Learning the Science of the Soul
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who live under conditions of passion remain stationed in the same place in the material world where they are now, but those who live under conditions of ignorance are sure to be degraded to the lower species.
The modern setup of human civilization is a risky one because it offers no education about relevant inquiries into the essential principles of life. Like animals, people do not know that they are going to be slaughtered by the laws of nature. They are satisfied with a bunch of green grass, or a so-called jolly life, like the waiting goat in a slaughterhouse. Considering such a condition of human life, we are just trying to make a humble attempt to save the human being by the message of  Back to Godhead . This method is not fictitious. If there is at all to be an era of reality, this message of  Back to Godhead  is the beginning of that era.
According to Śrī Śukadeva Goswami, the real fact is that a  gṛhamedhī , or a person who has tied himself, like the goat meant for slaughter, in the business of family, society, community, nation, or humanity at large in regard to the problems and necessities of animal life—namely eating, sleeping, fearing, and mating—and who has no knowledge of the Transcendence is no better than an animal. He may have inquired about physical, political, economic, cultural, educational, or similar other matters of temporary, material concern, but if he has not inquired about the principles of transcendental life, he should be regarded as a blind man driven ahead by uncontrolled senses and about to fall into a ditch. That is the description of the  gṛhamedhī .
The opposite of the  gṛha-medhī , however, is the  gṛha-stha . The  gṛhastha-ashram , or the shelter of spiritual family life, is as good as the life of a  sannyāsī , a member of the renounced order. Regardless of whether one is a householder or a renunciant, the important point is that of relevant inquiries. A  sannyāsī  is bogus if not interested in relevant inquiries, and a  gṛhastha , or householder, is bona fide if he is inclined to put forward such inquiries. The  gṛhamedhī , however, is simply interested in the animal necessities of life. By the laws of nature, the  gṛhamedhī 's life is full of calamities, whereas the life of the  gṛhastha  is full of happiness. But in the modern human civilization, the  gṛhamedhī s are posing as the  gṛhasthas . We should therefore know who is what. A  gṛhamedhī 's life is full of vices because he does not know how to live a family life. He does not know that beyond his control is a power who supervises and controls his activities, and he has no conception of his future life. The  gṛhamedhī  is blind to his future and has no aptitude for making relevant inquiries. His only qualification is that he is bound by the shackles of attachment to the false things he has contacted in his temporary existence.