In the material world there cannot be anything good. It is bad. If there is real goodness, that is spiritual world, śuddha-sattva. Sattva-guṇa. In the material world there are three guṇas. Of these, sattva-guṇa is accepted as very good—the modes of goodness. But above this mode of goodness there is śuddha-sattva, pure goodness. "Goodness is goodness"—no. This goodness is polluted with ignorance and passion. Therefore we see in the material world a person very good . . . But yesterday morning we were discussing about Brahmā: very good, but sometimes he is also polluted. Therefore it is not pure goodness, this material world. Even there is goodness, it is not pure. There is always chance of becoming polluted by the other base qualities—ignorance and passion.
Therefore here cannot be pure goodness. Pure goodness is Kṛṣṇa consciousness platform, devotional service. If you keep yourself rigidly on the platform of devotional service, then you are pure goodness. And as soon as you are slack, immediately the other two base qualities will attack you. Therefore it is very difficult to keep pure goodness. Take for example: goodness is brāhmaṇa. How at the present moment the brāhmaṇa, the hereditary brāhmaṇa by birth, how they have fallen on account of attack of these base qualities. But they're trying to keep their brahminical platform in spite of being polluted by the other two base qualities. Therefore the Caitanya-caritāmṛta author's statement that ei bhāla, ei manda, saba bhrama: even if you are raised to the brāhmaṇa quality, there is always chance of falling down. So therefore you have to keep always in the transcendental platform, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati . . . (BG 18.54). Even from brahma-bhūtaḥ platform one falls down. One who is already mixed, or merged into the Brahman, they fall down. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ (SB 10.2.32). Why? Anādṛta yusmad aṅghrayaḥ. Unless one is very rigid devotee, even he has approached the other feature—namely the Brahman feature: Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān—so he falls down, very, very . . . And why? That is this attachment—sneha-pāśair dṛḍhair baddham. Dṛḍhair baddham. That I was citing. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's song,
- jaḍa-vidyā saba māyāra vaibhava tomāra bhajane bādhā
- anitya saṁsāre moha janamiyā jīvake karaye gāḍha
Gāḍha means ass. Uṣṭra khara. Śva-viḍ uṣṭra khara (SB 2.3.19).
So this so-called advancement of civilization means the living entity is always compared as an ass, mūḍha. So instead of becoming intelligent, by material education one becomes more and more first-class ass, jaḍa-vidyā saba māyāra vaibhava tomāra bhajane bādhā. Because the more you become advanced in so-called material civilization, you'll forget God, māyāra vaibhava. Māyā's business is to keep you always sleeping, forgetting God. This is māyā's business. Daivī hi eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). This is māyā's business. The more you forget Kṛṣṇa, the more you are under the influence of māyā. Jaḍa-vidyā saba māyāra vaibhava. So if you increase your volume of material civilization, then more and more you'll forget God and you'll be attached to this material world, māyāra vaibhava.
So people are increasing more and more and becoming under the clutches of māyā. That is janma-mṛtyu-jāra-vyādhi (BG 13.9). Clutches of māyā means birth, death, old age and disease. This is māyā's shackles, or ropes. But they do not care for it. They do not take into account that "I am eternal, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). I do not die even after the destruction of this body. So why shall I suffer in this way repeatedly birth and death?" And that is also not only inconvenient, but very much painful. Today you are American or something, or Indian, but tomorrow if you become a tree in the American land, then what is your position? But they do not care for it, do not understand it; therefore it is māyāra vaibhava. This advancement of material civilization is māyāra vaibhava.
Therefore the Vedic civilization is voluntarily accepting poverty. Voluntary. Big, big kings, they voluntarily accepted poverty. Rūpa Gosvāmī. Don't go to the past, big, big. . . Bharata Mahārāja and others. Even Lord Rāmacandra. Take recent history, within five hundred years. Rūpa Gosvāmī, the chief minister of the government of Bengal, most opulent position: tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīm. They became mendicant, voluntarily accepting, tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-mandala-pati-śreṇīṁ sadā tucchavat. "What is this nonsense position, minister, opulent life? Kick it out." They are not fools. They are politicians. But why they "Kick it out"? Then what they became? Bhūtvā dīna-gaṇeśakau karuṇayā kaupīna-kanthāśritau. They become mendicant.
So voluntarily accepting poverty, this is Indian civilization, this is Vedic civilization. Not to increase material opulence but to decrease. The more you decrease, you are civilized. And the Western country, if you decrease, if you instruct them that "Decrease these nonsense activities. No more tire civilization," they'll say, "Oh, this is primitive. Primitive. This tendency is primitive." But actually, the primitive civilization . . . Not primitive; that is very sober civilization, anartha. Instead of increasing unwanted necessities, decrease it. That is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.