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Śrī Īśopaniṣad
foolish politicians crying that at any moment the world may go to hell. That is the result of the advancement of material knowledge, and of the neglect of the most important part of life, the culture of spiritual knowledge. Here is a warning in  Śrī Īśopaniṣad  that we must not follow such a dangerous path leading to death. On the contrary, we must side by side develop the culture of spiritual knowledge so that we may become completely free from the cruel hands of death.
This does not mean that all civic activities for the maintenance of the body should be stopped. There is no question of stopping activities, as there is no question of wiping out one's temperature altogether when trying to recover from a disease. We have already tried to explain the matter by the expression "to make the best use of a bad bargain." The culture of spiritual knowledge has to be done with the help of this body and mind, and therefore maintenance of the body and mind is required if we are to reach our goal. The normal temperature should be maintained at 98.6 degrees, but it should not be foolishly increased to the degree of 107. The great sages and saints of India wanted to maintain the normal temperature by a balanced program of material and spiritual knowledge. They never allowed the misuse of human intelligence for diseased sense gratification.
Human activities diseased by a temperament of sense gratification have been regulated in the  Vedas  under the principles of Salvation. This system is found in four divisions: religion, economic development, sense gratification and salvation. At the present moment the people have no interest either in religion or salvation. They have only one aim in life, sense gratification, and in order to fulfill this end they have different plans for economic development.
Misguided man thinks that religion should be maintained for its contribution to economic development, and that economic development is required for sense gratification. And in order to guarantee further sense gratification after death, in heaven, there