Just like just now two big directors of this Dai Nippon Company came to see me. We have got business with them. So they are meeting so many problems for printing work. They are maintaining about 200,000 people to carry on their business, huge establishment, huge responsibility. But there are problems also. So this material world is full of problem. One who understands, he is called sura, or civilized man; and one who does not understand, he is called asura. Asura, not sura. Āryan, non-Āryan. So amongst the suras, those who can understand the problems of life, there is a system which is called religion. And what is the purpose of religion? Religion is to understand what is God. That is religion. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19).
So all over the world the civilized man has got some religion. It may be professing the Vedic religion; somebody the Buddhist scriptures. Just in your country, most of you, you are Buddhists. There are similarly Muhammadan scriptures, Christian scriptures. But in each and every scripture there is rules and regulation to follow to become more and more aware of the topmost principle, the original cause of all causes. That is, means, religion. So one who does not care to understand this philosophy, they are called asura. And one who understands this philosophy of life, they are called sura or devatā, god, demigods, they are called.
Dvau bhūta-sargau loke daiva āsura eva ca (BG 16.6). There are two kinds of men throughout the whole universe. There are men in other planets also, they are very highly elevated; they are therefore called devas, or demigods. The moon planet, the sun planet. . . There are many other heavenly planets. There is sun-god. In the Bhagavad-gītā you will find the name of the sun-god, or the predominating deity of the sun planet, Vivasvān. His name is Vivasvān. Everything you will find in the śāstra. So there are two divisions: asura and sura, or asura or deva. Devāsura. Deva means those who are conscious of the responsibility of life. They are called deva. So for the devas, Kṛṣṇa has explained so many things. Now He is explaining about the asuras - what are the symptoms of asura.
He says first of all, pravṛttiṁ ca nivṛttiṁ ca janā na vidur āsurāḥ. Pravṛttiṁ nivṛttim (BG 16.7). Now, as soon as we have got this human form of life, we have got different desires, or we accept something as very nice, we reject something as not very good. This discriminating power is there. Even in animal there is this discriminating power. Just like a pig. A pig, if you give him halavā and if you give him stool, he would like to eat stool than the halavā. You will find it, natural. He has got natural inclination to eat stool. And a human being will be naturally inclined to take halavā. So this is called pravṛtti-nivṛtti. So the member of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness society, if you offer him tea, he will not take it. And others, if you offer tea, he will very gladly accept it. This is called pravṛtti and nivṛtti.
So the pravṛtti and nivṛtti. . . Why a person is not accepting tea or smoking or something else, and why other person accepting the same thing? Amongst the animal also, you give something to animal, he will reject, and another thing he will accept. These two things are there in every living being: accepting something and rejecting something. This is called pravṛtti and nivṛtti. So far the human form of life is concerned, there must be some pravṛtti and nivṛtti. There is that inclination, pravṛtti and nivṛtti, but they should be, I mean to say, synchronized, systematized - what things we should accept and what things we should reject. That we must learn. Therefore we have got so many books, literature, education - what things we should accept and which things we should reject.
But what is the basic principle? Why I shall accept something and reject something? The basic principle is to go forward in our spiritual understanding. That is the basic principle. We are suffering in this material world. We may say that "We have no suffering. It is very pleasing," but actually, in every step we are suffering. Just like this is winter season. To take bath in the winter season is suffering. And in the summer season, to take bath in the summer season, it is very pleasing. So either we are suffering or we are enjoying according to different season and circumstances, but actually we are suffering. Because. . . Take this winter season. We do not want chilly cold; therefore we are covering. The cause is we are suffering; therefore we are covering. And after covering, we are feeling some pleasure. This pleasure is, for the time being, absence of suffering, that's all. Actually, we are suffering, but by some arrangement, when we stop that suffering for the time being and feel enjoying, that is material enjoyment. Actually there is no enjoyment, because in the winter season by covering the body we are feeling pleased, but in the summer season by covering the body we feel not pleased. So this is going on. So rejecting and. . . Why the same dress, warm dress, does not give us pleasure in the summer season? And the same dress, in the winter season it gives us pleasure? So we do not know whether dress is pleasing or suffering. Means sometimes it is pleasing and sometime it is displeasing. Similarly water: we do not know whether water is pleasing or displeasing. Sometimes it is pleasing; sometimes it is not pleasing. Everything.