Devotee: They say this will be a big problem in the future of this century, a great shortage of trees.
Prabhupāda: Yes. They are creating simply problems. Materialistic way of life means anartha. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja says that don't try for all these nonsense things. It is simply killing oneself, or lessening the . . . or making useless the duration of life. What is this? Bhaya. What does it say? You just read. Simply . . .
Nalinīkaṇṭha: Puṁso varṣa-śataṁ hy āyus tad-ardhaṁ cājitātmanaḥ niṣphalaṁ yad asau rātryām (SB 7.6.6).
Prabhupāda: No, before that.
Nalinīkaṇṭha: Tat-prayāso na kartavyo yata āyur-vyayaḥ param, na tathā vindate kṣemaṁ mukunda . . . (SB 7.6.4)
Prabhupāda: Hmm. Āyur-vyayaḥ. Simply spending the duration of life. Just like you have got some bank balance, and if you spend it for useless purposes. Similarly, we have got some bank balance or duration of life balance. Our death begins . . . from the next moment of our birth, death begins. Suppose I'll live hundred years. So I am born; one day passed means one day is reduced from hundred years. The friends come, "How old is your child?" The parents says: "He is three years old." That means three years he has died. Ninety-seven years balance. So if we waste our this balance of life for nothing, that is forbidden. Kevalāyur-vyayaḥ. You utilize the balance for some good purpose. No, we are wasting it. The so-called economic development means we are wasting the balance of our life. This is the philosophy. Read it, na tat, huh?
Nalinīkaṇṭha: Tat-prayāso?
Prabhupāda: Ah, na tat-prayāsaḥ kartavyam. This prayāsa, endeavor for economic development, na kartavyam, don't do it. Here is a revolution against this modern civilization. They are simply after economic development, and here it is condemned. It is condemned that this kind of endeavor is simply wasting the balance of our life. If one is intelligent, he sees that "I have got, say, ten thousand dollars in the bank balance, now I must utilize it properly so that it may not be spent." That is intelligence. Similarly, we have begun our death from the date of birth. Daily, every moment we are . . . our balance is being decreased. So therefore we should be intelligent, that so long the balance is there, let me utilize it properly by which I can be really benefited. So the ideal of my benefit is that I'm suffering in this material condition of life, to stop this conditional life, to get freedom life. That is the aim of life. And that freedom can be achieved only by going back to home, back to Godhead. Not any other way. You cannot get the freedom of life here in this material . . . that is not possible, although you are trying for it. Everyone is trying to . . . (aside) Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja can come in. Yes. So without endeavor for this purpose, if we are simply trying to develop our economic condition, that is . . . what is that? Āyur-vyayaḥ? What is this word?
Nalinīkaṇṭha: Yata āyur-vyayaḥ param.
Prabhupāda: They are simply killing the duration of life. Then go on.
Nalinīkaṇṭha: Na tathā vindate kṣemaṁ mukunda-caraṇāmbujam.
Prabhupāda: Hmm. This is very difficult to understand for the demonic. Prahlāda Mahārāja was instructing among the demons. So for them it was difficult. Still, Prahlāda Mahārāja was trying. The purport is read, this verse?
Nalinīkaṇṭha: Yes. You say that the problem is that there's a lack of spiritual education in their lives.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the defect always, especially in this age. There is no spiritual education. Hmm? Do you think, Dr. Wolfe, there is spiritual education? Is there any in the school, colleges, universities?
Hṛdayānanda: He's saying if there is any real spiritual education in the colleges and schools.
Dr. Wolfe: To produce new sense-gratifiers.