-mārga. So there is a life, eternal life, very blissful life, full of knowledge. If you want to go back to that life, back to home, back to Godhead, then you must practice this pravṛtti-, nivṛtti-mārga.
So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is teaching this pravṛtti-mārga, nivṛtti-mārga, both. "You do not do this" and "You do this." "Do this" means rise early in the morning, maṅgala-āratrika. Of course, we must sleep, but not sleep like cats and dogs or animals. Simply sleeping means waste of time. The more you reduce sleeping, then you become perfect. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau. All the Gosvāmīs in Vṛndāvana, they conquered over these things. What is this? Nidrā, sleeping; āhāra, eating and vihāra, and sense pleasure. This is called sannyāsa life, reducing sleeping, reducing eating. This is pravṛtti-mārga. We think, "If I can eat voraciously like an elephant, then my life is successful." No. That is not success life. If you can do without any food, that is success. That is success. This is called nivṛtti-mārga. But that is not practical; therefore if we promise that we shall not eat anything which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa, that is tapasya. If you don't go to the restaurant and eat anything nonsense, that is pravṛtti-marga. But if you want to stop that restaurant-going, then you take Kṛṣṇa prasādam, kṛṣṇa borā dayā moy kori bāre jihvā joy sva-prasāda-anna dilo bhāi. Kṛṣṇa is ready, so many nice, palatable dishes. You take, and stop this restaurant-going. This is Kṛṣṇa's . . . (indistinct) . . . patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). Kṛṣṇa does not say: "Bring something from the restaurant" or this or that. He says, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati: anything, little leaf, little flower, little water. Kṛṣṇa is not hungry, but Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He has come to you, so that you can touch Him, you can dress Him, you can decorate Him, you can offer Him, you can live with Him as servant, as friend, as son, as lover. In so many ways, Kṛṣṇa is giving you chance.