Without God consciousness, all material advancement becomes worthless decoration of a spiritually dead body.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.15.21 — December 1, 1973, Los Angeles 731201SB-LOS ANGELES [39:44 Minutes] SB-01.15.21_731201SB-LOS ANGELES [Govindam recording being played at greeting the Deities]
Prabhupāda: ...ādi-puruṣaṁ. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Sit down? No.
Standing. [leads singing of Jaya Rādhā-Mādhava; prema-dvani prayers] Thank you very much.
Devotees: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. [break] [06:08] Pradyumna: [leads chanting of verse, etc.] [Prabhupāda and devotees repeat] tad vai dhanus ta iṣavaḥ sa ratho hayās te so 'haṁ rathī nṛpatayo yata ānamanti sarvaṁ kṣaṇena tad abhūd asad īśa-riktaṁ bhasman hutaṁ kuhaka-rāddham ivoptam ūṣyām [SB 1.15.21] [break] [06:50] Translation: "I have the very same Gāṇḍīva bow, the same arrows, the same chariot drawn by the same horses, and I use them as the same Arjuna to whom all the kings offered their due respects. But in the absence of Lord Kṛṣṇa, all of them, at a moment's notice, have become null and void. It is exactly like offering clarified butter on ashes, accumulating money with a magic wand or sowing seeds on barren land." Prabhupāda: Very important verse.
Tad abhūd asad īśa-riktam. Everything will be null and void when there is no God. That's it. The modern civilization has got everything, but without God consciousness, that any..., any..., any moment it will be finished.
And there are symptoms. Any moment. At the present moment, this godless civilization, as soon as there is declaration of war, the America is prepared to drop atom bomb; Russia is... The first nation who will drop the atom bomb, he will be victorious. Nobody will be victorious, because both of them are ready to drop.
The America will be finished and Russia will be finished. That is the position. So you may make advancement of civilization, scientific improvement, economic development, but if it is godless, at any moment it will be finished. At any moment. Just like Rāvaṇa.