70 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 7, Ch. 2

recommended. But for those in the mode of goodness, the transcendental
worship of Visnu is recommended. Ultimately, all yajrias are meant for
gradual promotion to the transcendental position. For ordinary men, at
least five yajfas, known as pafica-mahdayajna, are necessary.

One should know, however, that all the necessities of life that human
society requires are supplied by the demigod agents of the Lord. No one
can manufacture anything. Consider, for example, all the eatables of
human society. These eatables include grains, fruits, vegetables, milk
and sugar for persons in the mode of goodness, and also eatables for the
nonvegetarians, such as meats, none of which can be manufactured by
men. Then again, take for example, heat, light, water and air, which are
also necessities of life—none of them can be manufactured by human
society. Without the Supreme Lord, there can be no profuse sunlight,
moonlight, rainfall or breeze, without which no one can live. Obviously,
our life is dependent on supplies from the Lord. Even for our manufac-
turing enterprises, we require so many raw materials like metal,
sulphur, mercury, manganese and so many essentials—all of which are
supplied by the agents of the Lord, with the purpose that we should make
proper use of them to keep ourselves fit and healthy for the purpose of
self-realization, leading to the ultimate goal of life, namely, liberation
from the material struggle for existence. This aim of life is attained by
performance of yajnas. If we forget the purpose of human life and
simply take supplies from the agents of the Lord for sense gratification
and become more and more entangled in material existence, which is not
the purpose of creation, certainly we become thieves, and therefore we
are punished by the laws of material nature. A society of thieves can
never be happy, for they have no aim in life. The gross materialist
thieves have no ultimate goal of life. They are simply directed to sense
gratification; nor do they have knowledge of how to perform yajfas.
Lord Caitanya, however, inaugurated the easiest performance of yajia,
namely the sarkirtana-yajna, which can be performed by anyone in the
world who accepts the principles of Krsna consciousness.

Hiranyakasipu planned to kill the inhabitants of earth so that yajna
would stop and the demigods, being disturbed, would die automatically
when Lord Visnu, the yajfesvara, was killed. These were the demoniac
plans of Hiranyakasipu, who was expert in such activities.
