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THE SCIENCE OF SELF-REALIZATION
unhappiness, but it comes by force. That is the law of material nature. No one wants fire, but wherever we go in a city the fire brigade is always active. There is always fire. Similarly, there are many things that no one wants. No one wants death—there is death. No one wants disease—there is disease. No one wants old age—there is old age. They are there, against our will, against our desire.
Thus we should consider the state of this material existence. This human form of life is meant for understanding, not for wasting valuable life like animals by eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. That is not advancement of civilization. The  Bhāgavatam  says that this body is not meant for working hard simply for sense gratification.
nāyam deho deha-bhājām nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujām ye  [ Bhāg. 5.5.1 ]
To work very hard and satisfy oneself by sense gratification is the business of hogs, not human beings. The human being should learn  tapasya . Especially in India, so many great sages, so many great kings, and so many  brahmacārīs  and  sannyāsīs  have passed their lives in great  tapasya  in order not to go further to sleep. Lord Buddha was a prince who gave up everything and engaged himself in  tapasya . This is life. When King Bharata, under whose name India was named Bhārata-varṣa, was twenty-four years old, he gave up his kingdom, his young wife, and young children and went away for  tapasya . When Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu was only twenty-four, he gave up His young wife, mother, everything. There are many, many examples. India is the land of  tapasya , but we are forgetting that. Now we are making it the land of technology. It is surprising that India is now no longer propagating this  tapasya , for India is the land of  dharma: dharma-kṣetre kurukṣetre .
But it is not only in India; everywhere in this age of iron everything is degraded, degraded in this sense:  prāyeṇālpāyuṣaḥ sabhya kalāv asmin yuge janāḥ  [ Bhāg. 1.1.10 ]. In this age of Kali the duration of life is diminished, and men are not moved to understand self-realization, and if they are, they are invariably misled by so many deceitful leaders. The age is very corrupt. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu's process of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa is the best and the simplest method.
harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam