Category:Modern Age
Theme Analysis
Śrīla Prabhupāda offers a sharp critique of the modern age, characterizing it as a time of misplaced priorities and spiritual bankruptcy. While modern civilization prides itself on technological and economic advancement—such as nuclear weapons, engineering feats, and attempts at space travel—it fundamentally fails to address the real problems of life: birth, death, old age, and disease. This "wrong civilization" forces people to work like animals for temporary comforts while neglecting the eternal soul. The result is a society plagued by racial strife, acute food crises, and continuous wars. True advancement, according to Vedic wisdom, is not merely manipulating matter but realizing the self and reconnecting with the Supreme Lord.
- Misplaced Priorities: Stressing the body (unimportant) over the soul (active principle).
- Technological Illusion: Modern achievements like atomic weapons and skyscrapers are inferior to ancient Vedic science and rishi-kulas.
- Social Chaos: Economic development has not brought peace; instead, it has led to strained relationships and war.
- The Wrong Civilization: A system designed to keep people in ignorance, working hard for sense gratification.
- The Solution: The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is a fight against this degrading civilization.
- Explore a synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: A Critique of this Modern Age.
- Explore a synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Modern Age - Ignorance and Materialism.
Pages in category "Modern Age"
The following 84 pages are in this category, out of 84 total.
A
- Actually we are not these bodies. That is the first instruction in the Bhagavad-gita. So, especially in the modern age, people are thinking like that, and they are unhappy
- All the important acaryas of the modern age - namely Sankaracarya, Ramanujacarya, Madhvacarya, Visnu Svami and Nimbarka - advented themselves in these Dravida provinces. Lord Caitanya, however, appeared in Bengal, which is part of the five Gauda-desas
- As cities are constructed in the modern age with great engineering and architectural craftsmanship, so in days gone by there were neighborhoods called rsi-kulas, where great saintly persons resided
- At the modern age the educated public, they are not interested in religious life because they think that in primitive stage the people were taking to religious life for economic development
- At the modern age the people are simply kept into ignorance so that they can work like ass and cow and be satisfied. This is the present civilization. And this Krsna consciousness movement is a fight against this civilization, this wrong civilization
E
- Even in the modern age, in some communities or states, the old men are given poison so that they will die as soon as possible
- Even the great things men can manufacture in the modern age are still not the greatest things man has created
- Even the nuclear weapons of the modern age are classified as fire weapons, but formerly there were other weapons made of all different types of material elements. BG 1972 purports
G
- Great politicians and philosophers of the modern age even try to banish Krsna from Bhagavad-gita. Consequently, for them there is no salvation
- Guided by so-called psychologists and philosophers, people in the modern age do not know of the activities of the subtle body and thus cannot understand what is meant by the transmigration of the soul. Here we have to take the authorized statements of BG
H
- He (Aurobindo Ghosh) understood that there are activities even after liberation, but he could not understand Krsna, so hard it is. Others, the so-called sannyasis, just like Ramatirtha or Vivekananda, they could not approach even, in the modern age
- He (God) is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead by learned scholars & saints like Vyasadeva, Narada, Asita and Devala in the past & by Arjuna in the BG as by the acaryas like Sankara, Ramanuja, Madhva and Lord Sri Caitanya in the modern age
I
- In each body the living entity performs so many acts. Sometimes he becomes a great hero - just like Hiranyakasipu and Kamsa or, in the modern age, Napoleon or Hitler
- In the modern age a certain class of fools think that they can vote anyone into the position of God, as they can vote a man into the position of a political executive head. But the transcendental SPG is perfectly described in the authentic scriptures
- In the modern age a yoga process has been manufactured which aims at something void and impersonal
- In the modern age advanced material scientific knowledge and penance have played very wonderful roles in controlling the powers of the material energy
- In the modern age most countries have developed economically, but due to business exchanges, relationships seem to be strained
- In the modern age people are under the impression that during the Vedic period or the prehistoric ages America and many other parts of the world had not been discovered, but that is not a fact
- In the modern age the consciousness of people is too much covered by wine, women and flesh. Consequently, people are completely unable to make any progress in self-realization
- In the modern age the mission of Krsna consciousness is for everyone to acknowledge the supremacy of Lord Krsna; whatever one has in his possession must be considered a gift by the grace of the Lord
- In the modern age the people have begun to detonate atomic weapons on the surface of the earth, and still the earth is forbearing to the inhabitants, like a mother who excuses a little child
- In the modern age the title gosvami is used by a caste of grhasthas, but formerly it was not. Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami, for example, were called gosvami because they were in the renounced order
- In the modern age they are giving more stress on the unimportant thing, and they have no knowledge of the important thing. This is the defect
- In the modern age, however, there are so many rascals who recommend that while one has genitals he should enjoy women as much as he likes, and at the same time he can become a yogi
- In the modern age, man is trying to go to other planets, but so far he has been unsuccessful. It is not possible to travel to any other planets because by the laws of nature even the demigods cannot move from one planet to another
- In the modern age, people from earth have tried to go to the moon, but they have not been able to find anyone there, what to speak of meeting the moon's predominating deity
- In the modern age, such malicious scholars (who attempt to misrepresent the Pancaratra-sastras) have even commented misleadingly upon the Bhagavad-gita, which was spoken by Krsna, to prove that there is no Krsna
- In the modern age, there is a necessity for engineers, medical practitioners and electricians, and they are properly trained in different scientific institutions
- It has become a fashion of the modern age that to become irreligious is religious. Yes. That is fact
- It is very essential that this human form of body is meant for rectifying or purifying our existence. That they do not know, especially in the modern age, that this body is temporary and we living entities, we are eternal and this is our bondage
L
- Lord Caitanya appeared to spread this movement to every town and village of the world, and by the grace of good souls like yourself the desire of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu is being fulfilled in the modern age
- Lord Caitanya immediately informed Prakasananda that in the modern age people in general are more or less bereft of all spiritual intellect
- Lord Caitanya next informed Prakasananda that in the modern age people in general are more or less bereft of spiritual intellect
- Lord Kapila the incarnation of Godhead appeared as the son of Kardama Muni long, long ago, during the time of Svayambhuva Manu; the modern age is the age of Vaivasvata Manu
M
- Many may claim that in the modern age material scientists have helped increase agricultural yield. But we fearlessly proclaim that it is precisely such atheistic views that have brought the world to the present acute food crisis
- Millions of years ago, the past and present and future as they were, at the present moment also, the same past, present and future are there. So there is no question of modern age or past age; the nature's law is the same
- Modern age, the people are not very intelligent. They are advertising themselves that they are very much advanced. Actually, they are fools
- Mumuksava means "desiring to be liberated." They do not know what is liberation. The so-called scientists, philosophers of the modern age, they do not know what is meant by liberation, mumuksa
O
- Of course in the modern age one may be amazed how the princes could stand in the water for ten thousand years. However, living within air or living within water is the same process; one simply has to learn how to do it
- One may ask, - How is it that in the modern age these Europeans and Americans of the Krsna consciousness movement do not take interest in newspapers
S
- Since the ultimate aim of life is spiritual realization, the direct way of invoking the holy name of the Lord, as mentioned above, is precisely recommended by Lord Caitanya, and people of the modern age can easily take advantage of this simple process
- So formerly, five thousand years ago, the same system, military - ordinary soldiers, then the captain, then the commander, the commander-in-chief - as there are gradations in the modern age, the same thing was there
- So-called advanced scientists of the modern age are trying to go to the higher planets, but at the same time they are experiencing a power shortage on earth
- Sometimes people say, the modern age. . . Modern age and past time or future, past, present and future, the real principles of life, they are the same. It does not change
T
- The activities of such men (like Hiranyakasipu and Kamsa or, in the modern age, Napoleon or Hitler) are certainly very great, but as soon as their bodies are finished, everything else is finished. Then they remain in name only
- The animals were sacrificed to test the strength of Vedic mantras; yajnas were performed as a test of the mantra. Even in the modern age, tests are executed on animal bodies in the physiology laboratory
- The asura is concerned with how much wealth he has in the bank today and how it will increase tomorrow, but unrestricted accumulation of wealth is not permitted either by the sastra or, in the modern age, by the government
- The children produced in the modern age are not exactly human beings. Human beings must be twice-born
- The form of the Lord as four-handed Narayana is the object of meditation for the followers of yoga-marga. In the modern age there are so many so-called yogis who do not target their meditation on the four-handed Narayana form
- The glaring attraction of city, that is maya. In the modern age people are more attracted by the city life, but we should know city life . . . not for the devotee; generally, people in general, they like city life, but that is maya
- The history of the West - beginning from the time of the Greeks and the Romans down to the modern age of atomic war - is a continuous chain of sense gratificatory materialism and the result is that the westerners were never in peace
- The history of the West beginning from the time of the Greeks and the Romans down to the modern age of atomic war, is a continuous chain of sense gratificatory materialism
- The materialistic man of the modern age will argue that life, or part of it, is never meant for discussion of theosophical or theological arguments
- The pancaratrika system is both practical and suitable for this age of quarrel. The Pancaratra is more important than the Vedanta for this modern age
- The so-called leaders of men in the modern age are attached by national consciousness, but they do not know that such false consciousness is also another designation of the materially conditioned soul
- The so-called scientists of the modern age cannot see how the subtle body is working in carrying the soul from one body to another
- The vaisyas and sudras were unimportant elements in society, and they are not mentioned herein (SB 1.9.41). Due to the change of social activities in the modern age, the importance of men has also changed in terms of occupational positions
- The varnasrama-dharma, or the institution of the four divisions and orders of social and spiritual life, is not a new invention of the modern age, as proposed by the less intelligent
- The yoga process which is very much advertised in your country, that is more or less bodily exercise. Yoga process is very difficult for the modern age. I have several times discussed this point
- Their airships (in heaven) are not like those we have invented in the modern age, which fly only from one country to another; their airplanes were capable of going from one planet to another
- There are actually two Kapilas: one Kapila, the son of Kardama Muni, is an incarnation of God, and the other is an atheist of the modern age. The atheistic Kapila is often misrepresented to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- They (modern age people) don’t believe in the next life, although practically we see, every moment you are changing bodies. So on the whole, lokasya ajanatah, they do not know what is the value of life. This is the position
- They (people of the modern age) are simply developing the qualities of rajas (passion) and tamas (ignorance), neglecting the other quality of nature, sattva (goodness), and the brahminical qualifications. Therefore the entire society is in chaos
- This tract of land (between Ganges and Yamuna), which is called Brahmavarta, consists of what is known in the modern age as portions of Punjab & northern India. It is clear that the kings of India once ruled all the world and that their culture was Vedic
- This yoga system recognizes the soul, and thus it is distinct from the so-called yoga process for controlling the cells of the body, which has been discovered in the modern age
V
- Varnasrama-dharma is not within any historical period calculated in the modern age. It is natural
- Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, one of the great acaryas in the modern age, explains that anubhava, or the glory of the Lord, is first appreciated by the devotee in ecstasy manifesting the symptoms of perspiring, trembling, weeping, bodily eruptions, etc
W
- We are trying to be happy in this place of miserable condition, manufacturing so many ways of life. In the modern age they are thinking that, If we have got a very nice car and nice residential quarter and nice wife
- We should adore, we should worship Bhaktivinoda Thakura, because in the modern age he reintroduced the disciplic succession
- What is the meaning of vrsalaih? Hmm? Unlawful meat-eaters. Unlawful meat-eaters. Just like at the modern age everyone is unlawful meat-eaters. There is a certain class of men always who are meat-eaters. Not the higher class
- When demoniac persons engage in animal-killing, the demigods, or devotees of the Lord, are very much afflicted by this killing. Demoniac civilizations in this modern age maintain various types of slaughterhouses all over the world