True intelligence means recognizing God's supremacy and serving Him through bhakti, never mistaking selfish enjoyment for spiritual advancement.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Bhagavad-gītā 16.9 — February 5, 1975, Honolulu 750205BG-HONOLULU [50:40 Minutes] BG-16.09_750205BG-HONOLULU Prabhupāda: Yes. Go on. Nitāi: [leads chanting of verse, etc.] [devotees repeat] etāṁ dṛṣṭim avaṣṭabhya naṣṭātmāno 'lpa-buddhayaḥ prabhavanty ugra-karmāṇaḥ kṣayāya jagato 'hitāḥ [Bg. 16.9] [break] [02:09] "Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world." Prabhupāda: etāṁ dṛṣṭim avaṣṭabhya naṣṭātmāno 'lpa-buddhayaḥ prabhavanty ugra-karmāṇaḥ kṣayāya jagato 'hitāḥ [Bg. 16.9] These demons—further description. Yesterday we discussed that "The world is untruth.
This material world is untruth," asatyam apratiṣṭham, "and there is no background." This is the conclusion of the atheist demons. We have explained that this world is not untrue. That is our Vaiṣṇava philosophy. Untruth...
If it is coming from the truth, it is true. How you can say untrue? The example: if cotton is truth, then thread is true. So if you say that thread is untruth, then cotton is also untruth, the cause.
But they do not accept... [aside:] This child... Some sound is coming. Haṁsadūta: Please take the children outside. Prabhupāda: So on the basis of this vision, that "There is no God. There is no background of this material creation. This material creation is false..." There are so many other conclusions of the demonic people.
Demon and atheist, the same thing. So Kṛṣṇa says, on this blind vision, etāṁ dṛṣṭim avaṣṭabhya. Accepting these are the basic principle of this material creation, etāṁ dṛṣṭim avaṣṭabhya, naṣṭa ātmānaḥ—lost their spiritual consciousness. Naṣṭa means lost. Ātmānaḥ means the soul, the Supersoul.
So ātmā, Paramātmā. The Supersoul is Paramātmā, and we are soul. So they have no knowledge. The defect of the modern civilization... The demons and the rākṣasas, they're existing always.
As I have told you, two classes of men are always there. But in this age the number of atheist class, or demons, are very much increased. Otherwise, material world means for the demons, atheistic class. Just like the prison house.