We do not know when we shall be removed immediately by the freaks of nature. Therefore the intelligent man should try to know, "What is my constitutional position? Why I want to stay, but some superpower kicks me out of the stage? Why?" This is question. This is called brahma-jijñāsā. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. The Vedānta-sūtra instructs that every human being—not the animals, but human being—you should not be bewildered. You should question, "Why I am suffering threefold miseries? Why . . . I do not want death. Why death overcomes me?"
Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). A intelligent man should always keep before him four principles of material miseries: birth, death, old age and disease. These are instruction of the Bhagavad-gītā. One who is making progress in knowledge, he must keep before him these four problems—birth, death, old age and disease. You may be very much proud of your scientific advancement of knowledge, but here is the real science. If you can overcome birth, death, old age and disease, then you can say your science is triumphant.