All souls must work; the choice is serving lust or serving Krishna, liberation or bondage.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.44 — December 25, 1970, Surat 701225SB-SURAT [58:11 Minutes] SB-06.01.44_701225SB-SURAT Prabhupāda: You can open that door. You are feeling cold by opening the door? Haṁsadūta: No. No, I'm fine. Prabhupāda: Hmm. Naturally it is cold, you can close that door.
When one possesses something, it is called vatup-pratyāya, and from vatup it becomes vān. Dehavān means "one who possesses this material world." Just like there are many other, bhagavān, gunavān—vān means "possesses." Similarly, here also the same word is used, vān, dehavān. So the Yamadūta says that anyone who accepted this material body, he has to work. He has to work. There are three kinds of energies of God: viṣṇu-śaktiḥ parā proktā [Cc. Madhya 6.154]. Actually, the Lord's energy is spiritual, spiritual energy. Viṣṇu-śaktiḥ parā proktā. And these living entities, they are also parā.
Kṣetra-jñākhyā tathā parā—there is another śakti, kṣetrajña. The kṣetrajña-śakti means we living entities, we are also energy of Kṛṣṇa, of God. We are known as kṣetrajña-śakti. Kṣetrajña-śakti means I know about my body; the pains and pleasure of my body I can understand.
Therefore I am living…, living entity. The non-living entities..., a stone cannot understand the pains and pleasures, because there is no life. But as soon as there is life, the pains and pleasures are felt. The dead body cannot feel pains and pleasure. But kṣetra-jñākhyā tathā parā.
As the direct energy of Kṛṣṇa, or God, is spiritual, similarly the living entities, they are also of the same nature. Therefore God and the living entities are one, because of the same nature, parā. Tṛtīya-śaktīr anyā. Another…, there is another śakti, tathā-para, tṛtīya-śaktīr karma-saṅga. Another śakti, the spiritual śakti, spiritual energy, is one, and the material energy, there you have to work.
Tṛtīya karma-saṅga anya. There is another energy, where you have to work; otherwise there is no… You have to work, anyone who has got this body, material body. Just like an ant and an elephant, both have got this material body, but none of them can sit idly. The ant requires a grain of sugar, and the elephant requires three hundred mounds for eating at a time. Huge quantity.
But both of them have to work. The ant cannot say, "Oh, I require only a little grain." The lion, he has to also work. He cannot say, "I am lion." Just like our Lions members, Lion Club, they like lion, as if they haven't got to work, or… So, nahi suptasya siṁhasya praviśyanti mukhe mṛgāḥ [Hitopadeśa]. One lion thought—there is a story—that "I am the king of the animals, so I shall sleep, and I shall order all the animals to come, and I shall eat." So he lied down for several days; no animal came, and he was starving.