We are very much serious about the nonpermanent things, the body, which will not exist, which will be vanquished after certain period of years, but we do not take care of the eternal consciousness, which is changing from one body to another. This is the defect of the modern civilization. And so long we are unaware of the presence of the spirit soul in the body, so long we do not inquire what is the spirit soul, so long our all activities are simply wasting our time.
In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said that parābhavas tāvad abhodha-jātaḥ (SB 5.5.5). The foolish person or the foolish living entity. Anyone who has accepted this temporary body is understood to be foolish. So every one of us is born foolish, because we identify with this temporary body as myself. Therefore we are foolish. Everyone knows that the body does not exist, and still, everyone identifies himself with this body. This is called ignorance, or illusion.
So the whole world, or the mostly people, are hovering in ignorance, and he does not know that he is spirit soul and he is transmigrating from one body to another. He does not want to die, but the death, cruel death, is enforced upon him. So these problems they do not consider very seriously, and they are thinking very happy on the principles of animal life. The animal life is based on four principal things: eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. And at the present moment the human civilization is very much proud of advancement of knowledge, but they are concerned with these four principles of life, namely eating, sleeping, defending and mating.
So according to Vedic literature, this way of life is no better than animal life. Human life is meant for advanced knowledge. And what is that advanced knowledge? To know oneself, what I am. In every civilized country, in every civilized form of civiliza . . . of society, there is some kind of religious principles, either you accept Muhammadanism or Christianism or Jewism or Hinduism or Buddhism. And what is the purpose of the scriptures and religious principles? To understand this consciousness, to understand the spirit soul and how it is fallen into this material conditional life, how they are transforming or transmigrating in different species of life.
There are 8,400,000's of species of life, and we are wandering in so many species of life. And this is the opportunity, when we have got this human form of life, to understand "What I am." If we do not understand "What I am," then I am missing the opportunity. If I simply waste my time in the propensities of animal life—the same thing: eating, sleeping, defending and mating—and if you do not inquire that, "I do not wish to die.