Environmental degradation stems from rejecting yajña; only spiritual sacrifice restores nature's abundance.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Room Conversation with Justin Murphy [Geographer] — May 13, 1975, Perth 750513R1-PERTH [69:42 Minutes] Conv_750513R1-PERTH Amogha: ...these kinds of ideas, and that we have ideas that can be very useful for them. So actually there is a... Prabhupāda: First of all, you have to understand what is the basic principle of civilization, what we want to fulfill, what is the goal. There are different species of life, beginning from aquatics, fishes and animals in the water. Then, as the water dries up, then vegetation come.
In this way, there is evolution from aquatics to vegetable life, then moving—insects, reptiles. Then, gradually, birds. From insect, the flies come out, and then flies gradually comes to bird. Then from birds to beast, four-legged.
Then from beast to human being. Then human being, the aborigines, uncivilized. Then you come to civilized life, which is generally known as Āryan life. So the Āryan civilization, Vedic civilization.
In this way we get this human form of life, developed consciousness. Now we should try to understand, "What I am? Am I this body or something else?" That is the subject matter of enquiry. So where is that department of knowledge? Justin Murphy: Where do we fit in? Prabhupāda: Yes. Justin Murphy: We, the organization that I work for, the government that I work for, is, of course, very, very different, no doubt to..., in ideas and in philosophies to all of you, and you for example.
We work within, however, a situation where we are concerned that within the framework of Australia's society, which involves people, private enterprise, industry, increasing...
Prabhupāda: People. Justin Murphy: ...population... Amogha: People and business. Justin Murphy: ...private enterprise, industry, increasing population, all of these placing demands on what naturally is Australia, what you were talking about to begin with—the evolution of Australia, the continent, the land mass, and the birds, the animals. Of course, we have a magnificent and unique and diverse fauna and flora. Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Justin Murphy: These we must try to protect and preserve for two reasons. Our ideas are that we must..., we have to be, to an extent, slaves to the twentieth-century civilization, or what we call and know as civilization. In other words, our function stops or is frustrated if a government won't give us money to continue our work and our research.
So in other words, we have to direct a large part of our research towards people and making life and opportunities better for people. We can't, however, do that—we can't improve agricultural production, we can't improve forests, we can't improve recreational opportunities in the forest lands around cities—if we don't consider sympathetically, thoughtfully and scientifically the natural resources of Australia. So it's interesting that you mentioned to begin with in the evolution, say, of the evolutionary cycle in Australia, you mentioned the Aborigines. The Aborigines were in fact far better at maintaining and conserving the central Australian landscapes, the central Australian arid regions, than any Australian since European colonization. The Aborigines lived in almost perfect harmony with their environment for thirty thousand years, thirty to forty thousand recorded years—that's how far our research can take us back—whereas in a little over a hundred years, European man in Australia has done in places irreparable damage to not only the vegetation but also the soils of arid Australia.