BTG | Volume 10, Number 04, 1975 — […] The whole process of westernizing India or materializing India began about two or three hundred years ago. The Westerners introduced their so-called civilization, with its coffee, tea and meat eating. They built factories and developed large cities that had never been developed before. The entire Indian economy had been based on the villages, but under British rule and then recently more and more, everything moved toward the city.
What happened is that the Vedic culture broke down. When it was present, the necessities of life were plentiful; there was no difficulty. But by and by it broke down. People were encouraged, “Come into the cities to work in the big factories.” And what is the great advantage of the big factories? Luxury: an economy with the ultimate goal of material, temporary sense gratification.
And as bodily satisfaction becomes paramount, spiritual culture fades away. But the actual necessities—fruits, grains, vegetables, milk—these were not produced by the factories. You can’t eat nuts and bolts, you know.
The British built the railroads to link up all the big cities so that people would no longer, live in villages. The British induced the villagers to come to the cities to work in the factories. Then they took all the goods and all of India’s wealth to Britain. Gandhi’s w movement was to stop this.
What did Gandhi say? Village industry. Go back to the village; begin the small, industries. Decentralize, dematerialize, deindustrialize. He had the intelligence to see that this was required. But unfortunately by the time so-called independence came, the people were already materialized to a great extent; enough people had become so polluted that they could no longer go back.
The materialistic disease eats away at a man’s intelligence so that he loses the strength to realize his fallen condition; instead, he sees his fallen position as superior. But how has the city man actually improved his condition? Has he solved any of the real problems of life, such as birth, death, disease and old age? No.
Does he actually know who he is—that he is pure spirit soul, not his body? No. So what is the gain? He lives in a big, comfortable house, complete with all luxuries and a big bank balance. But at the time of death, how will any of these help him? Can he take his house or bank balance with him? You see, the material disease is so bewildering that at the time of death a man clings desperately to all his possessions.
All his life he has identified himself with his body and his possessions, instead of cultivating knowledge of the true self, the soul, and the real possession, love of God. As a result he dies in misery and ignorance, destined for a hellish future. But just as a crazy man thinks that he’s sane and everyone else is insane, so a materially diseased person thinks, “I’m very well off, but the other man is not.”
The man in the village? “Oh, barbaric, backwards, impoverished.” You see? But the Vedic villager lives simply and honestly, and with the better part of his time he cultivates spiritual knowledge. He has real wealth: knowledge of the self, of God, and his relationship with God.
The Lure of City Life
These people were lured out of the villages, and now they’ve become completely indoctrinated to believe that a cumbersome, complex society is more advanced. A society of slaughtering millions of animals to drink their blood instead of drinking their milk, a society of prostitution, of living packed together in small places where there’s insufficient air and space—this is more advanced. But actually, you know, there’s a huge amount of land in India, enough to maintain not only seven hundred million people but ten times that; there is that much land. Go traveling on the train in India, and you’ll find that nearly all of India is unpopulated except for a few big cities.
We hear that people are living in horrible conditions. But the most horrible conditions exist within the cities. The people in the villages are still relatively happy.
The fact is, however, that the city life and the city consciousness are beginning to infiltrate the villages, so that now most of the young men have left the villages. Therefore the villagers are no longer farming properly. There aren’t enough young men to farm properly, so there’s not enough food.
There’s not enough produce. And the intelligent men, the leaders of the village, the spiritual leaders, are also gone. Everyone is being lured away into this dream of the city and led to believe that the city is the panacea that will bring all happiness. […]
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