Pradyumna: "This verse indirectly confirms the greater importance of utilizing the human form of life to realize our lost relationship with the Supreme Lord by acceleration of devotional service. Time and tide wait for no man. So the time indicated by the sunrise and the sunset will be uselessly wasted if such time is not properly utilized for realizing identification of spiritual values. Even a fraction of the duration of life wasted cannot be compensated by any amount of gold."
"Human life is simply awarded to a living entity, jīva, so he can realize his spiritual identity and his permanent source of happiness. A living being, especially the human being, is seeking happiness, because happiness is the natural situation of the living entity. But he is vainly seeking happiness in the material atmosphere. A living being is constitutionally a spiritual spark of the complete whole, and his happiness can be perfectly perceived in spiritual activities. The Lord is the complete spirit whole, and His name, form, quality, pastimes, entourage and personality are all identical with Him."
"Once a person comes into contact with any one of the above-mentioned energies of the Lord through the proper channel of devotional service, the door of perfection is immediately opened. In the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord has explained such contact in the following words: 'Endeavors in devotional service are never baffled, nor is there failure. A slight beginning of such activities is sufficient even to deliver a person . . . sufficient even to deliver a person from the great ocean of material fears.' "(BG 2.40)
"As a highly potent drug injected intravenously acts at once on the whole body, similarly, the transcendental topics of the Lord injected through the ear of the pure devotee of the Lord can act very efficiently. Aural realization of the transcendental messages implies total realization, just as fructification of one part of a tree implies fructification of all other parts. This realization for a moment in the association of pure devotees like Śukadeva Gosvāmī prepares one's complete life for eternity, and as such the sun fails to rob the pure devotee of his duration of life, inasmuch as he is constantly busy in the devotional service of the Lord, purifying his existence."
"Death is a symptom of the material infection of the eternal living being, and due to material infection only, the eternal living being is subjected to the law of birth, death, old age and disease. The materialistic way of pious activities like charity, etc., is recommended in the smṛti-śāstras, as quoted by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. Money given in charity to a suitable person is guaranteed bank balance in the next life. Such charity is recommended to be given to a Brāhmin. If the money is given in charity to a non-Brāhmin without brahminical qualification, the money is returned in the next life in the same proportion. If it is given in charity to a half-educated Brāhmin, even then the money is returned double. If the money is given in charity to a learned and fully qualified Brāhmin, the money is returned a hundred and thousand times, and if the money is given to a veda-pāraga, one who has actually realized the path of the Vedas, it is returned by unlimited multiplication."
"The ultimate end of Vedic knowledge is to realize the Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). There is guarantee of money being returned if given in charity regardless of the proportion. Similarly, a moment passed in the association of a pure devotee by hearing and chanting the transcendental messages of the Lord is a perfect guarantee for eternal life for returning home, back to Godhead. Mad-dhāma gatvā punar janma na vidyate (BG 8.16). In other words, a devotee of the Lord is guaranteed eternal life. A devotee's old age or disease in the present life is but an impetus to such guaranteed eternal life."
Prabhupāda: So, āyur harati vai puṁsām. The sunshine, sunrise and sunset, means decreasing our life. It is very nice example. The sun's business is to take away a portion of your span of life. That is business. But he cannot take away the portion of the life of a devotee. Because a devotee is going to live. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to give a living entity a permanent span of life. Uttama-śloka-vārtayā. Uttama-śloka is Kṛṣṇa. Uttama-śloke . . .
Bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī uttama-ślo . . . bhagavaty uttama-śloke. In another place it is stated, tadā . . . naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu. Naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā (SB 1.2.18). Nityam . . . just like we are holding class daily, nityam, regularly. Nityam means regularly, daily, always. So nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. The beginning . . . just like when a man is infected with a disease, he is subjected to death. Crude example. So when a man falls diseased, the physician tries to get him relieved from that infection.
So our material body is an infection. Actually, we spiritual soul, we have no death. It is due to this infection. This infection is called dirty things. Actually it is dirt. "Dust thou art, dust thou be-ist," that's a fact. Because as soon as I, the soul, will leave this body, it will be immediately decomposed, and after a few days it will be earth, dust. So actually it is dirt. So we have to cleanse this dirt from my real identity, spiritual life.
This is the process. And this cleansing process is very nicely done simply by hearing the message of Uttama-śloka, or Kṛṣṇa. You haven't got to scratch it with some machine. No. It will be automatically cleansed if you simply give aural reception to the message of the Uttama-śloka, which is, in other word, it is called kṛṣṇa-kathā. Kṛṣṇa-kathā means words of Kṛṣṇa. Kathā means words, and kṛṣṇa, you understand. So kṛṣṇa-kathā, Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa personally giving you words of instruction. So if we simply read Bhagavad-gītā, then the sun cannot take away the, my duration of life.