Without God consciousness and true religion, humanity becomes animals; real progress is spiritual self-realization, not material advancement.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Prabhupāda: Beginning. From the beginning. You can add something. Hari-śauri: Read out what it is and everything, as well. Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This is a questionnaire which was sent to us by one journal, a cultural and religious journal in Bombay. It's called Bhavan's Journal.
And they are questioning different religious leaders, especially in India, trying to get the answers to some of these important questions which are perplexing especially the Indian public today. So there's a list of about twenty-one questions, and we can go through them one by one for Śrīla Prabhupāda to answer. The first question, "Is the influence of religion over the masses on the wane?" Is the influence of religion over the masses decreasing? Prabhupāda: Yes, this is predicted in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Tataḥ anudinam.
Bring that black book, Bhāgavatam. Tatas cānudinaṁ dharmaḥ satyam [SB 12.2.1]. This is Kali-Yuga, the age of waning of these things—religiosity, truthfulness, memory, bodily strength, duration of life, mercifulness. Hari-śauri: Pradyumna's just going to come with it. Prabhupāda: These are..., will be declining. These are the, I mean to say, human assets which makes a human being distinct from the animal.
But these things will decline. There will be no mercifulness, there will be no truthfulness, the memory will be shortened, duration life shortened. Similarly, religion will vanish. So that means gradually they will come to the platform of animals.
And especially when there is no religion, it is simply animals. That any common man can distinguish, that... A dog, he does not understand what is religion. He's also a living being.
He's not interested what is going on here about Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He is not interested. That is the distinction between dog and man. The animal is not interested.
So if the human being becoming disinterested in religious things, then they are animals. And how there can be happiness, peace, in the animal society? They want to keep people as animal, and they are making United Nation. How it is possible?