Therefore in the Vedic civilization two things are very much stressed: to teach the man from childhood how to become expert in sad-ācāra, and woman trained up how to become chaste. So this chaste woman and this sad-ācāra, brāhmaṇa, ideal is brāhmaṇa, he'll become married. Then there will be peace, there will be progress, there will be peace in the society, peace in the family. There is a poetry in English, "Society, friendship and love, divine (indistinct)." But that society is not this society. If we become husband of the prostitute, no, that is not possible. Then sad-ācāra will be finished. Nāmnā sad-ācāra. Dāsyāḥ saṁsarga-dūṣitaḥ: as soon as you become associated with prostitute, then everything will be lost. Sad-ācāra means your progress in spiritual life is lost. Therefore we are stressing so much on the four avoidances: no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling. This is the way. If you are serious... But if you take it as a fashion, that is another thing. But if you take it seriously to progress, then these things will done. This is the basic principle of spiritual progress. Otherwise we shall learn, bandy-akṣaiḥ kaitavaiś cauryair garhitāṁ vṛttim āsthitaḥ, bibhrat kuṭumbam aśucir... Aśuci, aśuci. Aśuci means unclean. Spiritual life means purification. So if you purify and again become unclean, that we have discussed hasti-snāna, the elephant. Elephant takes bath very nicely, and as soon as come on the shore, take some dust and throw on... Kuñjara śaucavat. Parīkṣit Mahārāja said that "What is this cleaning?"
But without cleaning, your life is spoiled. If you don't clean your life, then you'll have to accept another body according to karma. We have to accept that the whole human mission is to stop this repetition of birth... They do not know. There is no science, there is no philosophy, there is no education throughout the whole world. But the aim of life is to stop these four things: birth, death, old age and disease. They cannot think of. How it can be stopped? They cannot think of. They're trying the different way—contraceptive method of killing the child. That is not how to stop this. No. Nature's law is so strong that if you kill the child in the womb then you'll be also killed. You'll be also killed. Tit for tat. There is no escape. "Life for life," just like in the law. You cannot do that. So this is very important things to understand. You are thinking very free but no, there is: prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Exactly. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Just like if you contaminate some disease, you must suffer from it. That is natural law. You cannot avoid. There is no escape. So similarly, this spiritual life, this human life is a chance that you learn how to purify yourself. That is human life. And if you don't purify yourself, you remain impure without any endeavor, then what is the difference between you and cats and dogs? There's no difference.