We are not this body. Better standard of living, sleeping, mating is meant for this body. But I am not this body. That is my first proposition, that I am not body. I am not this room, apartment. If I simply decorate this room with all my energies, forgetting about myself, then that is not very good intelligence. You decorate your body, decorate your room, decorate your dress—that's all right—but take information of your soul also.
Lord Jesus Christ said that, "if after achieving everything one loses his self, then what does he gain?" The same thing is also in the Bhāgavata. There is no difference between the instruction of Lord Jesus Christ and Bhāgavata, but Bhāgavata is very elaborately described, and Lord Jesus Christ gave you in nutshell. Just like he gave you the information of the kingdom of God. Now, what is that kingdom of God, how it is being conducted, what is the situation, that you will find here. That is the difference.
So this civilization, this civilized form of life, we should be careful.
(break)
Just like Mahārāja Parīkṣit is the instance, that he was cursed by a brāhmaṇa that he would die within seven days, and he was preparing. He was preparing himself because, "I have to meet death." But we are so forward that we do not think of our death. But death is in . . . "As sure as death." Everyone has to meet death. And we have to consider what we are preparing for our life after death. That is intelligence. That is intelligence. Not that to be absorbed in simply only this small duration of life, say fifty years, sixty years or hundred years. You are not hundred years or sixty years, fifty years. You are soul. You are eternal. So what is your eternal life? How you can . . .
. . . become eternally happy? How you can have eternal life? That is your problem. That is your problem.
So Parīkṣit Mahārāja, therefore, when he was preparing . . . because he was emperor, many great sages, saintly person, many great kings and emperors assembled there, because everyone knew that, "He is going to die within seven days." So he had some notice that, "My dear sir, you'll die within seven . . ." But we can die any moment, because there is no notice. Even if I stepping down on the street I may die. There may be some accident. Even if we are sitting here, there may be some accident; we may immediately die.
So we have no notice. So we should be more careful and cautious than Parīkṣit Mahārāja, who had seven days' notice at least, that at least he was not going to die within seven days. So he was preparing. At that time he was asking all saintly persons there that, "What is my duty? Now I am going to die. What is my duty?" So in that way . . . because he was from the very beginning Kṛṣṇa conscious and devotee of Kṛṣṇa, so he also questioned, "Whether I shall simply remember Kṛṣṇa?"
- yac chrotavyam atho japyaṁ
- yat kartavyaṁ nṛbhiḥ prabho
- smartavyaṁ bhajanīyaṁ vā
- brūhi yad vā viparyayam
- (SB 1.19.38)
He said, yac chrotavyam: "Now my time is limited. So what is my duty to hear?"
Because our life is śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam. We hear something, we chant something. Maybe our business chanting and hearing, or maybe some educational chanting, hearing, or something else, the whole life is chanting and hearing. Therefore he (is) asking question from Śukadeva Gosvāmī, yac chrotavyam: "What is to be heard just now, now I'm going to meet death?"
Yac chrotavyam japyam: "What shall I meditate upon?" Japyaṁ yat kartavyam, "Or what shall I do now?" Smartavyam, "Or what shall I remember or what shall I worship?" So many things he said. Brūhi yad vā viparyayam: "Or you can explain what is my duty." That was his . . .
So because he inquired about Kṛṣṇa, therefore the speaker, the Śukadeva Gosvāmī, who was inquired from Parīkṣit Mahārāja, he first replying:
- varīyān eṣa te praśnaḥ
- kṛto loka-hitaṁ nṛpa
- ātmavit-sammataḥ puṁsāṁ
- śrotavyādiṣu yaḥ paraḥ
- (SB 2.1.1)
"My dear King, your question is very superexcellent." Superexcellent. (Sanskrit) "You have inquired whether I shall now simply absorb my mind simply for hearing and chanting of Kṛṣṇa." That was his question.