Can We Keep Society From Going to the Dogs?
Śrīla Prabhupāda speaks out to India's Bhavan's Journal: "A dog comes when there are some eatables; I say 'Hut!' and he goes away. But again he comes—he has no memory. So when our memory of God is reducing, that means that our human qualities are reducing. . . . There is no religion, simply a dog's race. The dog is running on four legs, and you are running on four wheels—that's all. And you think that the four-wheel race is advancement of civilization!"
Interviewer:  The first question is this: "Is the influence of religion on the wane? And if so, does this factor account for the increase in corruption and the widespread deterioration of moral values?"
Śrīla Prabhupāda:  Yes, religion is on the wane. This is predicted in the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  [12.2.1]:
tataś cānudinaṁ dharmaḥ satyaṁ śaucaṁ kṣamā dayā kālena balinā rājan naṅkṣyaty āyur balaṁ smṛtiḥ
"In the Kali-yuga [the present age of quarrel and hypocrisy] the following things will diminish: religion, truthfulness, cleanliness, mercy, duration of life, bodily strength, and memory."
These are human assets, which make the human being distinct from the animal. But these things will decline. There will be no mercy, there will be no truthfulness, memory will be short, and the duration of life will be cut short. Similarly, religion will vanish. That means that gradually we will come to the platform of animals.
Interviewer:  Religion will vanish? We'll become animals?
Śrīla Prabhupāda:  Especially when there is no religion, it is simply animal life. Any common man can distinguish that the dog does not understand what religion is. The dog is also a living being, but he is not interested in understanding the  Bhagavad-gītā  or the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam . He is not interested. That is the distinction between man and dog: the animal is not interested.
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