When Society Becomes Godless - Nature's Punishment and Social Ruin
In the modern era, material advancement is often equated with progress. We measure success by economic growth, technological innovation, and military power. However, Śrīla Prabhupāda offers a starkly different perspective: a civilization that advances materially but becomes godless is driving at high speed toward a cliff. He explains that the fundamental cause of the world's increasing chaos—from environmental crises to social breakdown—is the collective rejection of the Supreme Authority. In these quotes, he details how the laws of nature act to punish a godless society, restricting supplies and creating conditions of suffering to force humanity to reconsider its path.
Source of All Calamities
Śrīla Prabhupāda asserts that when a society turns away from God, it inevitably invites disaster. This is not a matter of chance but of cosmic law. Just as a government punishes citizens who violate the law, the material nature punishes a civilization that violates the laws of God. A godless society becomes a breeding ground for sin, and the reaction to sin is suffering.
- A civilization that commits such sinful activities (offenses at the lotus feet of the devotees and brahmanas) generally loses all faith in the Supreme Lord, and such a godless civilization becomes the source of all calamities in human society.
- A civilization that has become godless because of material advancement in opulence is extremely dangerous.
- When human society individually or collectively becomes godless and blasphemes the authority of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it is certainly destined for ruination.
Nature's Punishment: Scarcity and Suffering
One of the most profound insights Śrīla Prabhupāda offers is the connection between atheism and economics. Modern economists struggle to explain scarcity, inflation, and famine. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that these are nature's response to godlessness. When people become demons ("dogs and hogs"), Mother Nature (prakṛti) restricts her supply of grains, fruits, and rain.
- These statements are there in the Srimad-Bhagavatam in the story of Maharaja Prthu. So prakrti said that, "Because people have become godless, demons, I have restricted my supply." Therefore everything depends on the mercy of the Lord.
- When people become godless, there is restriction of supply. Just like practical experience. I am saying from my practical experience that in my childhood I saw that India was exporting millions of tons of rice and wheat.
- Of course, we do not want to criticize, but according to sastra, people will suffer more and more. And they must suffer. Because they are becoming godless, they must suffer. That is nature's punishment.
Descent into Animal Life
Beyond physical suffering, godlessness leads to a degradation of human character. When the connection to the Divine is severed, people lose their moral compass. They become obsessed with sense gratification, leading to the breakdown of the family (divorce), the loss of common sense, and a society that resembles a pack of barking dogs.
- When the residents of this earth become atheistic and godless, they descend to the status of animals like dogs and hogs, and thus their only business is to bark among themselves. This is dharmasya glani, deviation from the goal of life.
- And now divorce is getting easier too, isn't it (so by one instance I can understand that how in the Western countries people become out of social structure. The root cause is godlessness. Root cause)?
- This godless civilization means people have lost even common sense. Even common sense. Otherwise, you may, if you use in a harsh word, that they have become fools and rascals, that's all. They have lost their common sense.
An Appeal for Unity
Seeing this dangerous trajectory, Śrīla Prabhupāda did not just criticize; he offered a solution. He called upon all religious people—Hindus, Christians, Muslims—to unite against the common enemy of atheism. The goal is not to fight over sectarian differences but to save the world from becoming completely godless.
- Now our appeal is to everyone, every religious sect, that people are becoming godless generally at the present moment. So we should make combined effort to revive their God consciousness. Otherwise it is doomed.
- It is a dangerous position of the whole world that they have become all godless or atheists in different degree or manner. It is the duty of saintly persons to save these rascals from ruination.
- Why shouldn't this spiritual education be given to the American people in an organized way? The whole world is going down and becoming Godless.
Conclusion
The verdict of the Vedic scriptures is clear: we cannot be happy while disobeying the Supreme Lord. As Śrīla Prabhupāda warns, "The more we become godless, the more we'll be punished by the laws of nature." This punishment is not an act of cruelty but a necessary correction to bring us back to our senses. The current state of global unrest is a wake-up call. The remedy is simple yet urgent: we must place God back in the center of our civilization. Whether through the leadership of saintly kings (like Pṛthu Mahārāja) or the combined efforts of religious communities, the revitalization of God consciousness is the only hope for a peaceful and prosperous future.
Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani
Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category Becoming Godless. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.