Without spiritual science, human leaders and society degenerate into animal-like existence of eating, sleeping, mating, and earning.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Bhagavad-gītā 4.2 — February 8, 1974, Vṛndāvana 740208BG-VRNDAVAN [19:36 Minutes] Bg-04.02_740208BG-VRNDAVAN [poor recording] Prabhupāda: [indistinct] So we have explained rājarṣi, the big kings just like Manu, Ikṣvāku coming from the sun god. The Indians, it is known that there are two kinds of kṣatriya dynasty. One is coming from the sun, and another is coming from the moon. Candra-vaṁśa and sūrya-vaṁśa.
So here we specially refer to the dynasty coming from Sūrya, or the sun god. So there is no question of impersonalism. Sun god is a person. He is the resident, or the predominating deity, in the sun planet, and from there descendents, Manu and Ikṣvāku.
In this way Ikṣvāku dynasty is there always in the Rāmāyaṇa. Maharaja Ikṣvāku, the forefather of Lord Rāmacandra. [indistinct] So the kings were supposed to know the science of God. This is the [indistinct].
Because the king, or the monarch, used to rule over the country and the special business of human form is to understand the science of Kṛṣṇa, or the science of religion—whatever you call it—or the science of the human goal of life. That is missing. Nobody knows the science of human goal of life, the science of human birth or the science of human society. Nobody knows.
They are living just like animals, cats and dogs, simply working: divā cārthehayā rājan kuṭumba-bharaṇena vā nidrayā hriyate naktaṁ vyavāyena ca vā vayaḥ [SB 2.1.3] divā cārthehayā rājan kuṭumba-bharaṇena vā [SB 2.1.3] This is the materialistic way of life. What is that? Divya, out of twenty-four hours, twenty hours sleeping, that is very successful: [laughter] “I have slept so much. I got the opportunity of sleeping.” Divya.
We have seen in Calcutta sometimes that the peons, they took their letters from the office and come out from the office and lie down in Dalhousie Street, at least four hours sleep, and then go to another office to deliver the letter. When he comes back it is enquired: “Why you took so much time?” “Oh, this man was not there, that man was not there. I had to wait”—all false. But he thought that “I have got salary and the opportunity of sleeping.” This is [indistinct] This is ordinary life, that “I have got this opportunity to sleep so much.” And our Vaiṣṇava philosophy is nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau: one who can conquer over sleeping, eating and mating, that is real victory. nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau cātyanta-dīnau ca yau vande rūpa-sanātanau raghu-yugau [Śrī Śrī Ṣaḍ Gosvāmy Aṣṭaka] The spiritual life means to conquer over these, especially sleeping, eating and mating.
Then we should know that we are advancing in spiritual life. Otherwise you are still victim of mayā. This is the test. You haven’t got to inquire from others that whether you are making spiritual advancement.