There are 8,400,000 species of life we will have to . . . sometimes we are very comfortable, Americans, and sometimes something else, something else, something else. So this is troublesome. We do not know—we forget. Our past lives we have forgotten since we have got this body; similarly, when you get another body we shall forget. But each life is a chapter of suffering, that's all—different kinds of suffering. So if you actually anxious to make a solution of your life, then you have to follow the rules and regulations of life. The books are the Vedic regulations, Vedic culture, scriptures. They are there to guide you. They are not meant for animals; they are meant for human society. Because they have got developed consciousness they can accept it, they can follow it. If a man wants to become very good man, he can become; he has got the capacity. So these are the processes recommended. So:
- deha-vāg-buddhijaṁ dhīrā
- dharmajñāḥ śraddhayānvitāḥ
- kṣipanty aghaṁ mahad api
- veṇu-gulmam ivānalaḥ
- (SB 6.1.14)
So knowingly or unknowingly we are put into such a condition that knowingly or unknowingly we have to commit something which is not very favorable for our future. But those who are cautious . . . the same example: just like you are cautious while traveling, while, I mean to say, driving in your car on the road you are very cautious. You stop your car when there is red light; you turn according to the direction; you don't violate the laws. In a street you have to follow so many rules. In a street, for a few minutes if you drive, you have to follow some . . . and you have no routine work for your life? Do you think like that? You are so irresponsible? Just try to understand: in a street for a few min . . . ten minutes if you drive you have to follow so many rules and regulations. It is a ten-minutes' affair. And throughout your whole life you are irresponsible—you will not follow any rules and regulations? Is that very nice proposal? Is good intelligence? Huh? No—you have to. So Śukadeva Goswāmī recommends that there are so many rules and regulations, which is difficult also to follow, especially in this age, Kali-yuga. We are in this age very much irresponsible.