So long there is deliberation of sinful and pious activities, that is called karma. Karma has got two results: either suffering or enjoying. Of course, in this material world there is no enjoyment. But with the hope of enjoyment, we agree to suffer. And that is called enjoyment. Just like a businessman, he is working very hard whole day and night, and he gets some profit, say lakhs, some two lakhs; he thinks that he is very happy, he is enjoying. But actually, he is working very hard. But because he has no knowledge, he is thinking that, "I am profiting. I am making profit. This is my happiness." But in the śāstras, those who are working so hard simply for some sense gratification . . . especially in Western countries we have seen, this is very factual. Even very old man, he is working very hard, very big business magnate, very big politician, working very hard, and at night he goes to the nightclubs, pays $50 for entrance fee, and then he spends for wine and women lots of money. So this is his happiness. Even old man, eighty years old, he is also going to the club, because in the material world the happiness means wine and women, that's all.
Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tucchaṁ kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham (SB 7.9.45). Prahlāda Mahārāja said that the gṛhamedhi attached to this material life, gṛhamedhi . . . Gṛha means compact in a room. So I am the living entity, spirit soul; I am compact within this body, encaged, or I am encaged within this universe. This is also compact. So one who is attached to this compact position, packed up in the body or within this universe, they are called gṛhamedhi. Apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām (SB 2.1.2). They cannot see what is ātma-tattva, self-realization. Apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām.
So we are working very hard to become very happy, but that is not possible. That is not possible. We are making deliberation, "This is pious activities; this is impious." That is also good. Doing things blindly, that is another thing. But if one has this deliberation, "This is sinful activity and this is pious activity," he is better than that. But there is another position, which is beyond this sinful activity and pious activities. That is called akarma. Akarma. Akarma means there is no result, either sinful or pious. That is called akarma. And karma means there is result, either pious result or impious result. That is called karma. So we have already discussed in the Second Chapter that Kṛṣṇa says how karma should be done in summarizing. Yajñārthāt karmaṇo 'nyatra loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ (BG 3.9). If you work for yajña . . . Yajña means to satisfy the Lord. That is yajña. Yajña . . . the human society is required to perform yajña. That is described in the Second Chapter. Yajñārthāt karmaṇo 'nyatra loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ (BG 3.9).
- yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo
- mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ
- bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā
- ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt
- (BG 3.13)
Therefore our life should be trained up, educated in such a way that all the activities should be conducted for yajña. Yajña means to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Yajñārthe, for His satisfaction. This is Vedic civilization.
That Vedic civilization, the whole Vedic civilization, aim is to satisfy the Supreme. That is Vedic civ . . . brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, the division is there, but the whole aim is to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But at the present moment, we are so educated, we do not know what is the meaning of Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is our position. We do not know even the meaning. We do not know what is Viṣṇu and how to satisfy Him, what is the meaning of yajña. All forgotten. That is not Vedic civilization. Vedic civilization begins by performing yajña for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu.