68
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 2, Ch. 2]
such a “civilization” is not worthy of the name. In pursuit of such false activities, a human being is in the clutches of  māyā , or illusion. Great sages and saints in the days of yore were not living in palatial buildings furnished with good furniture and so-called amenities of life. They used to live in huts and groves and sit on the flat ground, and yet they have left immense treasures of high knowledge with all perfection. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī were high-ranking ministers of state, but they were able to leave behind them immense writings on transcendental knowledge, while residing only for one night underneath one tree. They did not live even two nights under the same tree, and what to speak of well-furnished rooms with modern amenities. And still they were able to give us most important literatures of self-realization. So-called comforts of life are not actually helpful for progressive civilization; rather, they are detrimental to such progressive life. In the system of  sanātana-dharma  of four divisions of social life and four orders of progressive realization, there are ample opportunities and sufficient directions for a happy termination of the progressive life, and the sincere followers are advised there to accept a voluntary life of renunciation in order to achieve the desired goal of life. If one is not accustomed to abide by the life of renunciation and self-abnegation from the beginning, one should try to get into the habit at a later stage of life as recommended by Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī, and that will help one to achieve the desired success.
TEXT 5
चीराणि किं पथि न सन्ति दिशन्ति भिक्षां 
  नैवाङ्घ्रिपाः परभृतः सरितोऽप्यशुष्यन् । 
  रुद्धा गुहाः किमजितोऽवति नोपसन्नान् 
  कस्माद् भजन्ति कवयो धनदुर्मदान्धान् ॥ ५ ॥
cīrāṇi kim pathi na santi diśanti bhikṣām 
  naivāṅghripāḥ parabhṛtaḥ sarito 'py aśuṣyan 
  ruddhā guhāḥ kim ajito 'vati nopasannān 
  kasmād bhajanti kavayo dhana-durmadāndhān
cīrāṇi —torn clothes;  kim —whether;  pathi —on the road;  na —not;  santi —there is;  diśanti —give in charity;  bhikṣām —alms;  na —not;  eva —also;  aṅghri-