It is useless to say that modern time, modern ways, modern things. There is nothing modern. The old thing is going on. So if we follow systematically the previous ācāryas, previous system, as Kṛṣṇa is advising . . . Kṛṣṇa does not advise, "Modern." Five thousand years ago He instructed Bhagavad-gītā. Still, He was saying pūrva pūrvataraiḥ, pūrvatamaiḥ. Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2). This is intelligence. We have to accept the real truth and follow it. It does not mean modern age or previous age, past age. That is not Vedic system. The old system is going on, everything. The sun is also the old. The sun is rising as it was doing in olden times. The moon is also rising. The years and season are changing. Everything is going on. Why we should not accept the system of Vedic knowledge, the oldest of all in the world? There is no history. That is intelligence.
So Kṛṣṇa is advising here, evaṁ jñātvā kṛtaṁ karma pūrvair api mumukṣubhiḥ. What Kṛṣṇa said? That the karma should be divided according to the quality of the person. There are three qualities—sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa—of the material world. Guṇa-mayī māyā. Daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā (BG 7.14). So guṇa-mayī. Guṇa means the three qualities: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. And guṇa, another, means rope. Just like strong rope, three, three ropes. You take three ropes and wind it, it becomes very strong. That is also guṇa-mayī. So Kṛṣṇa advised, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). So guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ, guṇa, quality, is there. Now you act according to the quality. Don't be idle.
Now at the modern age, in every country all over the world, there is unemployment. Why unemployment? Because people do not know how to divide the population according to guṇa and karma. One is qualified as a śūdra, and he is engaged in the business of a kṣatriya. There is problem. The people are educated as śūdras, and when they are called for recruiting for the armies, they are afraid. The problem is very acute in America. Nobody wants to join military department. Why they will join? They have been trained up as śūdra, and why they will be like the business of kṣatriya? That is the problem. Everyone wants to avoid.