Prabhupāda: This we simply say that, "God is great. You are servant. Don't be befooled that you are God. Don't be befooled like that." That is our prayer.
Reporter: Do they do anything like social work or other . . .
Prabhupāda: Yes, social work, this is the best social work. People are in ignorance, and we are giving them knowledge. Is it not the best social work? If you keep the man in ignorance and if you give him something . . . just like your child. You simply give him to eat but no education, then what is the benefit? Is that very good, nice work, that you give your children nice food to become robust but no education? Is that very good, nice work? People are, in this human form of life, especially meant for understanding God. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is the Vedānta-sūtra. So they are keeping them in darkness and teaching them technology, how to make cycle. That's all. The life is meant for understanding God, and they have been educated for making cycle and sewing machine. This is going on. Therefore there will be disaster. It is already there. Just like in America or any Western country, they have manufactured so many cars, and now they are flattering the Arabians, "Please give us oil." You see? Power crisis. And if they stop manufacturing, there is unemployment. And if they increase car, there is power shortage. So this dilemma, this modern civilization will have to meet this dilemma because they are going against the laws of God.
Reporter: You are not suggesting that all of that is just cut away completely, but that people. . .?
Prabhupāda: No, you require . . . first thing, you require to eat. So Kṛṣṇa says that annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14): produce sufficient grain, food grain, so that both the animal and the man, they will eat and become robust, stout and strong, and they will be capable of working. So that is the first thing. But who is producing food grains? They are producing motor cars. When there is scarcity of food, will these motor cars help us? We shall eat motor cars? This is going on, so-called industrialization, producing unnecessary thing which is not required, and they are neglecting producing food grains. And I have estimated—I am traveling all over the world—that there are so much space even now that if you produce food grain, you can feed ten times of the population as it is.
But they will not do that. They will create motorcars, and the whole street is congested. At any moment there can be accident, and if you have to go to consult a doctor, you have to go thirty miles off. Because the motorcar is there. I am diseased. I want to consult a doctor. So he must be in neighborhood. But I have to go thirty miles. And maybe, before going to the doctor, I may be finished, by accident. Anartha. It is called anartha. Anartha means unwanted things. So Bhāgavata says:
- anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād
- bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje
- lokasyājānato vidvāṁś
- cakre sātvata-saṁhitām
- (SB 1.7.6)
Because the rascals are simply creating unnecessary necessities of life, so their only remedy is bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje. But people do not know it. Therefore vidvān, Vyāsadeva, he has made the sātvata-saṁhitā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, anartha upaśamam, to stop them acting nonsensically, simply producing problem.
Reporter: So it's just a question of when.
Prabhupāda: The book is there. You learn, and you be learned. It is already there.
Reporter: Do you foresee a time coming when people will realize . . .
Prabhupāda: It has already come, disaster.
Reporter: No, I mean a time coming when disaster is averted and people realize . . .
Prabhupāda: No, unless you take the real instruction, how you can stop disaster? You must agree to take the real instruction. If you don't agree, then you suffer. That is your business. But the remedy is there. The instruction is there. Just like Bhagavad-gītā says: "Produce food grain." The remedy is there. But you'll not produce food grain; you'll produce motorcar. Then you must suffer.