Life's purpose is satisfying Krishna; all other labor merely starves the eternal soul.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.36 — October 16, 1974, Māyāpur 741016SB-MAYAPUR [33:33 Minutes] SB-01.08.36_741016SB-MAYAPUR Nitāi: "O Kṛṣṇa, those who continuously hear, chant and repeat Your transcendental activities, or take pleasure in others doing so, certainly see Your lotus feet, which alone can stop the repetition of birth and death." Prabhupāda: Where is that boy who said that some Nepali boy has come? You told me some new boy has come? Bhavānanda: This young boy.
Prabhupāda: Eh? Oh. śṛṇvanti gāyanti gṛṇanty abhīkṣṇaśaḥ smaranti nandanti tavehitaṁ janāḥ ta eva paśyanty acireṇa tāvakaṁ bhava-pravāhoparamaṁ padāmbujadvayam..., padāmbujam [SB 1.8.36] So in the previous verse it has been explained, bhave 'smin kliśyanti. This is the problem, kliśyanti: simply laboring and... Kliśyanti means suffering, suffering the hard work.
Everyone. Kliśyanti. Everyone is working very hard for maintenance, struggle for existence. Tṛtīyā śaktir iṣyate.
Karma-saṁjñānyā tṛtīyā śaktir iṣyate [Cc. Madhya 6.154]. Here, in this material world, you have to work very, very hard, just even for maintenance, and what to speak of sense gratification? This is the position.
Bhave 'smin kliśyanti. Bhave 'smin kliśyanti avidyā-kāma-karmabhiḥ. If you work hard, at least there is some expectation... Just like ordinarily a man, a boy, takes education, works very hard so that he may be very successful in examination.
And then he passes. Then he works hard to get a good job. Then, in the job, in the service, he works very hard so that he get..., he may get promotion. So the hard working is going on.
You cannot stop it. Kliśyanti. But unfortunately, they do not know the aim of life, "Why we are working so hard." That is the difficulty. But generally they want—"We are working hard for sense gratification, that's all; enjoy the senses." That is the whole civilization. So intelligent person, they should be aware that "Simply for sense gratification if we are working so hard, then this is being done by the animals also.