Material dharma means so long we are under the concept of this body, there are certain duties. That is called material dharma. Just like we eat; this is also one of the duty, because if I don't eat, then I shall die. But what kind of food I shall eat, that is described in the śāstra, that sattvika, rajasika, tamasika bhojana.
So if we follow the instruction of the śāstra, dharma-śāstra . . . they are called dharma-śāstra, regulative principles. There are twenty kinds of dharma-śāstra, just to regulate, because every one of us come to enjoy this world. Just like government rules and regulation. Suppose you are selling liquor. The thing is bad, but because people want it, government gives license that you can sell for the drunkard but under these rules and regulation, not, I mean to say, freely. Similarly, the living entities, all the conditioned souls who have come here in this material world, their real purpose is how to enjoy this material world. They have no other purpose. Because a living entity is not enjoyer; he is servitor. But when he wants to enjoy, he is sent into this material world.
Kṛṣṇa bhuliya jīva bhoga vañcha kare (Prema-vivarta). Because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, our only duty is to serve Kṛṣṇa. There is no other duty. Therefore Kṛṣṇa demands, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). We have no other duty; just to serve Kṛṣṇa. But when we forget our position, constitutional position, and we try to enjoy this material world, that is called materialistic way of life, or conditioned life.
So just like drinking. Drinking is not good. Nobody supports. But when a drunkard is persistent to drink, the government gives him some concession, "All right, this man will die without drinking. All right. You can take your liquor from that shop, licensed shop, and you can purchase under such a condition, 'You do not do this, do not do this,' " there are so many regulations. But there is no such restriction for eating rice or dal, because that is not bad. The bad thing . . .
Just like slaughterhouse. Slaughterhouse is not, I mean to say open to the public. It is done in a secret place so that people may not see. It is ghastly. So anything bad, that is licensed. Licensed. Just like sex life. Sex life is also not very good thing. Therefore, the license is marriage. If you want to enjoy sex life, all right, take this license, marriage, not beyond that. Then you will be criminal.
That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā nityā hi jantor na hi tatra codanā (SB 11.5.11). These things—to be intoxicated, to enjoy sex life, to eat meat—a natural propensity is there in everyone. When śāstra says that "You do it like this," that means that is restriction. Just like according to Vedic civilization, those who are meat-eaters, for them it is allowed that you can kill . . . not kill; you can sacrifice one goat before Goddess Kālī and on the amāvasyā night under such-and-such restriction.
That means indirectly it is discouraging, "Don't do it. But if you do it, you do in this way." But people even do not do that. The meat-eaters, without undergoing the process of meat-eating as it is described in the dharma-śāstra, they directly purchase from the slaughterhouse, and therefore so many slaughterhouses are maintained in this world.