The great materialist dream is that happiness is found in material things: money, sex, TV, video games, 4G net connections. But today this dream finds itself punctured psychologically, sociologically and ecologically.
Psychologically, more people than ever before are succumbing to stress, depression, hypertension, addiction and even suicide.
Sociologically, corruption, sexual abuses and violent conflicts over trivial issues are on a rapid upward spiral.
Ecologically, super-disasters are no longer a doomsday prophecy; they are an imminent reality.
What went wrong with the materialist dream?
Gita wisdom informs us that its lethal error was to leave out the most important factor: Krishna.
This was precisely the blunder of the prototype of all godless materialists, Duryodhana, as is evident in his statement in the Bhagavad-Gita (01.10). He assessed the strengths of his forces, who were mostly godless materialists like him, and those of his opponents, who were devotees. He dreamt of victory based on the material superiority of his forces. But he neglected the Krishna-factor with fatal consequences.
At the dawn of modernity, godless materialists made a Duryodhana-like assessment of the world situation. They dreamt of victory over nature based on calculations of their material strengths, primarily the knowledge-discovering power of science and change-effecting power of technology. But they neglected the God-factor.
Humanity became enamored by this great materialist dream and abandoned its connection with God. Consequently, people lost their self-mastery and suffered psychologically, lost their moral compass and suffered sociologically and lost their environmental reverence and suffered ecologically.
Fortunately, each of us individually has the power to correct the errors of the past. If we re-build our own inner connection with Krishna, we will become increasingly stabilized, strengthened and satisfied. Our examples and words will inspire many others to re-establish their own divine connection, thus contributing towards an auspicious God-centered global destiny.
