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Srila Prabhupada[Posted February 4, 2010]

Dungeons of Demons



A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Habitats not fit for human beings

You Tube Feb 1, 2010 - Journeyman Pictures

Hong Kong Cage Dwellers


cage dwellers

Despite its wealth, Hong Kong is leaving its poor to rot in squalid conditions. With one toilet per floor and just a few square feet to their name, thousands of cage dwellers live no better than animals. "Many can't afford three meals a day or even water, the rent is not even cheap!" says human rights activist Sze Lai. She introduces us to 79-year-old Dai, who has spent 30 years in a cage. Ten other men share his room. Piled up to the ceiling, their cages would look shocking in a zoo. A chief worry is hygiene. 8-year-old Jessica lives with her mother in a cubicle too small to let a grown man stand. She points to the only toilet on their floor: "I hate it. People above throw dead rats down here". Although the need for public housing is dire, nothing is being done to eradicate cage dwelling. With only half of the government elected by universal suffrage, the poor just don't have a voice. go to story



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This is not economic progress
Human Civilization Downgraded A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

The human form of life is offered by nature after so much evolutionary process. Just to understand Vishnu, God, this is the only business. But instead of attending our real business, we are trying to be happy in other ways. Then you can say that "If we are engaged in real business, then how the economic question will be solved? We have to work." That's all right, you work. But work simple. Why you have invented so much botheration? Work is there. If you have cows and if you have got land, then you till the land, get grains, and there is milk, there is fruit, there is flower. Anywhere, you can live peacefully. Whole economic question is solved. And because we have forgotten, we have missed the real point, that our life is meant for God-realization. We are simply increasing botheration. ... The leaders are blind; we are also blind. So they are advising that "If you want to solve your economic problem, why you are going to church? Why you are going to temple? Come here, increase business, industry. Take loan and start business." That's all. This is going on. But actually, the more they are trying to mislead these people... Because they are thinking it is all right. But the social condition is becoming more and more grave. That's a fact. We are trying to solve one problem, but many other problems are coming because we do not know what is the ultimate goal of life. Because we are missing the real point. more

A description of ideal human civilization


excerpt from Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.11.12, purport

Perfection of human civilization is made possible by utilizing the gifts of nature in their own way. As we find herewith in the description of its opulence, Dvaraka was surrounded by flower gardens and fruit orchards along with reservoirs of water and growing lotuses. There is no mention of mills and factories supported by slaughterhouses, which are the necessary paraphernalia of the modern metropolis. The propensity to utilize nature's own gifts is still there, even in the heart of modern civilized man. The leaders of modern civilization select their own residential quarters in a place where there are such naturally beautiful gardens and reservoirs of water, but they leave the common men to reside in congested areas without parks and gardens. Herein of course we find a different description of the city of Dvaraka. It is understood that the whole dhama, or residential quarter, was surrounded by such gardens and parks with reservoirs of water where lotuses grew. It is understood that all the people depended on nature's gifts of fruits and flowers without industrial enterprises promoting filthy huts and slums for residential quarters.

Advancement of civilization is estimated not on the growth of mills and factories to deteriorate the finer instincts of the human being, but on developing the potent spiritual instincts of human beings and giving them a chance to go back to Godhead. Development of factories and mills is called ugra-karma, or pungent activities, and such activities deteriorate the finer sentiments of the human being and society to form a dungeon of demons.

We find herein the mention of pious trees which produce seasonal flowers and fruits. The impious trees are useless jungles only, and they can only be used to supply fuels. In the modern civilization such impious trees are planted on the sides of roads. Human energy should be properly utilized in developing the finer senses for spiritual understanding, in which lies the solution of life. Fruits, flowers, beautiful gardens, parks and reservoirs of water with ducks and swans playing in the midst of lotus flowers, and cows giving sufficient milk and butter are essential for developing the finer tissues of the human body. As against this, 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. The description of Dvaraka-dhama is the ideal of human civilization.



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