Material civilization is soul-killing; only work done to satisfy Krishna brings genuine liberation and peace.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Prabhupāda: Hmm. So, read it? Hari-śauri: He doesn't have a book. Prabhupāda: "People who are lowest among men and bewildered by the illusory energy of the Supreme Lord will give up the original varṇāśrama-dharma and its rules and regulations." [SB 5.6.10] The varṇāśrama-dharma, that is beginning of human civilization. So in this age they have already given up. There is no varṇāśrama.
In India it is simply in name. Actually, there is no varṇāśrama. The..., most of the people, they are śūdras. But without varṇāśrama, there cannot be any human civilization, because the aim of human life is to understand God.
That is the aim of human life. Unfortunately, they have given up this idea, the aim of life is to understand God. You inquire all over the world, 99.9% will deny God or they have no clear idea of God. Even the so-called religionists, they have also no clear idea.
Maybe some power; no clear idea. Neither they are interested to know. But so far we are concerned, we have got full description of the Lord and His pastimes, His activities. Everything is recorded in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and other Vedic literatures.
And God says in the Bhagavad-gītā personally that "I was existing in the past, and I shall continue to exist in the future." Similarly, the living entities, they also existed in the past and they will continue to exist in the future individually. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā in the Second Chapter. It is not that we shall be finished in future or there was no existence in the past. No.
We are, both of us, we are eternal. God, Kṛṣṇa, and we, living entities, we are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre [Bg 2.20]. Our destruction of this material body does not mean we, as spirit soul, we are destroyed.
No. To understand this truth, the varṇāśrama system required. Without this varṇāśrama system nobody can understand that we are individual person, we existed in the past, and we shall exist in the future, and we are existing at present. Anyone can understand. There was no change in the past, neither there will be change in the future.