Modern Civilization Is...: Difference between revisions
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* '''Madness:''' A "crazy civilization" addicted to sex and intoxication, ignoring the reality of death. | * '''Madness:''' A "crazy civilization" addicted to sex and intoxication, ignoring the reality of death. | ||
* '''Exploitative:''' Based on the false premise of conquering nature and increasing unnecessary necessities. | * '''Exploitative:''' Based on the false premise of conquering nature and increasing unnecessary necessities. | ||
* Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: [[Vanipedia:Modern Civilization - A Dead Body|Modern Civilization - A Dead Body.]] | * Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: [[Vanipedia:Modern Civilization - A Dead Body|Modern Civilization - A Dead Body.]] | ||
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[[Category:Civilization]] | [[Category:Civilization]] | ||
[[Category:Modern Civilization]] | [[Category:Modern Civilization]] | ||
[[Category:Categories With Theme Analysis]] | |||
[[Category:Past, Present, and Future - Umbrella Category]] | [[Category:Past, Present, and Future - Umbrella Category]] | ||
[[Category:Human Beings and Society - Umbrella Category]] | [[Category:Human Beings and Society - Umbrella Category]] | ||
[[Category:All Categories - Vaniquotes]] | [[Category:All Categories - Vaniquotes]] | ||
Latest revision as of 05:54, 20 January 2026
Theme Analysis
Śrīla Prabhupāda defines modern civilization through a series of striking metaphors that reveal its spiritual bankruptcy. He calls it a "dead body" because it lacks the active principle of God consciousness, which is the true life of society. Without a head (spiritual guidance), the social body is dysfunctional. It is labeled as an "animal civilization" or "hog civilization" because it focuses entirely on eating, sleeping, mating, and defending, merely polishing these base instincts with technology. It is a "patchwork" of activities designed to cover up the miseries of birth, death, old age, and disease. Fundamentally, it is a "soul-killing civilization" that keeps people in darkness about their eternal nature, encouraging them to exploit nature and engage in sinful life.
- A Dead Body: Civilization without God is like a decorated corpse; it has no life or future.
- Animal Life: Polished with shirts and coats, but fundamentally no different from cats and dogs.
- Patchwork: A temporary covering for the perpetual miseries of material existence.
- Headless Society: A social body without the direction of brāhmaṇas or spiritual knowledge.
- Madness: A "crazy civilization" addicted to sex and intoxication, ignoring the reality of death.
- Exploitative: Based on the false premise of conquering nature and increasing unnecessary necessities.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Modern Civilization - A Dead Body.
Pages in category "Modern Civilization Is..."
The following 71 pages are in this category, out of 71 total.
A
- Artificial needs of life are activities of the senses. Modern advancement of civilization is based on these activities of the senses, i.e., it is a civilization of sense gratification. Perfect civilization is the civilization of atma, or the soul proper
- At the present moment, modern civilization is too much attached to the material way of life, or sense gratification
E
- Either you say Absolute Truth or the Supersoul, the same thing. But this life is meant for understanding. If we miss this opportunity, we do not know where we are going. The defect of the modern civilization is they don't care. Hedonism, Carvaka's theory
- Even a high-court judge, because he has to spend more than his income, he adopted these vile means of living. The trend of modern civilization is like that. They unnecessarily increase their expenditure and adopt these all vile means
- Even Dr. S. Radhakrishnan admitted at a world religion conference that religion will not be accepted in modern civilization if it is not accepted from a scientific point of view
I
- If God, or Krsna, is satisfied, then whole world is satisfied. The modern civilization is lacking this knowledge. Asuric civilization, demonic civilization, what to speak of satisfying God, they are denying the existence of God
- If we remain on the bodily concept of life, then we are no better than the dogs and cats. But unfortunately, modern civilization is going on, on this bodily concept of life. That is asat-patha
- If we say frankly, everyone is in the bodily concept of life. Therefore the modern civilization is animal civilization. It is not human civilization. Human civilization will begin when one will understand that - I am not this body. I am spirit soul
- In the modern materialistic civilization, we have very good arrangement for eating, for sleeping, for defending, and for sense gratification. The modern material civilization is simply based on this mundane knowledge
- It may be argued that in Kali-yuga modern civilization is mainly situated in the cities. A great city, however, is like a great forest. Actually city life is more dangerous than life in the forest
M
- Modern civilization is a patchwork of activities meant to cover the perpetual miseries of material existence. All such activities are aimed toward sense gratification
- Modern civilization is a sort of a social body without a head, or actually it is a dead body
- Modern civilization is based on family comforts and the highest standard of amenities
- Modern civilization is based on family comforts, the highest standard of amenities
- Modern civilization is centered around animal-killing. Karmis are advertising that without eating meat, their vitamin value or vitality will be reduced; so to keep oneself fit to work hard, one must eat meat
- Modern civilization is considered to be advanced in the standards of the mode of passion. BG 1972 purports
- Modern civilization is defying the authority of the Personality of Godhead; the more a man advances in his material adventures, the more he becomes covered by the illusory energy
- Modern civilization is how to develop the facility of sense gratification. This is modern civilization. For spiritual life this should be, rather, whatever facilities we have got, we have to curtail, not to increase. That is Krsna consciousness
- Modern civilization is in dire need of an educational system to give people instructions on what happens after death. In actuality the present educational system is most defective because unless one knows what happens after death, one dies like an animal
- Modern civilization is in the opinion that if they can improve their material condition of eating, sleeping, mating and defending, that is advancement of civilization. But that is not advancement of civilization
- Modern civilization is interested neither in Krsna nor in getting relief from sinful acts. Therefore men are suffering
- Modern civilization is so foolish. They are simply trying for bodily distress and happiness and spoiling the energy which he could utilize for understanding God. This is the defect of modern civilization
- Modern civilization is such that everyone will be smashed. And one takes the central point shelter, Krsna consciousness, he will not be
- Modern civilization is supposed to be making advancement in scientific knowledge, but what is this scientific knowledge? It is based on bodily comforts only, without knowledge that however comfortably one maintains his body, the body is destructible
- Modern civilization, not referring to the verdicts of Vedic literature, is so cruel to the members of human society that instead of teaching children to become brahmacaris, it teaches mothers to kill their children even in the womb
P
- People cannot even follow systematically the material system so that you can live peacefully so long you are in this material world. The modern civilization is so condemned. They do not know even how to live peacefully
- People cannot understand. That means the modern civilization is not sober. It is just like cats and dog. You cannot make a cat and dog sober to understand the philosophy of life. They have degraded so much. That is described in the sastra
- Prahlada Maharaja said: "This kind of endeavor you should not do." Exploitation. Not exploitation; I mean to say, unnecessarily trying for developing economic condition. The modern civilization is: "Exploit nature and materially be opulent"
S
- Sastra says, "No, no. You live with the minimum necessities. Don't increase your necessities unnecessarily." This is Vedic civilization. And the modern civilization is even increase your necessities - a machine for shaving your cheek. You see?
- So anyone who is under the bodily concept of life, he's no better than animal. So actually, if we say frankly, everyone is in the bodily concept of life. Therefore the modern civilization is animal civilization
- So human life is not meant for hog civilization. So modern civilization is hog civilization, although it is polished with shirt and coat. So, we shall try to understand. This Krsna consciousness movement is for understanding Krsna
- So modern civilization is not strictly following the Vedic injunction. Therefore, especially I have seen in the Western countries, there is no home practically
- So the modern civilization is going on in that way, godless civilization. If some percentage of the civilized human beings become Krsna conscious, that will bring forth peace. Otherwise it is not possible. It is therefore necessity
- So this civilization, modern civilization, is just like madman civilization. They have no knowledge of past life, neither they are interested in the future life
T
- The defect of modern civilization is that it puts too much stress on solving these (eating, mating, sleeping, etc.) survival problems. As spiritual living beings it is incumbent upon us to extricate ourselves from this entanglement of birth and Death
- The mistake of modern civilization is that we are, I mean to say, bringing up spoiled children. So when they are grown up, if they become hippies or communists, it is not their fault. It is the fault of the guardians
- The modern civilization is a condemned civilization. The innocent people are being dragged from the villages and exploited in the cities. But in the Bhagavad-gita Krishna recommends them to remain where they are and produce grains: annad bhavanta bhutani
- The modern civilization is a sort of a social body without a head, or actually it is a dead body. The body is dead since the very beginning of it's birth, and it is the spirit that keeps it moving
- The modern civilization is based on bodily designation - American, India, German - but our proposition is to become free from these artificial designations, & unless one becomes free from these artificial designations there can't be any God-consciousness
- The modern civilization is everyone is sent for academic education. That is mistake, waste of time
- The modern civilization is Godless, but people are not happy. Therefore God or His representative comes when people forget his relationship with God
- The modern civilization is practically . . . they are evading, evading the real sufferings. They are engaged in temporary sufferings
- The modern civilization is simply increasing the paraphernalia of sense enjoyment. There is no arrangement for advancement of spiritual knowledge. That is the defect of modern civilization
- The modern civilization is simply meant for creating unnecessary necessities of life. That's all. So we are becoming deviated from God. The more we are advancing in so-called material civilization, we are more becoming far away from God
- The modern civilization is suffering from this defect, that they are not inquisitive about the Brahman. They are simply... Just like cats and dogs, they are interested with this body and the bodily necessities of life. They do not know beyond that
- The modern civilization is that "Eat, drink, be merry and enjoy. Do not care for what is future life." That is condemned civilization. We should know that there is future life, there is birth after death, and we must be prepared
- The modern civilization is that if you can use your senses more and more, then you are civilized. Then you are enjoyer. So Vedic civilization is different. Their aim is different
- The modern civilization is to give freedom to sense satisfaction, because they cannot control. Just like you are riding on a horse, but the horse is not under your control, then you say, "Let it go to hell, never mind"
- The modern civilization is trying to transcend the pangs of material life, namely birth, death, old age and diseases, by advancement of material knowledge, but actually this advancement is only binding them more tightly into the material concept of life
- The modern civilization is: mother is material nature and we are all sons, born in the womb of the material nature. So who is the father? That inquiry is lacking. But there is father, undoubtedly. And the answer is given in the Bhagavad-gita
- The modern civilization, everyone is thinking, "If I get a good wife and nice motorcar and a nice apartment, that is success." That is not success. That is temporary
- The process is Human civilization means not to drag somebody who is already in the sattva-guna or in the family of sattva-guna, to drag him down to the tamo-guna. The modern civilization is like that
- The rascal leader is also blind and the followers are blind, so both of them are doomed. Therefore the conclusion is, the modern civilization is misguided
- The tendency of modern civilization is to give money in charity to the poor. Such charity has no spiritual value
- The whole material world is more or less in the mode of passion. Modern civilization is considered to be advanced in the standard of the mode of passion. Formerly, the advanced condition was considered to be in the mode of goodness
- The whole scheme should be to satisfy the Lord. This is the secret of success. Tasmin tuste jagat tustam. If God, or Krsna, is satisfied, then whole world is satisfied. The modern civilization is lacking this knowledge
- Therefore (because modern civilization is busy hunting women, drinking liquor, killing animals and enjoying sex) they (Vaisnavas) are very busy spreading this Krsna consciousness movement
- They (modern civilization) are in gross misunderstanding of life. So in order to cleanse their heart to understand what is the position, where they are going, where they are actually, how things are going on, Caitanya Mahaprabhu says ceto-darpana-marjanam
- They (the modern civilization) are enamored by the glimmering manifestation of the cosmic body or the individual body, but they do not try to understand the basic principles of this glimmering situation
- This human life should be regulated in such a way that he hasn't got to satisfy the senses after taking so much hard labor. The modern civilization is like that. Everyone is engaged in hard labor simply for satisfaction of the senses
- This modern civilization is always artificial. You are actually learning in New Vrindaban the self-sufficient mode of living, simple living, high thinking, that is our policy
- This modern civilization is big dog civilization, that's all. That is not human civilization. Human civilization means that he must be interested to know Krsna and God. That is human civilization
- This modern civilization is most dangerous civilization, soul-killing civilization. The human being got the chance of understanding God, but they are being refused by the authorities to understand God
- This modern civilization is teaching people how to steal, how to cheat, how to satisfy your own sense gratification. You see? No tolerance, no complete knowledge. All fools and rascals, no knowledge
- This modern civilization, it is insane, crazy civilization. There is a little pleasure in sex life - simply sex life, increase sex life, spoiling everything. That is crazy. Eating - eat anything, any nonsense thing, and become a hog
U
- Unfortunately, no education is there to understand this science. So in other words, it may be taken that the modern civilization is killing the prerogative of the human being. He has got a chance to understand himself and to stop
- Unfortunately, the modern civilization is keeping people in so darkness that they have no idea that there is a life after death