Material society

Expressions researched:
"material society"

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

Material society, friendship and love are all different phases of lust.

SB 1.10.11-12, Purport: Material society, friendship and love are all different phases of lust. Home, country, family, society, wealth and all sorts of corollaries are all causes of bondage in the material world, where the threefold miseries of life are concomitant factors. By associating with pure devotees and by hearing them submissively, attachment for material enjoyment becomes slackened, and attraction for hearing about the transcendental activities of the Lord becomes prominent. Once they are, they will go on progressively without stoppage, like fire in gunpowder.

SB Canto 3

The sum and substance of material existence and attachment to material society, friendship and love.

SB 3.3.10, Purport: There is a Bengali proverb, "The person for whom I have stolen accuses me of being a thief." The family members, for whom an attached person acts in so many criminal ways, are never satisfied. In illusion an attached person serves such family members, and by serving them he is destined to enter into a hellish condition of life. For example, a thief steals something to maintain his family, and he is caught and imprisoned. This is the sum and substance of material existence and attachment to material society, friendship and love. Although an attached family man is always engaged in getting money by hook or by crook for the maintenance of his family, he cannot enjoy more than what he could consume even without such criminal activities. A man who eats eight ounces of foodstuffs may have to maintain a big family and earn money by any means to support that family, but he himself is not offered more than what he can eat, and sometimes he eats the remnants that are left after his family members are fed. Even by earning money by unfair means, he cannot enjoy life for himself. That is called the covering illusion of māyā.

SB Canto 4

Sometimes it is found that a person interested in spiritual advancement gives up the company of material society and goes to a secluded place.

SB 4.22.23, Purport: To advance in devotional service one should be uninterested in the materialistic way of life. That which is the subject matter of satisfaction for the devotees is of no interest to the nondevotees. Simple negation, or giving up the company of materialistic persons, will not do. We must have engagements. Sometimes it is found that a person interested in spiritual advancement gives up the company of material society and goes to a secluded place as recommended for the yogīs especially, but that will also not help a person in spiritual advancement, for in many instances such yogīs also fall down.

The so-called teachers or leaders of material society do not really know the goal of life.

SB 4.29.56, Purport: Actually the so-called teachers or leaders of material society do not really know the goal of life. They are described in Bhagavad-gītā as māyayāpahṛta jṣānāḥ [Bg. 7.15]. They appear to be very learned scholars, but actually the influence of the illusory energy has taken away their knowledge. Real knowledge means searching out Kṛṣṇa. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ [Bg. 15.15]. All Vedic knowledge is meant for searching out Kṛṣṇa because Kṛṣṇa is the origin of everything. Janmādy asya yataḥ [SB 1.1.1]. In Bhagavad-gītā (10.2) Kṛṣṇa says, aham ādir hi devānāṁ: "I am the source of the demigods." Thus Kṛṣṇa is the origin and beginning of all demigods, including Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva and all others.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

A person who has developed detachment can give up the bondage of material society, friendship and love.

SB 11.8.38, Translations: A person who has developed detachment can give up the bondage of material society, friendship and love, and a person who undergoes great suffering gradually becomes, out of hopelessness, detached and indifferent to the material world. Thus, due to my great suffering, such detachment awoke in my heart; yet how could I have undergone such merciful suffering if I were actually unfortunate? Therefore, I am in fact fortunate and have received the mercy of the Lord. He must somehow or other be pleased with me.