Self-realization is the beginning; loving devotion to Krishna is the perfection of all spiritual realization.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.25.29 — November 29, 1974, Bombay 741129SB-BOMBAY [36:50 Minutes] SB-03.25.29_741129SB-BOMBAY Nitāi: "The mystic yoga system, as You have explained, aims at the Supreme Personality of Godhead and is meant for completely ending material existence. Please let me know the nature of that yoga system. How many ways are there by which one can understand in truth that sublime yoga?" Prabhupāda: yo yogo bhagavad-bāṇo nirvāṇātmaṁs tvayoditaḥ kīdṛśaḥ kati cāṅgāni yatas tattvāvabodhanam [SB 3.25.29] Tattva avabodhanam. Tattva means truth.
So the idea is how to understand the Supreme Person, Supreme Being, in tattvataḥ, in truth. manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye yatatām api siddhānāṁ kaścin vetti māṁ tattvataḥ [Bg. 7.3] This tattva word has been used in the Bhagavad-gītā, that everyone has got some idea of God. Not everyone; but out of many, many millions of person: manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu. Not ordinary men. There are millions and millions of person who don't care, just like animal.
They don't care to know what is God, what is our relationship with God, how to act in that relationship. The Vedic instruction, the whole Vedic instruction is for this purpose. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ [Bg. 15.15]. That is the purpose of Veda. So first of all we have to know what is our relationship with God.
That we do not know. Neither we try for it. [child making noise] [aside:] This child... Therefore Kṛṣṇa says... Kṛṣṇa says, not we say, that out of many, many thousands and millions of person, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu, so kaścid, somebody becomes interested what is the purpose of life. That is actually awakening of human life.
Otherwise, like cats and dogs: eating, sleeping, having sex intercourse, and after some time finished. That is the life of cats and dogs. That is not human life. Human life, as it is stated in the Vedas, athāto brahma jijñāsā.
This life is meant for inquiring about the Supreme Being, Brahman, Para-brahman. That is human life. The whole Vedic civilization is based on this basic principle that to understand the Absolute Truth. So in this Kali-yuga nobody is interested even. We are spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness; very few people are interested to know about Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Being.
So that is not human life. Human life means when we inquire about the Absolute Truth. That is human life. So there are so many societies, so many religious institutions, but nobody is interested to know Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Being.