Material Civilization - an essential subject

The main characteristics of a material civilization is advancement in technology, wealth and relationships. While these may seem attractive, they carry with them exponentially increasing burdens due to entanglements with the material nature. In order to get rid of sufferings and achieve eternal bliss, the Bhagavad-gītā and the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam state that those who have attained the comforts of a material civilization made for sense gratification should try to attain the kingdom of God by exchanging their acquired material strength, and adopting instead, the process of bhakti-yoga.

Srila Prabhupada's books, lectures, conversations and letters offer a comprehensive presentation of this essential subject as seen in the Vaniquotes Material Civilization category. An introduction from his books is given below in the following 8 quotes.

Quotes from Srila Prabhupada's books


vanipedia.org 		The opulence of a person within this material world is estimated in terms of his exercise of the genitals and the tongue, or, in other words, how well he is able to utilize his sexual capacities and how well he is able to satisfy his fastidious taste by eating palatable dishes. Material advancement of civilization necessitates creating objects of enjoyment by mental concoction just to become happy on the basis of these two principles: pleasures for the genitals and pleasures for the tongue. (Kṛṣṇa Book, Chapter 88)



vanipedia.org 		At present the whole world is on the verge of retiring from a blind materialistic civilization, which may be likened to hunting animals in the forest. People should take advantage of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and leave their troublesome life of killing. It is said that the killers of animals should neither live nor die. If they live only to kill animals and enjoy women, life is not very prosperous. And as soon as a killer dies, he enters the cycle of birth and death in the lower species of life. That also is not desirable. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.26.10)



vanipedia.org 		The purport is that sometimes when a friend or relative dies, especially among lower class men, the dead body is decorated. Dressed and ornamented, the body is taken in procession. That sort of decoration of the dead body has no actual value because the life force is already gone. Similarly, any aristocracy, any social prestige or any advancement of material civilization without Kṛṣṇa consciousness is as good as the decoration of a dead body. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.7.36)



vanipedia.org 		Being materially advanced means taking birth in an aristocratic family and possessing great wealth, an education and attractive personal beauty. All materialistic men are mad after possessing all these material opulences, and this is known as the advancement of material civilization. But the result is that by possessing all these material assets one becomes artificially puffed up, intoxicated by such temporary possessions. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.26)



vanipedia.org 		Advancement of material civilization on the basis of sense gratification means increasing the duration of the material existence of a living entity. Therefore, this lust is the symbol of ignorance by which the living entity is kept within the material world. While one enjoys sense gratification, it may be that there is some feeling of happiness, but actually that so-called feeling of happiness is the ultimate enemy of the sense enjoyer. (Bhagavad-gītā 3.39)



vanipedia.org 		There are thousands and thousands of literary men all over the world, and they have created many, many thousands of literary works for the information of the people in general for thousands and thousands of years. Unfortunately none of them have brought peace and tranquillity on the earth. This is due to a spiritual vacuum in those literatures; therefore the Vedic literatures, especially the Bhagavad-gītā and the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, are specifically recommended to suffering humanity to bring about the desired effect of liberation from the pangs of material civilization, which is eating the vital part of human energy. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.5.13)



vanipedia.org 		When one is controlled by Cupid or the beauty of women, he becomes stunned like matter such as stone. Captivated by the material movements of women, he wants to remain in this material world. Thus one's promotion to the spiritual world is checked simply by seeing the beautiful bodily structure and movements of women. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has therefore warned all devotees to beware of the attraction of beautiful women and materialistic civilization. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.2.6)



vanipedia.org 		The materialists have many branches of philanthropic and altruistic activities from a political, national and international angle of vision, but none of the field work can go beyond the jurisdiction of the misconception of identifying the material body with the spirit soul. Unless, therefore, one is saved from the wrong conception of the body and the soul, there is no knowledge of Godhead, and unless there is knowledge of God, all advancement of material civilization, however dazzling, should be considered a failure. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.7.42)


Material Civilization - explore more within this category.

Vanipedia has now over 903 introductory articles compiled from Srila Prabhupada's books under the series titled Essential Subjects. All these articles can be seen in the Table of Content on the right side of this article and also here in this Umbrella Category. Browse through them to relish the breadth and depth of Srila Prabhupada's teachings - There is a subject for everyone.


   
 

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