Prabhupāda: Very important verse. Tad abhūd asad īśa-riktam. Everything will be null and void when there is no God. That's it. The modern civilization has got everything, but without God consciousness, that any . . . any . . . any moment it will be finished. And there are symptoms. Any moment.
At the present moment, this godless civilization, as soon as there is declaration of war, the America is prepared to drop atom bomb—Russia is . . . the first nation who will drop the atom bomb, he will be victorious. Nobody will be victorious, because both of them are ready to drop. The America will be finished and Russia will be finished. That is the position. So you may make advancement of civilization, scientific improvement, economic development, but if it is godless, at any moment it will be finished. At any moment.
Just like Rāvaṇa. Rāvaṇa, Hiraṇyakaśipu, they were demons, godless demons. Rāvaṇa was very learned scholar in Vedic knowledge and very powerful materially. He converted his capital with gold, all the buildings and everything. It is supposed that Rāvaṇa's brother was a king of . . . on the other side of the globe. So it is my suggestion—I do not say it is very scientific proof—so other side of the globe . . . Rāvaṇa was in Ceylon, and the other side of the globe, if you go by subway, it comes to Brazil. And Brazil is supposed to have gold mines.
And it is said in the Rāmāyaṇa that Rāvaṇa's brother was living on the other side of the globe, and Rāmacandra was taken through the subway. So taking this into consideration, we can suppose that Rāvaṇa imported large quantity of gold from Brazil, and he converted them into big, big houses. So Rāvaṇa was so powerful that he made his capital Svarṇa-laṅkā, "Capital made of gold." Just like if a man comes from undeveloped country to your country, New York or any city, when they see the big, big skyscraper, they become astonished. Although skyscraper buildings are everywhere nowadays, formerly it was very wonderful.
So we can create everything very wonderful, but we can take the example of Rāvaṇa. Rāvaṇa was very advanced materially, and he had Vedic knowledge sufficiently. He was son of a brāhmaṇa. Everything was there. But the only fault was that he did not care for Rāma. That is the only fault. "Oh, what is Rāma? I don't care for Him. There is no need of performing yajñas and ritualistic ceremony to be promoted to the heavenly kingdom." Rāvaṇa said: "I shall construct a staircase to go to the moon planet. Why you are trying in this way or that way? I will do that." Svargesari. So these people are trying like Rāvaṇa, but they should take lesson from Rāvaṇa that his godlessness made him doomed. Everything he lost.
So this instruction by Arjuna . . . he says that so 'haṁ dhanus ta iṣavaḥ. He was defeated by the cowherdsmen. He could not protect the queens of Kṛṣṇa, and they were taken away by these cowherdsmen. So he is lamenting that, "I have got this bow and arrow with which I fought in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, and I became victorious because Kṛṣṇa was sitting on my chariot. That is the only reason. Now I have got these bows and arrows, the same bows and arrows with which I fought in the Battle of Kurukṣetra, but at the present moment there is no Kṛṣṇa. Therefore it is useless." Īśa-rikta, asad abhūt. Asat means which does not act; it does not exist. "So my bows and arrows are the same, but it is now useless."
So we should take this lesson that without God, without spirit, this material, I mean to say, gorgeousness has no value. Just like we were talking with the scientist in our walking. I was giving this example. Now, there was big, big scientist, just like Professor Einstein was a well-known scientist, but when that small spark of soul was gone from the body, the scientist was lying down, but useless. Nothing coming. Nothing coming. Now, the scientist himself also could not discover any implement or medicine or something like that and teach his disciples, "My dear disciples, when I will be on the death point, please give . . . inject this medicine in my body, and then again I shall come out a scientist." No. That is not . . .
He could not discover that. At least, as a big scientist, it was expected that, "Do something wonderful." They might have discovered so many wonderful. The real problem—birth, death, old age and disease—there is no discovery. That I was talking, that discover something by which there will be no disease. You are discovering very nice medicine. The drug shop is full with various types of up-to-date medicine, but none of the medicine is sufficient to make a man not to die. That is not possible. Or not to become diseased. That is not possible.
So this advancement of civilization, material civilization, without God, is like that. That is stated in the Vedic literature, that:
- bhagavad-bhakti-hīnasya
- jātiḥ japas tapaḥ kriyaḥ
- aprāṇasya hi dehasya
- maṇḍanaṁ loka-rañjanam
- (Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya 3.11)
Jāti, big nation, big achievement, japas tapaḥ kriyā, big activities . . . just like you American people, you are big nation. Your activities are very big, considered in other parts of the world. And your tapasya is there. You have earned this; you have made this America so nice by tapasya, by austerity. It has not come out automatically. You have labored hard. That is called tapasya. So this big nationality, jāti, japas, tapaḥ, these hard work, scientific discoveries, they are very nice, but what kind of popularity it is? Bhagavad-bhakti-hīnasya jātiḥ japas tapaḥ kriyaḥ. All these are simply decoration of the dead body. I do not know whether in your country it is a fashion. In India there is a custom that low-class men . . . just like cobbler. Cobbler is taken as the low . . . those who prepare, expert in skin. So they are generally very poor man. Now they have advanced, because now the Kali-yuga is the age of the śūdras. So they decorate the dead body. If a cobbler's father dies, he brings . . . he spends money. He brings nice covering cloth, and with flower and everything . . .so śāstra says that:
- bhagavad-bhakti-hīnasya
- jātiḥ japas tapaḥ kriyaḥ
- aprāṇasya hi dehasya
- maṇḍanaṁ loka-rañjanam
- (CC Madhya 19.75)
If you decorate a dead body, it may be very fanciful to the people that, "This dead body is decorated with costly garments and flowers and all thing." So, but the dead body is dead. It is not enjoying. You can be complacent that, "My father, the body of my father or my relative, is decorated so nicely." But factually, if you study scrutinizingly, what is the benefit out of this? What is the benefit, dead body decoration? But people do that. They are accustomed to do that.
So similarly, this body is dead. That's a fact. It is dead from the very beginning, because it is matter. Matter is always dead. So this body made of matter, bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ (BG 7.4)—earth, water, fire, air, this external body, is dead, but it is living on account of that small spark of spirit. That is the real main thing. That we understand from Bhagavad . . . dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). Dehinaḥ, the small spark, spiritual spark, he is within this body. This is the first understanding of spiritual knowledge. You must know. This is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā.