We have tasted this material world. Everyone has tasted. It is full of miseries. Tri-tāpa yantraṇā. Tri means three, and tāpa means miserable condition of life. Tri-tāpa. Ādhyātmika, pertaining to this body and mind. Sometimes I am feeling some pain on my body, there is fever or some other ailment, the mind is not in order, this is called ādhyātmika. Similarly, ādhibhautika. Just like Pakistan is ready to attack us. If not Pakistan, then there are many other enemies; even there are many other living entities, just like mosquito, fly, bugs. So ādhibhautika, another living entity giving us trouble. And ādhidaivika—just like this famine, flood, pestilence, so many things which you cannot control.
So this is the position of this material world. Tri-tāpa yantraṇā trisura. You have seen the picture of Goddess Durgā—she is piercing the trisura on the chest of the asura, and he is suffering, his struggle for existence, fighting with the lion, rajo-guṇa. So this is the position of the material world and the certificate is given by Kṛṣṇa, the Lord Himself, that this place is duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). Duḥkhālayam, always full of miseries.
So the human form of life is meant for understanding what is my position. In the animal life we cannot understand that we are in a very, very miserable condition of life in this material world. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja says, mānuṣam, durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma, tad apy adhruvam. It will not stay. You can say: "All right, there is suffering. Let me suffer for some time. I shall get next life again or I shall be finished." But Prahlāda Mahārāja says: "Why do you think like that? Why you want to die like cats and dogs? Just acquire the benefit which you can have in this human form of life, Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Mānuṣam. Durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma, tad apy adhruvam. Although it will not stay, but it is arthadam. Arthadam means you can achieve the highest goal of life.
What is that highest goal of life? The highest goal of life is not to have a skyscraper building constructed in my life or have big balance in the bank. No. That is not highest goal of life. The highest goal of life is indicated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That is also statement of Prahlāda Mahārāja, na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31). Persons who are very much attached to the external world, durāśayā bahir-artha . . . this external world is called bahiraṅgā śakti, the external energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
So here it is just like mirage, just like people . . . or the not people, animal, running after water in the desert. In the desert, there is some reflection of heat, and the animals think there is water. And they run after water, the water also going ahead and the animal also going ahead. In this way, when he is too much tired, he falls down and dies. Tejo-vāri-mṛdāṁ vinimayam.
So this material world is not our actual place of happiness. We should understand this. And the human form of life is meant for that purpose. Just like Sanātana Gosvāmī, he appeared before Caitanya Mahāprabhu to solve this question, ke āmi, kene more jāre tāpa-traya (CC Madhya 20.102). That is intelligence. Intelligence means one should be inquisitive about his goal of life.
In the Bhāgavata also in another place, the instruction of Ṛṣabhadeva, that parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto. Abodha-jāto, everyone is born ignorant. So in ignorance, whatever you will act, that is our defeat; that is not our gain. The gain is only when you develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the only gain in this human form of life. Otherwise, whatever you gain, that is lost. Śrama eva hi kevalam (SB 1.2.8). Simply wasting time, time and energy.
So Prahlāda Mahārāja says that, "My dear friends . . ." He was teaching his class friends, who were five years old, and he said that durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma tad apy adhruvam arthadam that, "Our duty is, so long the next death does not appear, we should develop our dormant Kṛṣṇa consciousness." We should not wait. Just like Parīkṣit Mahārāja. Parīkṣit Mahārāja was given time, seven days. He was cursed by a Brāhmin boy that "Mahārāja, you shall die within seven days, bitten by a snake." So immediately, because he was emperor, so he understood that, "I shall have to die." So he prepared himself. For seven days he tried to understand what is his relationship with Kṛṣṇa, or God.
So that is imitated at Bhāgavata-saptāha. But actually, Bhāgavata is not to be studied imitating Parīkṣit Mahārāja for seven days. No. In seven days we cannot understand even one verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, what to speak of the eighteen thousand verses. That is not possible. But it has become a fashion. Bhāgavata says, nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. Naṣṭa-prāyeṣu abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā (SB 1.2.18). It is not for seven days; it is for all the life. Parīkṣit Mahārāja had no time more than seven days. Therefore he finished the whole Bhāgavata hearing in seven days.
The another instruction is that Parīkṣit Mahārāja had notice for seven days' duration of life, but we do not know whether seven days or seven minutes. It may be I am speaking now, immediately I can stop, because I am under completely under the control of the material nature. You know perhaps that one big officer of Indian government, I think he was the commander-in-chief, or something like that, he was eating in the feast in Japan, and on the table he died while eating. There was some trouble in the throat by eating fish, and some trouble was there, and he suffocated, died immediately.
So we cannot say whether we are going to live for seven days or seven minutes or seven hours. There is no guarantee. Immediately you can die. Therefore our duty is, before the next death comes, we must develop our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We must be very serious.