The human form is impossibly rare; use it to perfect consciousness in Kṛṣṇa before death arrives.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.1.1–5 [First Return from Europe] — December 22, 1969, Boston 691222SB-BOSTON [52:21 Minutes] SB-02.01.01–05_691222SB-BOSTON Prabhupāda: ...Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. So I am so pleased that you are doing things just to my satisfaction. And stick to this principle and Kṛṣṇa will bless you, sure. Our line of action is not difficult: chanting sixteen rounds regularly, following the four restrictive principles, take prasādam, read books—we have got so many books—speak, discuss about the subject matter amongst yourself, and this is the process. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja, you know, I have several times spoken, he had only seven days to meet his death.
He was young man, but some way or other, he was cursed by a brāhmaṇa—boy, not a brāhmaṇa—that he would meet death within seven days, and... This is Vedic culture, that before death one should prepare very nicely to go back to Godhead. This is Vedic culture. The modern civilization, they do not know what is going to happen after death. But our Vedic culture is not so blind.
Vedic culture has got a aim, what is the aim of human life, not aimless life. Aimless life is animal life. They have no aim. By the laws of nature they are going on, transforming from one body to another, and ultimately they are coming by evolutionary process to the human form of life.
And especially this civilized human form of life, it is very responsible life. One has to make his choice whether he wants to continue his materialistic way of life and change the body, one after another. That is very risky job. You should always remember that if in my next body I am given a body like a tree, just see, in this part of the world, how condemned life. They are standing in the snowfall.
You have got house. You are protecting yourself. They cannot even move. So there is possibility of getting such life. So we should be so much responsible how to avoid such laws of nature.
We can have any form of life out of 8,400,000 species that are before you. You should always remember that "If by chance I slip to one of them, then how I have wasted my time." This is responsible life. Labdhvā su-durlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte [SB 11.9.29]. [After many, many births and deaths one achieves the rare human form of life, which, although temporary, affords one the opportunity to attain the highest perfection. Thus a sober human being should quickly endeavor for the ultimate perfection of life as long as his body, which is always subject to death, has not fallen down and died. After all, sense gratification is available even in the most abominable species of life, whereas Kṛṣṇa consciousness is possible only for a human being.] Bahu-sambhavānte means after many, many appearances. This is appearance. This body, present body, is one of the appearances. It will never appear again.
He'll... I will have to or you will have to appear in a different body. But this human form of life is great opportunity. Bahu-sambhavānte.