So we are planning, one after another, various plans to be very happy in this material world. But they will not make us happy -- that's a fact -- because this place is certified by the Supreme Personality of Godhead as duhkhalayam asasvatam: [Bg. 8.15] "This is a place for misery." This material world is a place for misery. This body is meant for suffering miseries, and the land is meant for suffering miseries. That we do not understand. But we are placed in a miserable condition all round. That is material life. Duhkhalayam asasvatam [Bg. 8.15]. But we have got attachment for this material happiness, even it is duhkhalayam, it is very much painful, miserable, and we are making plans how to become happy here. This is called struggle for existence. It is going on perpetually. We are making some plan to be happy, and it is dismantled by the laws of nature. You study the whole history of the world: it is simply struggling. We are making some plan to be out of miserable condition, but it is causing another miserable condition. Therefore it is called daivi hy esa gunamayi mama maya duratyaya [Bg. 7.14]. This is maya. We are simply planning to overcome some problem, some difficulties, but it is becoming more difficult. This is the fact.
Therefore our determination should be to renounce this association of this world. That is called mukti. Renounce this material association and come to the spiritual platform. Because we are spirit soul, our real place is spiritual platform. Our activities should be on the spiritual platform. Then we will be happy. The same example, as I have given many times, that we are animals of the land, so if we are put into the water, then however expert swimmer I may be or you may be, it is simply struggle for existence. There cannot be any happiness in the water. But if you are taken out of the water and put again into the land, then you get relief. So that is the position. We have come to this material world for sense gratification. The more expertly we make plan for our sense gratification, it will never be successful. So we have to come out of these material activities and act on the platform of spiritual life. That will make us.
By H.D.G. Srila Prabhupada
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