What is human life? If this is not life, then what is real life? That, He recommends, tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). Sattva, your sattva, your existence, is now impure. It is covered by this material nature; therefore it is impure. So you have to purify. That is real life. And to purify means tapasya. Tapo divyam. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa (SB 6.1.13). That is the way. That is Vedic civilization. That is Vedic civilization, or you may call Indian civilization or Hindu civilization. Actually, it is Vedic civilization. Therefore you will find in India, in the history of India, Mahābhārata, greater India, that many people, they are engaged in tapasya. A part of life must be engaged for tapasya. The Bharata Mahārāja, Bharata Mahārāja, under whose name this planet is called Bhārata-varṣa . . . so you will find in the Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam his life. He enjoyed his kingdom, then voluntarily he left. After the end of his material way of life, he divided the property to his sons and left. And he was living alone at Pulahāśrama near Haridwar, and undergoing severe tapasya. That is human life, to accept tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvaṁ yasmād brahma-saukhyam anantam. You are searching after happiness, but why don't you see that in this material life your happiness is conditioned? That is not easily going or flowing. There are so many condition. If you have to become a millionaire, before becoming millionaire there are so many condition. So this is not happiness. After going through so many conditions, and which we get, that is also not for good.
So to come to the so-called conditional happiness we have to undergo so many difficulties, and when we come to that position . . . suppose after working very, very hard I get one million dollars, so I will not be allowed to enjoy this one million dollar for all the days. Aśāśvatam. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). Kṛṣṇa says that this place is full of miseries. To get that one million dollar you have to undergo so many miserable condition of life. And even if you get it . . . perhaps you may not get it. Everyone is trying, but they cannot . . . everyone is not getting. Who is destined to get, he is getting, not that everyone, because he . . . one is trying very hard, it is guaranteed that he will get one million dollar. That is not possible. That one who is to get by destiny. This is the śāstra. Actually, this is the fact.