Prabhupada, July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach: […] The food is supplied. Who is supplying food? If there is a hole in your room and so many thousands of ants are coming out, who is supplying food? Are you supplying that, “Here is a hole. There are ants. They must be given some food”?
Of course, that is your duty according to Vedic civilization. But who is doing that? There are so many fishes in the water, many millions. Who is giving food them? There are many elephants in African jungles.
They eat at a time forty kilos. So who is supplying food? This is not the problem. If the bird, beast, animals, fishes, aquatics and cats, dogs, everyone, can get food, what you have done that you will not get your food? You are human being.
This is the right conclusion, that “If food is supplied to the elephants and to the ant by some superior arrangement, what I have done that I will not get my food?” Tasyaiva hetoh prayateta kovidah. Find out this verse. It is not in Bhagavad-gita.
In Bhagavata.
tasyaiva hetoh prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatam upary adhah tal labhyate duhkhavad anyatah sukham kalena sarvatra gabhira-ramhasa
“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, Patala. As far as happiness derived from sense enjoyment is concerned, it can be obtained automatically in course of time, just as in course of time we obtain miseries even though we do not desire them.”
Prabhupada: Purport.
Satsvarupa: “Every man everywhere is trying to obtain the greatest amount of sense enjoyment by various endeavors. Some of them are busy engaged in trade, industry, economic development, political supremacy, etc., and some of them are engaged in fruitive work to become happy in the next life by attaining higher planets.
It is said that on the moon the inhabitants are fit for greater sense enjoyment by drinking soma-rasa, and the Pitrloka is obtained by good charitable work. So there are various programs for sense enjoyment, either during this life or in the life after death. Some are trying to reach the moon or other planets by some mechanical arrangement, for they are very anxious to get into such planets without doing good work. But it is not to happen.
By the law of the Supreme, different places are meant for different grades of living beings according to the work they might have performed. By good work only, as prescribed in the scriptures, one can obtain birth in a good family, opulence, good education and good bodily features. We see also that even in this life one obtains a good education or money or bodily beauty.
Similarly, in our next birth we get such desirable positions only by good work. Otherwise, it would not so happen that two persons born in the same place at the same time are seen differently placed according to previous work. But all such material positions are not permanent. The positions in the topmost Brahmaloka and in the lowest Patala are also changeable according to our work.
The philosophically inclined person must not be tempted by such changeable positions. He should try to get into the permanent life of bliss and knowledge, where he will not be forced to come back again to the miserable material world, either in this or that planet. Miseries and mixed happiness are two features of material life, and they are obtained in Brahmaloka and in other lokas also.
They are obtained in the life of the demigods and also in the life of the dogs and hogs. The miseries and mixed happiness of all living beings are only of different degree and quality, but no one is free from the miseries of birth, death, old age and disease. Similarly, everyone has his destined happiness also. No one can get more or less of these things simply by personal endeavors.
Even if they are obtained, they can be lost again. One should not, therefore, waste time with these flimsy things; but one should only endeavor to go back to Godhead. That should be the mission of everyone’s life.”
[…]
Devotee: There is another group. They call themselves Zero Population Growth. So their idea is that there’s too many people on this planet. So therefore either they want… What they want to do is that they want to increase the number of deaths…
Prabhupada: Death?
Devotee: Yes. And decrease the number of births. It is called Zero Population Growth, and they are actually thinking like this.
Prabhupada: And who is going to decrease the population of the mosquito? It is increasing. This means real business they are forgetting.
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