First-class society requires first-class men trained in God consciousness, not fourth-class workers prone to crime and degradation.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Room Conversation with the Mayor of Evanston — July 4, 1975, Chicago 750704R1-CHICAGO [52:13 Minutes] Conv_750704R1-CHICAGO Prabhupāda: ...magazine?
Mayor: No. I know about the article on the crime, and I have it at home, but I have not read it as yet. But we certainly know that it's a tremendous problem in the United States, perhaps throughout the world and certainly here.
Prabhupāda: It is not a problem. Just like there is disease, and there is remedy also. And as much as the disease is chronic, the remedy is also costly. So in the Western countries—do not mind—they are not trying to educate first-class men, and that is the difficulty.
This advancement, technical knowledge, to have nice motorcars or big, big buildings, highways, this is very good, but this is not the aim of life.
Mayor: No, material things should not be.
Prabhupāda: They are missing the aim of life. That is the... The aim of life is, acc..., not according to Vedic, but anyone, the aim of life is how to realize God. That is aim.
In the animal life or in other lives less important than the human being there is no question of God realization. In the human life, the civilized human life, there is religion. It doesn't matter whether one is Christian or a Hindu or a Muslim or a Buddhist. These are the principal religions of the world.