Supreme religion is devotional service to God, whose transcendent nature lies eternally beyond material sense perception.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.6 — October 5, 1975, Mauritius 751005SB-MAURITIUS [52:42 Minutes] SB-01.02.06_751005SB-MAURITIUS Prabhupāda: sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje ahaituky apratihatā yayātmā suprasīdati [SB 1.2.6] This is a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, First Canto, Chapter Two, text number six. There was a big meeting of great sages, saintly persons, about 2,500 years ago at Naimiṣāraṇya. Naimiṣāraṇya still... Those who have gone to India, they know, near Lucknow there is a place, it is called now, railway station, Nimsar.
So there is Naimiṣāraṇya. So there in the meeting the questions were put by the sages that to summarize the whole range of revealed scriptures, because in India the Vedic literatures are many-folded. First of all there are the four Vedas—Sāma, Yajur, Ṛk, Atharva. Then they are explained or supplemented by the Purāṇas, eighteen Purāṇas.
Then they are further explained by 108 Upaniṣads. Then they are summarized in Vedānta-sūtra, Brahma-sūtra. And then again, the Brahma-sūtra is explained by Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Bhāṣyāyāṁ brahma-sūtrāṇām.
The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the direct commentary by the author himself. Therefore you will find at the end of each chapter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, śrīmad-bhāgavate mahā-purāṇe brahma-sūtra bhāṣye. Bhāṣya means commentary. Commentary means to explain.
Just like in the Brahma-sūtra the first aphorism is athāto brahma jijñāsā: "This human form of life is meant for inquiring about the Absolute Truth." Brahman means Absolute Truth, the Supreme Truth. So it is said that the human life should not be spoiled or expended like animals. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye [SB 5.5.1]. What is the distinction between the human form of life and the life of the hogs and dogs? What is the difference?
The difference is that the hogs and dogs... [children shouting outside] [aside:] It is not possible to stop them? We'll find the hogs and dogs, whole day they are searching after eatables: "Where there is some food? Where there is some food?" That is hogs' and dogs' life, the condemned life.
They cannot have any peaceful life. They cannot do any intelligent work. They cannot produce food from the earth. They have no intelligence.