Why we send our children to school? Because that is preparation for the next life. Otherwise let him play all the night, all the day. Why you should be, parents, why anxious to send him to educational institution? It is preparation for the next life.
Similarly, this life is also meant for next life. Evolution. Why evolution? From aquatics to the birds, beasts, insect, animals, then we come to the human form of life, especially in a civilized human form of life. So if you prepare yourself in this life, then next life you can improve more. You can become demigod; you can go to higher planetary system, where duration of life, standard of comfort, is very, very high, thousand times, thousand times comfortable than at the present moment. Similarly, you can transfer yourself to the abode of God. These are stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. You'll find:
- yānti deva-vratā devān
- pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ
- bhūtejyā yānti bhūtāni
- mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām
- (BG 9.25)
So this life is preparation.