The materialistic way of life means these four things: eating, sleeping, defending and mating - sense gratification. But if we want to go to the spiritual platform, then these bodily demands, at least for the present, we have to regulate. We cannot enjoy material life without any restriction and at the same time, we can stand on the spiritual platform. That is the whole thing. The difficult problem is that: we want to be spiritualists by speculation only. That is the whole tendency. People are much interested in philosophical speculation without any practical life. In the modern world it is said, yaso 'rthe dharma-yajanam. This is the symptom of this age.
Lecture on Bhagavad-gita 2.59-69, New York, April 29, 1966