SB 1.2.10 (1962)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT No. 10
Kamasya na indriya pritir labho jeeveta yavata Jeevasya tatwajijnasa na artho jascheha karmabhih.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS
Kamasya—of desires, na—not, indriya—senses, priti—satisfaction, labho—gain, jeeveta—self preservation, yavata—so much so, jeevasya-of the living being, tatwa—absolute truth, jijnasa—enquiries, na—not, artha—end, jascheha—whatsoever else, karmabhih—by occupational activities.
TRANSLATION
Life's desires must not be directed towards the matter of sense gratification. One should desire only for a healthy life or self preservation because the life of a human being is meant for enquiring about the Absolute Truth and nothing more should be desired by all occupational service.
PURPORT
The complete bewildered material civilization is wrongly directed towards the fulfilment of desires in sense gratification. In such civilization, in all spheres of life the ultimate end is sense gratification. In politics, social service, altruism, philanthropy and ultimately in religiosity or even in the matter of salvation the very same tint of sense-gratification is ever increasingly predominent. In the political field the leaders of men fight with one another for the matter of fulfilling their personal sense gratification. The voters adore the socalled leaders only on the promise of the voters' sense gratification. As soon as the voters are dissatisfied in their own sense satisfaction they dethrone the leaders and the leaders almost always disappoint the voters by not satisfying their senses. The same thing is applicable in all other fields and nobody is serious about the problems of life. Even those who are on the path of salvation, desire to become one with the Absolute Truth and desire to commit a spiritual suicide for the matter of sense gratification. But the Bhagwat says that one should not live for the matter of sense gratification. One should satisfy the senses so much so as it is required for self-preservation and not for sense-gratification. Because the body is made of senses which also require a certain extent of satisfaction there are regulative directions for satisfaction of such senses. But they are not meant for unrestricted sense enjoyment. For example marriage or combination of a man with a woman is necessary for progeny but it is not meant for sense enjoyment. In the absence of such voluntary restraint, there is the propaganda for family planning but the foolish men do not know that family planning is automatically executed as soon as there is search after the Absolute Truth. Seekers of the Absolute Truth are never allured by the unnecessary engagements in sense gratification because the serious student seeking after the Absolute Truth is always overwhelmed with the work of researching the Truth. In every sphere of life, therefore, the ultimate end must be seeking after the Absolute Truth and that sort of engagement will make every one happy on account of being less engaged in the matter of variety of sense-gratification. And what is that Absolute Truth is explained as follows:-