Why not varnasrama?

[Guest guest]

> Mahat-tattva prabhu,

>

> Why are you so much opposed to industrilization? After all, SP always used

> cars, airplanes, typewritters, pens, paper, shoes, roads, trucks, nails,

> bolts and nuts, etc... ad infinitum..... to push on the Krishna

> Consciousness Movement. In fact, he even went as far as saying that in the

> service of the Lord, we can even use missiles!!!!

 

Srila Prabhupada used those to bring the hellish civilization to an end. Not

that we should continue with those things. Please read the following:

 

 

Varna & Ashrama and Agrarian Economy

 

By H.H. Hridayananda das Goswami

 

For many years, devotees have pondered how to institute the varnashrama

social system that Lord Krishna created (Bg 4.13) and Srila Prabhupada

advocated as vital to organize and truly civilize humanity. Considering the

two branches of this sytem — varna and ashrama — it seems that it is the

system of four varnas that has proven more difficult to institute, both in

ISKCON and in the world. ISKCON generally (at times roughly) practices the

system of four ashramas, but reviving the four-varna system has proven more

elusive, even among the devotees, not to speak of in the world.

 

Ironically, the philosopher who best explains this problem may be Karl Marx,

who famously concluded from his study of history that the means of

production determine social and political relationships. In other words, the

way that a society secures its basic material needs will shape the social

and political institutions of that society.

 

For example, at a very simple level, we find that societies who live by

hunting and gathering, being necessarily nomadic or semi-nomadic, tend to

form simple tribal systems of social and political life. Among agrarian

societies where food can be stored in large quantities, much larger scale

societies are possible, resulting in more specialized divisions of labor,

and much more complex political institutions. This leads to political and

social hierarchy.

 

We should note here that the Vedic varna system presupposes an agrarian

economy, ie an economy based on land and the production of food. As agrarian

life gives way to industrial, urban life, the simple efficient hierarchy of

varnas collapses. We see this clearly in the history of Europe where a

pre-industrial caste or varna system collapsed with the onset of the

industrial revolution. We also witness this process in contemporary India,

where rapid industrialization and consequent urbanization is weakening the

traditional caste system, even in its hereditary form.

 

Srila Prabhupada clearly understood these historical dynamics, for we find

that exactly at the time he began the “varnashrama talks” during his morning

walks in Vrindaban, 1974, Prabhupada began to urge the devotees to acquire

land and produce their own food. Prabhupada understood that the varna social

system presupposes, and seems to require, an agrarian economy.

 

Prabhupada also predicted widespread social and economic upheavels that

would render our self-sufficient farms essential for our own survival and

that of others. Thus for various reasons, including our own survival, ISKCON

truly needs another “back to the land” movement. In the context of an agrian

economy, we can revive the system of four varnas, created by Lord Krishna,

and now needed more than ever to civilize a lost, suffering humanity.

 

 

============================================

 

Terrible Industrial Enterprises

 

>From writings of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

 

Gigantic industrial enterprises are products of a godless civilization, and

they cause the destruction of the noble aims of human life. The more we go

on increasing such troublesome industries, the more we squeeze the vital

energy out of the human being and the more there will be unrest and

dissatisfaction of the people in general, although a few only can live

lavishly by exploitation. (SB 1.8.40)

 

The productive energy of the laborer is misused when he is occupied by

industrial enterprises. The production of machines and machine tools

increases the artificial living fashion of a class of vested interests and

keeps thousands of men in starvation and unrest. This should not be the

standard of civilization. (SB 1.9.6)

 

"Factory" is another name for hell. At night, hellishly engaged persons take

advantage of wine and women to satisfy their tired senses, but they are not

even able to have sound sleep, because their various mental speculative

plans constantly interrupt their sleep. (SB 3.9.10)

 

The dungeons of mines, factories, and workshops develop demoniac

propensities in the working class. The vested interests flourish at the cost

of the working class, and consequently there are severe clashes between them

in so many ways. (SB 1.11.12)

 

Manufacture of the "necessities of life" in factories and workshops,

excessively prominent in the Age of Kali, the age of the machine, is the

summit of the quality of darkness. Because factually there is no necessity

for the commodities manufactured. (SB 2.5.30)

 

What is the need of an artificial luxurious life of cinema, cars, radio,

flesh, and hotels? Has this civilization produced anything but quarreling

individually and nationally? Has this civilization enhanced the cause of

equality and fraternity by sending thousands of men into a hellish factory

and the war fields at the whims of a particular man? (SB 1.10.4)

 

The real problem is how to get free from the bondage of birth, death, and

old age. Attaining this freedom, and not inventing unnecessary necessities,

is the basic principle of Vedic civilization.... The modern materialistic

civilization is just the opposite of the ideal civilization. Every day the

so-called leaders of modern society invent something contributing to a

cumbersome way of life that implicates people more and more in the cycle of

birth and death. (SB 7.14.5)

 

Now people are very busy trying to find petroleum in the midst of the ocean.

They are very anxious to make provisions for the future petroleum supply,

but they do not make any attempts to ameliorate the conditions of birth, old

age, disease, and death. (SB 4.28.12)

 

The materialists ... think that they are advancing. But according to

Bhagavad-gita they are unintelligent and devoid of all sense. They try to

enjoy this material world to the utmost limit and therefore always engage in

inventing something for sense gratification. Such materialistic inventions

are considered to be advancement of human civilization, but the result is

that people grow more and more violent and more and more cruel. (BG 16.9)