The so-called scientific advancement is simply expanding the influence of maya's illusory energy. They're already rascals and fools, and still they are being made rascals and fools. So they're forgetting their real purpose of life

Expressions researched:
"The so-called scientific advancement is simply expanding the influence of māyā's illusory energy. They're already rascals and fools, and still they are being made rascals and fools. So they're forgetting their real purpose of life"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

The so-called scientific advancement is simply expanding the influence of māyā's illusory energy. They're already rascals and fools, and still they are being made rascals and fools. So they're forgetting their real purpose of life, and the whole human life is spoiled. This is the result of so-called scientific advancement.

730420 - Morning Walk - Los Angeles

Prabhupāda: That, that is sense gratification. That is sense gratification. Teṣāṁ kleśo eva avaśiṣyate. For that sense gratification, he's working so hard, spending so much money, but the result is that taking labor is their result. That's all. No benefit, no other benefit. Teṣāṁ kleśa eva avaśiṣyate. Nānyat yathā sthūla-tuṣāvaghātinām (SB 10.14.4). Just like you have taken the rice from the paddy. So now it is only skin. And if you try to employ that machine, ḍheṅki . . . what is called?

Devotee: Thresher.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Dheṅki. Yes.

Prabhupāda: Dheṅki, yes. What you'll gain? Simply dag-da, dag-da, dag-da, dag-da, dag-da. But the rice is already taken away. So their labor is being spoiled in that way. They, pleasure . . . for the pleasure's sake, they are spoiling the human facilities. This is their intelligence. Therefore Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says:

jaḍa-vidyā jato māyāra vaibhava tomāra bhajane bādhā

anitya saṁsāre moha janamiyā jībake karaye gādhā

This jaḍa-vidyā, this material science, is simply a hindrance to our progress of spiritual life.

All these rascal scientists, they'll deny God. That is their business. Just like you said yesterday that somebody was accepting God, and the other scientists, they thought, "No, it is insult." So already they are in oblivion. They cannot understand what is God. And these rascals are making them more and more rascals, "There is no God." By their scientific research, the rascals are becoming more rascals. And they're becoming captivated, "This is pleasure." What pleasure you will do you? Therefore they are . . . they are gādhā. They are gādhā, and they are creating gādhās.

That is the song of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. Jaḍa-vidyā jato māyāra . . . it is expansion of māyā's illusory energy. The so-called scientific advancement is simply expanding the influence of māyā's illusory energy. They're already rascals and fools, and still they are being made rascals and fools. So they're forgetting their real purpose of life, and the whole human life is spoiled. This is the result of so-called scientific advancement.