The Fourth Morning Walk: April, 29, 1973
Recorded on April, 29, 1973, On the shores of the Pacific Ocean Near Los Angeles
Śrīla Prabhupāda is accompanied by Dr. Singh, Brahmānanda Svāmī, Karandhara dāsa adhikārī and other students.
The Progress of the Assess
Śrīla Prabhupāda.  Everyone is suffering here in the material world, and scientific improvement means that the scientists are creating a situation of further suffering. That's all. They are not making improvements. Bhaktivinoda Thākura[6] confirms this by saying,  moha janamiyā, anitya saṁsāre, jīvake karaye gāḍha : "By so-called scientific improvements, the scientist has become an ass." Moreover, he is becoming a better and better ass, and nothing more. Suppose that by working very hard like an ass, a person builds a skyscraper. He may engage in a lifelong labor for this, but ultimately he must die. He cannot stay; he will be kicked out of his skyscraper, because material life is impermanent. Scientists are constantly doing research, and if you ask them what they are doing, they say, "Oh, it is for the next generation, for the future." But I say, "What about  you ? What about your skyscraper? If in your next life you are going to be a tree, what will you do with your next generation then?" But he is an ass. He does not know that he is going to stand before his skyscraper for ten thousand years. And what about the next generation? If there is no petrol, what will the next generation do? And how will the next generation help him if he is going to be a cat, a dog or a tree?
The scientists-and everyone else-should endeavor to achieve freedom from the repetition of birth and death. But instead, everyone is becoming more and more entangled in the cycle of birth and death.  Bhave 'smin kliśyamānānām avidyā-kāma-karmabhiḥ . This is a quotation from  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  (1.8.35). Here in one line the whole material existence is explained.  This  is literature. This one line is worth thousands of years of research work. It explains how the living entity is taking birth in this world, where he comes from, where he is going, what his activities should be, and many other essential things. The words  bhave 'smin kliśyamānānām  refer to the struggle for existence. Why does this struggle exist? Because of  avidyā , ignorance. And what is the nature of that ignorance?  Kāma-karmabhiḥ , being forced to work simply for the senses, or in other words, entanglement in material sense gratification.
Student.  So, is it true that modern scientific research increases the demands of the body because the scientist is ultimately working to gratify his senses?
Śrīla  Prabhupāda. Yes.:  Ś
Word Jugglery and World Crisiss
Śrīla Prabhupāda.  It is said in the  Vedas, yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati : "If one knows the Absolute Truth, then all other things become known." I am not a Ph.D., yet I can challenge the scientists. Why? Because I know Kṛṣṇa, the Absolute Truth.  Yasmin sthito na duḥkhena guruṇāpi vicālyate : "If one is situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then even in the greatest calamities he will not be disturbed." (Bg. 6.22)  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  (1.5.22) declares,