Material advancement cycles endlessly; only Krishna consciousness offers eternal freedom from repeated birth and death.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Prabhupāda: trai-vidyā māṃ soma-pāḥ pūta-pāpā yajñair iṣṭvā svargatiṃ prārthayante te puṇyam āsādya surendra-lokam aśnanti divyān divi deva-bhogān [Bg 9.20] [Those who study the Vedas and drink the soma juice, seeking the heavenly planets, worship Me indirectly. They take birth on the planet of Indra, where they enjoy godly delights.] Now, Lord Kṛṣṇa has described different types of transcendentalist. The first He has described about the mahātmā—mahātmā, the great soul. And their symptoms have been described, that satataṃ kīrtayanto mām [Bg 9.14]. [Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion.] They are engaged twenty-four hours, cent percent, in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, yatantaś ca dṛòha-vratāḥ, and trying to serve the Lord very carefully, with vow.
So they are first-class transcendentalist, or the great soul. Then? Second class? Those who are trying to understand the Supreme, the Absolute Truth, by identify himself with the Supreme, that "I am, I am the Supreme." This I have already explained.
This "I am Supreme" means "I am part and parcel of the Supreme, of the same quality." So these people, these devotees—not exactly devotees; transcendentalist—they, doing that, when they are little more advanced, and if by chance they get association of another pure devotee, then he can understand that "I am not Supreme, but I am the part and parcel of the Supreme." Then he makes further advance, and the ultimate goal, as I have several times explained before you, ultimate goal is to know Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Lord. That is the ultimate goal. So this is direct method. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which we are trying to popularize, this is direct method and just suitable for this age. As Lord Caitanya introduced, kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā.
In this age of Kali, the age of quarrel and hypocrisy—this is called Kali—in this age this is the simplest method and direct, direct action. Just like in military art there is a word "direct action," so this is the spiritual direct action, this Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. But because it is very simple, sometimes those who think themselves as very intelligent and advanced, they think, "Oh, what they are doing, 'Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa'? We are meditating, we are philosophizing, and we are doing penance and austerities and following the rituals, so many things." So practically they are, according to Bhagavad-gītā, they are not directly in touch with the Supreme Lord, but they have taken different paths as ahaìgrahopāsanam, thinking himself as one with the Lord, pantheism, thinking everything the symbol of God, and thinking the universal form as the Supreme, in different ways. So anyway, all of them, the first-class mahātmā and all these people, they are transcendentalist. They are trying to realize the Absolute Truth.
May be in a different grades, but they are trying. And besides that, besides them, there is another class who are..., more or less can be called not transcendentalist but materialist. And what they...? That is described here: trai-vidyā māṃ soma-pāḥ pūta-pāpā yajñair iṣṭvā svargatiṃ prārthayante te puṇyam āsādya surendra-lokam aśnanti divyān divi deva-bhogān [Bg 9.20] [Those who study the Vedas and drink the soma juice, seeking the heavenly planets, worship Me indirectly. They take birth on the planet of Indra, where they enjoy godly delights.] Deva-bhogān means this is with reference to the standard of living. As in this world we have got different standard of living, and it may be that your standard of living in America or Europe may be, from material point of view, very high, and standard of living in other country may be lower... Different standard of living there are. But in other planets also, there are different standard of living.
They are called deva-bhogān. That standard of living we cannot imagine here—in the moon planet and other, surendra-lokam. Surendra-lokam means where the demigods live. They are also human being, but they are highly intellectual, and their duration of life is very long, and their standard of living is very high, most costly.
We cannot imagine even. So they are soma-pāḥ. Soma-pāḥ is a kind of beverage, just like in this material world we have got different kinds of liquors. It is not intoxicating, but there is mention. Here in the Bhagavad-gītā is also mentioned, soma-pāḥ, soma-rasa.