True religion means learning to obey Krishna rather than material authorities like Lenin or impersonal philosophies.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.6 — February 27, 1974, Calcutta 740227SB-CALCUTTA [33:20 Minutes] SB-01.02.06_740227SB-CALCUTTA Pradyumna: [leads chanting of verse, etc.] [devotees repeat] sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje ahaituky apratihatā yayātmā suprasīdati [SB 1.2.6] Prabhupāda: Yes, go on. You have no book? [another devotee leads chanting] Pradyumna: [leads chanting of synonyms] [break] [02:45] Translation: "The supreme occupation, or dharma, for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted in order to completely satisfy the self." Prabhupāda: sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje ahaituky apratihatā yayātmā suprasīdati [SB 1.2.6] Ātmā, ātmā means this body, ātmā means the mind also, and ātmā means the soul and, above that, the Paramātmā, Bhagavān.
Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate [SB 1.2.11]. So yayā ātmā suprasīdati. Su means very much. Not only prasīdati, but suprasīdati, very much.
Everyone. The body becomes satisfied, the mind becomes satisfied, the soul becomes satisfied, and the Supreme Paramātmā, He also becomes satisfied. So that is called paro dharmaḥ. Paro dharmaḥ means...
Paraḥ means superior, and dharmaḥ means occupational duty. Everyone has got occupational duty. It doesn't matter, either you are a brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa—everyone has got occupational duty. That is human society.
Human society means when the society is divided into these eight divisions: brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. Varṇāśrama-dharma. That is Vedic civilization. varṇāśramācāravatā puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān viṣṇur ārādhyate panthā nānyat tat-toṣa-kāraṇam [Cc. Madhya 8.58] Unless the human society comes to the standard of executing varṇāśrama-dharma, it is not human society; it is animal society, no regulative principles.
The animals, they have no regulative principles, but human society must follow regulative principles. That is called varṇāśrama-dharma. So varṇāśrama-dharma is also material. That is not spiritual. Varṇāśrama-dharma is the beginning of spiritual life.
How one can come to the standard of spiritual life? It is a regulated life, when executing... The spiritual life is viṣṇur ārādhyate panthāḥ. When one comes to the platform of worshiping Viṣṇu, that is spiritual life.