One who is not satisfied with the mind must fall to degradation. One must conquer lusty desires, anger, greed, fear, lamentation, illusion, fright, unnecessary talks on material subjects, violence, the four miseries of material existence, and the three material qualities. That is the objective of human life. One who has no faith in the spiritual master, who is identical with Sri Krsna, cannot get any benefit from reading sastra. One should never consider the spiritual master an ordinary human being, even though the members of the spiritual master’s family may think of him as such. Meditation and other processes of austerity are useful only if they help in advancement toward Krsna consciousness; otherwise, they are simply a waste of time and labor. For those who are not devotees, such meditation and austerity cause falldown.

Srila Prabhupada – SB 7.15 Summary