Bad association destroys even the most carefully cultivated spiritual training and brahminical culture.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.21 — January 17, 1970, Los Angeles 700117SB-LOS ANGELES [37:17 Minutes] SB-06.01.21_700117SB-LOS ANGELES Prabhupāda: So we were discussing last week about Ajāmila, Ajāmila, how he was a brāhmaṇa in the city of Kanauj, Kānyakubja. kānyakubje dvijaḥ kaścid asid-patir..., dāsī-patir ajāmilaḥ nāmnā naṣṭa-sadācāro dāsyāḥ saṁsarga-dūṣitaḥ [SB 6.1.21] In Vedic civilization, a perfect human civilization, wherein the regulative principles are very strict.... Sadācāraḥ and kadācāraḥ. Sadācāraḥ..., sat means characteristics which helps one to elevate himself to the transcendental platform. That is called sadācāraḥ.
And kadācāraḥ..., the just the opposite is kadācāraḥ. Kadācāraḥ means not to the standard of human civilization. That is called kadācāraḥ. So Vedic civilization means that people were trained up in such a way that ultimately he comes to the transcendental platform and he understands his real position in this world, his relationship with God, and he acts accordingly, so that he gets the chance of utilizing this human form of life to the best possibility. That means to end this wandering in the cycle of 8,400,000 species of life and get oneself out of this entanglement.
That is the perfection of human civilization. Human civilization does not mean that to improve the process of eating, sleeping, mating and defensing. That is not human civilization. That may be called a civilization, but that is external; that is not internal. We are not this external body, but we are internal soul.
That we must understand. That is possible to be understood in the human form of life, not in other form of life. The cats and dogs, they cannot distinguish what is internal and what is external. That is not possible for them.
But the human society, human being, is endowed with such nice development of consciousness that there is automatic enquiry, which is explained in the Vedānta-sūtra as athāto brahma jijñāsā, enquiry. Enquiry about the soul, athāto brahm..., this human form of life is meant for understanding what I am. So this enquiry should be awakened. That is the perfection of human civilization—not that improving the condition of eating, sleeping, mating and defending. That is not the...
They are not the problems. According to Vedic civilization, these four necessities are needs of the body. Eating, sleeping, mating and defending, they are not problems. The example is given that..., that lower animals who are not human being, they have no such problems. They have no problems for eating, sleeping, mating and defending.
That is naturally done, or by nature's law these things are arranged. Just like eating for the bird is already arranged. They live in the trees, and the little fruits that are growing in the trees, that solves their economic problem for eating. They have got sleeping accommodation also; according to the different birds, they have got sleeping accommodation. They have got mating accommodation also: along with the male bird there is the female bird also.