150 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 2, Ch 3
TEXT 18
ae: fea saa wen: Fea aaa |
aq Gteted A Refer FE MT GaAISTE U2 cll
taravah kim na jivanti
bhastrah kim na svasanty uta
na khadanti na mehanti
kim grame pasavo ‘pare

taravah—the trees; kim—whether; na—do not; jivanti—live; bhastrah—
bellows; kim—whether;na—do not; svasanti—breathe;uta—also;na—do not;
khadanti—eat; na—do not; mehanti—discharge semen; kim—whether;grame
—in the locality; pasavah—beastly living being; apare—others.

TRANSLATION
Do the trees not live? Do the bellows of the blacksmith not breathe?
All around us, do the beasts not eat and discharge semen?
PURPORT

The materialistic man of the modern age will argue that life, or part of
it, is never meant for discussion of theosophical or theological arguments.
Life is meant for the maximum duration of existence for eating, drinking,
sexual intercourse, making merry and enjoying life. The modern man wants
to live forever by the advancement of material science, and there are many
foolish theories for prolonging life to the maximum duration. But the
Srimad-Bhagavatam affirms that life is not meant for so-called economic
development or advancement of materialistic science for the hedonistic
philosophy of eating, mating, drinking and merrymaking. Life is solely
meant for tapasya, for purifying existence so that one may enter into
eternal life just after the end of the human form of life.

The materialists want to prolong life as much as possible because they
have no information of the next life. Therefore they want to get the
maximum comforts of life only in this present life, thinking conclusively
that there is no life after death. This ignorance about the eternity of the
living being and the change of covering in the material world has played
