Your goal of life is that which you cannot achieve even by traveling the whole space. What is that? That goal of life is to search out God and your relationship with God.
Because you are part and parcel of God, and somehow or other, you have been entrapped by this material atmosphere, and you are not happy. Nobody is happy. If one says that, "I am happy," he must be a crazy man or he must be speaking lie. Nobody is happy. How you can be happy? Because we are always full of anxiety. That is our condition. Even if you are sitting here in the classroom of Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, still, I am thinking, "What will happen tomorrow? This business I have got to do." So anxiety.
So, so long we have got anxiety, there is no question of happiness. And other things . . . just like threefold miseries. Miseries means we have got three kinds of miseries: miseries pertaining to the body, pertaining to the mind, and pertaining to other people with whom we have got connection and pertaining to the nature's disturbance.
So there are so many miseries, threefold miseries. Adhyātmika, adhibhautika, adhidaivika. And besides that, we have got birth, death, old age and disease. So in this . . . so long we have got this body, there is no question of happiness. If somebody is satisfied that "I am happy," he is cheating himself. Happiness has to be found out.
The Bhagavad-gītā says that sukham ātyantikaṁ yat (BG 6.21). If you want supreme happiness, then you have to search out beyond the sense happiness. We are entrapped here in this material world in sense happiness. If our senses are satisfied, we think we are happy. But Bhagavad-gītā says that real happiness is to be searched out beyond the senses, transcendental.
So Bhāgavata also says like that, that you should be inquisitive for the goal of your life. The goal of life—everyone is searching after happiness, but where I can get uninterrupted happiness, eternal happiness, blissful happiness? That you have to search out. That is the direction of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovidaḥ. Intelligent persons who search out that kind of happiness, na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18), which cannot be achieved even by traveling or covering the whole space . . .
Then one may question that, "If I am engaged in searching out the goal of my life, accepting that spiritual realization is the goal of my life, then what about my living condition? I have to work." So Bhāgavata answers that "You be engaged in your whatever engagement God has ordained to you, and do it honestly. But the gain out of your engagement will automatically come. Don't be very much anxious. You should be anxious to realize yourself." And how it will be achieved, my material needs? The answer is, "As you achieve all these miseries."
The miseries are enforced upon us. Nobody desires that such-and-such misery may come upon him. Nobody expects. Just like there is fire brigade always running. Nobody expects that, "There may be fire in my apartment or house," but sometimes it takes place, and the fire brigade has to be called for. Similarly, as we do not expect fire but it takes place, similarly, even I do not try for my material happiness, whatever ordained, whatever I am destined to achieve, that will come. That is the answer of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Therefore we should not be wasting our valuable time of human life simply for economic development. We should be inquisitive about "What I am." This is the first inquiry. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is called brahma-jijñāsā. So Nārada Muni is instructing Vyāsadeva that "You have already inquired . . ."
Because he's the spiritual master, he knows how Vyāsadeva inquired and how learned he was, how he studied very seriously. Everything known. Therefore he's asking, jijñāsitam adhītaṁ ca brahma (SB 1.5.4), "You have inquired very elaborately about Brahman, and you have studied about the subject matter Brahman, sanātanam, eternal, athāpi śocasi, but still, I see that you are morose; you are not happy." Śocasy ātmānam akṛtārtha iva prabho. Akṛtārtha means "of this you have done nothing." Just like a foolish man sometimes, in very grave thought, that "What is the ultimate goal of my life? I do not know what to do," so "You are thinking like that." So answer, vyāsa uvāca. Now, Vyāsa's answer is:
- asty eva me sarvam idaṁ tvayoktaṁ
- tathāpi nātmā parituṣyate me
- (SB 1.5.5)
"Yes, sir. You are right. I have studied about Brahman, I have inquired about Brahman, and I know what is Brahman." He says, "I know what is Brahman."
- asty eva me sarvam idaṁ tvayoktaṁ
- tathāpi nātmā parituṣyate me
"But I do not know why I am not satisfied. I'm not satisfied."
- tan-mūlam avyaktam agādha-bodhaṁ
- pṛcchāmahe tvātma-bhavātma-bhūtam
- (SB 1.5.5)
"Therefore you are my spiritual master. I am asking you to find out what is the defect in me. What is the defect in me that, in spite of my so advancement of knowledge in spiritual science by studying . . . by inquiring and by writing so many books, the . . ."
You'll be glad to know that this Vyāsadeva is the original writer of Vedānta-sūtra. You have heard about Vedānta-sūtra. There are many, I mean to say, classes here in your Los Angeles. There is a Vedānta Church. This Vedānta philosophy was written by this Vyāsadeva. But after even writing this Vedānta philosophy, he was not satisfied. That is the conversation is going on.