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THE SCIENCE OF SELF-REALIZATION
being has better consciousness than the animals, the energy of the human beings is more valuable than the energy of the animals.
Interviewer:  Probably no one would dispute that the human being has more freedom or, I suppose, responsibility than the animals.
Śrīla Prabhupāda:  So human energy should be utilized for spiritual advancement, not that the energy should be employed to compete with the dog. The saintly person is not busy like the dog. Today people think that “dog-ness” is life, but actual life is spiritual progress. Therefore, the Vedic literature says,
tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukham kālena sarvatra gabhīra-ramhasā
“Persons who are actually intelligent and philosophically inclined should endeavor only for that purposeful end which is not obtainable even by wandering from the topmost planet [Brahmaloka] down to the lowest planet [Pātāla]. As far as happiness derived from sense enjoyment is concerned, it can be obtained automatically in the course of time, just as in the course of time we obtain miseries even though we do not desire them.” [ Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  1.5.18]
Interviewer:  Could you explain that a little further?
Śrīla Prabhupāda:  The human being should exert his energy for that thing which he did not get in many, many lives. In many, many lives the soul has been in the forms of dogs, or demigods, or cats, birds, beasts, and many others. There are 8,400,000 different types of bodies. So this transmigration of the soul is going on. The business in every case is sense gratification.
Interviewer:  Which means?
Śrīla Prabhupāda:  For example, the dog is busy for sense gratification: where is food, where is shelter, where is a female, where is defense? The man is also doing the same business, in different ways. This business is going on, life after life. Even a small insect is trying for the same thing. Birds, beasts, fish—everywhere the same struggle is going on. Where is food, where is sex, where is shelter, and how to defend? The Vedic literature says that these things we have done for many, many lives, and that if we don’t get out of this struggle for existence, we will have to do them again for many, many lives.
Interviewer:  I’m beginning to see.