Human life's precious time must be devoted to self-realization, not squandered chasing sense gratification through economic exploitation.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.5.1–2 — September 13, 1969, Tittenhurst, London 690913SB-LONDON [67:14 Minutes] SB-05.05.01–02_690913SB-LONDON Prabhupāda: ...many thousands of years before, Ṛṣabhadeva... He is accepted as the incarnation of Godhead, king, or emperor of the world. He instructed His sons. He had one hundred sons, and He was...
Before retiring from His family life, He wanted to install His eldest son, Mahārāja Bharata, on the throne. And before retiring He was instructing His other sons as [indistinct]. Mahārāja Bharata was a great king, and after his name, India is called Bhārata-varṣa. [break] This planet is..., was known before that as Ilāvṛta-varṣa, and after Mahārāja Bharata ruled, this planet was known as Bhārata-varṣa. Gradually, the planet was divided into so many other states.
Now Bhārata-varṣa means a small piece of land known as India. Anyway, the king of this planet, Ṛṣabhadeva, was instructing His sons as follows: nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ śuddhyed yasmād brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam [SB 5.5.1] [Lord Ṛṣabhadeva told His sons: My dear boys, of all the living entities who have accepted material bodies in this world, one who has been awarded this human form should not work hard day and night simply for sense gratification, which is available even for dogs and hogs that eat stool. One should engage in penance and austerity to attain the divine position of devotional service. By such activity, one's heart is purified, and when one attains this position, he attains eternal, blissful life, which is transcendental to material happiness and which continues forever.] He's instructing, "My dear sons, this human form of body is not to be wasted like cats and dogs." What is that? How this body is wasted like cats and dogs?
Now, kaṣṭān kāmān. Kāmān means sense gratification. So with hard labor, ultimate end of hard laboring is sense gratification. Now, not only in your country, but also in all other countries at the present moment, everyone is trying to make economic development. What is that economic development you have got very good idea: industrialization, high standard of living and so many other things.
But the end is sense gratification. The purpose of economic development... It is wonderful for us. We are Indian.
When we see... When I was in Los Angeles, there is a freeway. So eight lines of cars running in seventy miles speed this way, and eight miles of lines running cars on the opposite side. And unfortunately, one day we had one car which was running at thirty-five miles only, and our Gaurasundara was driving. [chuckling] Immediately he was arrested by the police.
Not exactly arrested—stopped. That means you cannot run your car in this way, thirty-five miles speed. So now from impartial point of view, if we study why people are running in this way and that way, what is the ultimate goal? If we calculate very..., in cool head, the ultimate goal is sense gratification.