can utopia exist?

[Guest guest]

is it possible for utopia 2 exist in today's world?

[Gauracandra]

I suppose it all depends on what you mean by Utopia. I think it was Napoleon Hill who coined the phrase "What mind can conceive, and believe, it can achieve."

 

For instance, it is entirely possible for:

 

* people to live a healthy life - stop eating meat, stop drinking alcohol, stop smoking. The combined health care costs of all of these negative activities would easily pay for universal health care for every man, woman, and child. And then some. In the U.S. the major health care costs are for cancer (from smoking usually), and heart disease. It is not for day to day health care, like check ups, child immunization.

 

* world peace - it is entirely possible for people to give up war. Imagine all the people living life in peace. woo hooo. If that happened, hundreds of billions of dollars per year would be saved in redundant protection. The U.S. spends billions of dollars because China spends billions of dollars because Russia spends billions of dollars etc... on weaponry. We could turn those funds over to eliminate poverty.

 

* Clean environment - people could stop buying useless junk. I don't mean not having television, computers etc... but look at how much useless little baubles we buy. Why? Just to distract us from the boredom of everyday life.

 

Anyways, you get the point I'm saying. Will it happen? I don't think so. But it doesn't hurt to have ideals.

[Guest guest]

Tahiti.

 

Wait. Thats paradise, not utopia. Give me a moment.

[Guest guest]

if utopia means a perfect peaceful world,

then the naswer is no, not in this material world.

 

can a person become perfect? yes.

can all become perfect at the same time? no.

 

[vinay]

 

can all become perfect at the same time? no.

 

 

y not?

if all ppl strive 2 achieve utopia at the same time, then y cant ppl b perfect together at the same time?

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

Utopia can exist if everyone tries to keep God as the center of everything. When we try to keep our selves as the center, there is natural disharmony as we struggle with each other to position ourselves.

 

Srila Prabhupada gave the example of the waves in a pond. If you throw several stones in a pond, they will each create a ring of waves flowing out from where the stone hit. The waves produced from each stone will expand until they hit other waves and create disharmony in the water. This is the present situation, where everyone is creating waves focused on themselves and their own enjoyment. This leads to disharmony.

 

If you take the same stones and throw them one after the other in exactly the same spot in the pond, they will still create waves, but they will be perfectly alligned with one another thereby creating no disharmony. By keeping God in the center, all of our actions become harmonious as the center of enjoyment is Krishna, not ourselves.

[Gauracandra]

Can we reverse Kali Yuga? If we have freewill, can it be done? or is it a foregone conclusion. I've always felt this worldview was very pessimistic and basically lent to a feeling of throwing your hands up and giving in. Of course if there is a possibility that it could be reversed, then there is hope left in the world.