Learning the Science of the Soul 43

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 con-
ditions 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, ora
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 at- -
tempt 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 Sri Sukadeva Goswami, the real fact is that a grhamedhi,
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 Tran-
scendence is no better than an animal. He may have inquired about
physical, political, economic, cultural, educational, or similar other mat-
ters 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 grhamedhi.

The opposite of the grha-medhi, however, is the grha-stha. The
grhastha-ashram, or the shelter of spiritual family life, is as good as the
life of a sannydsi, 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 sannyasiis bogus if not interested in relevant in-
quiries, and a grhastha, or householder, is bona fide if he is inclined to
put forward such inquiries. The grhamedhi, however, is simply interested
in the animal necessities of life. By the laws of nature, the grhamedhi’s
life is full of calamities, whereas the life of the grhastha is full of happi-
ness. But in the modern human civilization, the grhamedhis are posing as
the grhasthas. We should therefore know who is what. A grhamedhi’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 grhamedhi
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.
