So the arrangement for your eating, arrangement for your sleeping, and arrangement for your mating, all these arrangements are there by nature. So deha-yogena, the sense gratification which you want for the particular type of body as you have got, that is already arranged as much as... The example is duḥkham ayatnataḥ. As much as the distress from which you are destined to suffer are also there. The distress also... According to law of karma, we create our own distress and happiness. So as much as the happiness is there, similarly, the distress is also there. Nobody tries for distress. Duḥkham ayatnataḥ. Duḥkham means distress. Nobody tries to invite distress in his life. But distress overcomes him. Similarly, the quantity of happiness or the measurement of happiness, that is already predestined by nature, is already there. So "You should not bother..." Because they are all atheistic boys. They are after material improvement, economic development. The atheist class of men, they are always busy for economic development. They have no idea of spiritual existence or spiritual advancement of life. That is the distinction between atheistic life and theistic life. Atheistic people are not concerned, not a drop they are concerned for advancing in spiritual life. So because he was speaking amongst the boys who came from atheistic family, he said, "My dear friends, don't bother yourself for developing your economic condition, because that is already arranged there. You better utilize your short time, short span of life, for understanding Kṛṣṇa or be Kṛṣṇa conscious." That is his version. Tat-prayāso na kartavyo yata āyur-vyayaḥ param. "Because you have got limited span of life."
The other day I explained that suppose you are destined to live for fifty years. Now, you cannot make it fifty-one years or fifty years, one month, by spending any amount of money. Just like a man is dying. He's very rich man. The doctor says that "He will die at such and such time." And if somebody says, "My dear doctor, kindly increase the time little more. You say that 'He will die at 10 o'clock at night.' Now make it next day 10 o'clock. We have got some business," that is not possible. That is not possible. If you spend millions of dollars and bribe the doctor, "Please extend the life. We have to get him sign some document before he dies," oh, that is not possible. Therefore just try to understand, the duration of life, how much it is valuable. It is not in your power to increase even by moment. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja says that "Don't spoil your life for so-called sense gratification. That is already arranged there. Don't spoil your valuable life simply for sense gratification." Just see. These instructions are to be noted by human being, that we should not spoil even a second of our life uselessly. Uselessly. How? The... How we spend our life? Na cen nirarthakaṁ nītiḥ, ka ca hānis tato 'dhikā.
Just the other day I told you about the version of Cāṇakya Paṇḍita: āyuṣaḥ kṣaṇa vidhvāṁsi kalpānta-sthāyino guṇaḥ. The Paṇḍita, the Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says that this āyuḥ, the duration of life, we do not know when we shall end. It is assure it will end. But kalpānta-sthāyino guṇaḥ, but if you are Kṛṣṇa conscious, then your that spiritual qualification will continue to eternity. There are many instructions in Vedic literature. So here also the same thing is repeated. Tat-prayāso na kartavyo yata āyur-vyayaḥ param: you should not try to spoil your life, spoil your valuable life for something which is not very much beneficial for you. And what is that thing beneficial? Self-realization. Self-realization, "What I am." This is the product of meditation. If you want to meditate, meditation means to attempt to understand oneself, "What I am." That is real meditation. Meditation does not mean that... Of course, this voidness, meditation in voidness, is another negative attempt that "This body is nothing." But actually, I am not void. I am spirit soul. And because I have no information of the spirit soul, therefore I simply try to think of the negative side of this bodily existence. That is called voidness. Simply negative... Now, "I am not this body. I am not this body." "I am not this body," that's all right.
But that is not perfect self-realization. When I understand that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul," that is partial self-realization. And when I understand that "I am not only spirit soul, but I have got spiritual activities," that is still more advancement. And when you are actually situated in spiritual activities, that is the perfection of life. Just try to understand. First thing is, "I am not this body." That's all right. Then what you are, or what I am? The next stage is to understand that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. The exact Sanskrit language is that, to understand that "I am spirit soul." All right, then is that finished? No. Still you have to go farther. Then "I am a spirit soul." So the spirit soul in this material body has so much activities. Now, regarding this body, I have got so many activities. And when the body is finished, is it correct that the spirit soul stops to act? No. It does not stop to act. Because that is the active principle. Because the spirit is there within this body, therefore the body's acting. Now, suppose I am not this body. Then does it mean that the spirit has no activity? So this is now wrong theory. Spirit has various activities, but you do not know. That is illusion. So meditation means to understand oneself, that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul," and farther advancement of that meditation is to know that what are the activities of the spirit soul, and when one is actually engaged in those spiritual activities, that is the perfection of meditation.