The soul's eternal nature makes simple spiritual life superior to modern material advancement and temporary bodily concerns.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Prabhupāda: ...kutaḥ punar āgamanam. [Sage Cārvāka] Who is coming back again, the body is destroyed, that's all. Finished. [pause] Akṣayānanda: Kṛṣṇa will also increase? Prabhupāda: Hmm? Akṣayānanda: The ability to remember Kṛṣṇa, that will also increase? Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes, if the brain is clear—it is not filled up with rubbish cow dung—then Kṛṣṇa consciousness easy.
Yes. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means there is no more material consciousness. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam [Cc Madhya 19.170]. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11(1)].
That is required. And material existence we have got so many ambitions, thoughts, obligations—so many things. Bṛthā. eta saba chāḍi' āra varṇāśrama-dharma niskiñcana hañā laya kṛṣṇaika-śaraṇa [Cc Madhya 22.93] Sarva-dharma: everything give up. That is India's Vedic civilization.
They are not concerned with the material advancement. Simple life. That's all. And our present leaders, they are thinking that "brainwashed." They are not deeply thinking, "Why our great sages and ācāryas recommended this life, not the skyscraper life?
Why? They were not less intelligent." They are not thinking in that way. They are thinking that "Because we neglected the skyscraper thoughts, we are so backward." At least this rascal Nehru was thinking like that. "So finish this." The Russia is...
What is called? Opiate? Akṣayānanda: Opiate of the people. Prabhupāda: Brainwashed. These things are accepted like that. "It has no value, simply some prejudice and superstition, and they are thinking like that, and they are spoiling their material side of life." This is their idea.
"What is this? No meat-eating?" [knock on the door as Palikā enters to inquire what Prabhupāda would like to eat.] That little dāl, dāliyā. bās. Pālikā: Nothing else? Prabhupāda: Huh? Pālikā: Nothing else? Prabhupāda: No. If I take anything else it becomes overburdened. Better take little less, just to satisfy that I am not starving.