So we should be happy with these things. Cities and towns does not mean big, big slaughterhouse, cinema, brothel, and factories and all dirty things. Here it is not mentioned. Here Kuntidevi says, ime jana-padah svrddhah supakvausadhi-virudhah [SB 1.8.40]. He never... She never said that "These towns and cities are flourishing on account of having so many industries, slaughterhouse, brothels, cinema, clubs, nightclubs." Not like that. There was no such thing in those days. These are modern inventions to make the whole world hellish. Otherwise people would be... If you want to be rich, then you can get riches... Wherefrom? Vanadri-nady-udanvantah. From seas, from river, from hills. You can get valuable jewels, gems, pearls, from these natural sources. So India's wealth, formerly, it was depending on these things: gold, silver, jewels, pearls, silknot industry. And from the forest, from the herbs, from food grainsall natural products. So from the river... The saintly persons, they depended mostly on the riverside. Anywhere they will put a cottage on the river... Still that is going on. A saintly person, if he wants to remain in a secluded place, so they select any place on the riverside, have a small cottage. Still you'll find in many places, especially on the bank of the Ganges, Narmada, Godavari, Kaveri. There are many saintly persons, especially on the bank of Yamuna and Ganges. If you go to Allahabad, you'll find they are living very peacefully, a small cottage on the bank of the Ganges.   (More...)

(reading:) "The gigantic industrial enterprises are products of a godless civilization." Godless civilization, they no more can depend on the natural gifts. They think by industrial enterprises, they will get more money and they'll be happy. And to remain satisfied with the food grains, vegetables and natural gifts, that is primitive idea. They say, "It is primitive." When men were not civilized, they would depend on nature, but when they are advanced in civilization, they must discover industrial enterprises. So instead of eating on metal dishes, the civilized men should eat on, what is that called, plastic. That's all. Now plastic utensils, not even metal. Still, according to Vedic civilization, these Hindus, they would not touch this china, clay utensils, or this plastic utensils. Never they'll... Or glass utensils, they'll never touch. Especially in South India they are very strict. A poor man would prefer to eat on the plantain leaf. And the rich men, they eat on silver utensils. They do not even like to, I mean to say, brass or other base metals.   (More...)