Can corruption be eliminated from human society completely or will it continue till the time of judgement?

From: Ravindra

 Can human conflict,corruption and prostitution can be eliminated from human society completely..or it will prevail till the time of judgement?

This question is from Ravindra. Can human conflict, corruption and prostitution be eliminated from human society completely, or will it prevail till the time of judgment? Answer, they may not be eliminated completely, but they can be largely minimized. First, the material world is a place where souls who wanted to enjoy independent from God have come here.

And in this world, these souls are offered different temptations to try out their imaginations of how they can enjoy separate from God. And among the many temptations they can try out, three are primary. They are the ones offered by lust, anger and greed.

And these three lead to the three evils that you have talked about. Anger leads to conflict, greed leads to corruption and lust leads to prostitution as well as other types of sexual violences, violations and violences. So, these are intrinsic to the material world as pathways for souls to try out their fantasies of how they can enjoy separate from God.

All these three lead eventually to suffering. But the souls have to realize it themselves, either by suffering, themselves the consequences of gaining wisdom, or gaining wisdom by studying the scripture and recognizing the truth for themselves without having to undergo the experience. So, to some extent these were there even in the past, even at times when there was Satyuga, and people were morally and spiritually much more inclined than they are today.

Does this mean that because lust, anger and greed are inevitable factors of material existence, that we just accept the world as it is and do nothing about it? No. In fact, these are there, but they need to be regulated. And for regulation, the Lord sets up a system of Dharma.

Dharma is not just mundane religion, but it is the innate underlying system of law and order that harmonizes and governs all of creation. So, Dharma is what keeps the insidious influences of lust, anger and greed under control and prevents them from harming others. People may indulge these in a limited quantity.

People can use their greed for money to earn money, but they can do it in a non-exploitative, non-violent way where they don't hurt others. That is the purpose of Dharma. People can gratify their sensual urges within the sacred bounds of marriage.

So, therefore, in this way, if the drives are regulated, then society stays orderly. So, Lord Krishna himself is so concerned that society stays orderly, that when there is disorder, he himself descends to this world to re-establish Dharma. That is what the Bhagavad Gita tells in the fourth chapter, dharma samsthāpanāthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge.

So, when the Lord comes to establish Dharma, that is not just to re-impose certain specific regulations. It is to realign humanity with the universal principles of harmonious living. So, for this to happen, it is important that people know these principles and then they feel inspired and empowered to live according to those principles.

So, providing that knowledge, that inspiration and that empowerment in terms of training and guidance is the responsibility of the social and spiritual leaders of society. So, the social leaders of society are in the Vedic parlance called Kshatriyas, and the spiritual leaders of society are called the Brahmanas. So, they are meant to provide people the knowledge, the inspiration and the training by which they can curb their lusty, greedy and angry tendencies and live harmoniously.

So, in Kali Yuga, these tendencies are especially unrestrained, and that is why we see so much corruption, conflict and sexual abuse happening everywhere. But the Lord has Himself made available an extraordinarily easy process to counter these effects. So, the Lord came in Kali Yuga as Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and He gave the most easy process of chanting of the holy names.

So, by the chanting of the holy names, one experiences the inner happiness and gets inner wisdom by which one can break free from the pushings of lust, anger and greed. So, to the extent that people can experience higher wisdom and higher happiness through chanting of the holy names and through cultivation of spiritual life, to that extent, they can become free from the forces that impel them towards conflict, corruption and prostitution. So, to provide these facilities and to benefit from these facilities ourselves, as well as to share them with others, is the responsibility of each human being.

And to the extent that we take up this responsibility ourselves, to that extent, we become channels of change. And by the mercy of the Lord, this is already happening significantly, and it will spread more and more for the next 10,000 years. And as it spreads more and more, to that extent, these factors will decrease.

So, they will be there, but if they are in regulation, then society does not as a whole get disrupted. But when they are entirely unregulated, society as a whole gets disrupted. And that is what is happening in Kali Yuga in our times.

So, of course, the Vedic scriptures explain that there is no such thing as a time of judgment for all living beings. That is the idea of the Abrahamic religions, which also hold the idea that one shot at living, that we only have one lifetime and at the end of it we will all be judged. This is not actually based on their scriptures.

This is an interpretation and a misconceived interpretation of the scriptures. There is the idea of judgment, but there is no time of judgment, one time of judgment for all of humanity. All of us are judged at the end of our lives, when we go to the court of the lord of death, and then all of us are given our ordained karmic reactions according to the way we have acted in this life.

So, this will go on, the conflict, corruption and other forms of depravity in society will decline gradually for the next 10,000 years. Then Kali Yuga is 4,30,000 years. For the subsequent 4,30,000 years, things will worsen.

And then, when Kali Yuga ends, then Satya Yuga will again start. And at that time, these will decrease substantially. So, it is just like when there is rain, we cannot stop the rainfall.

But, we can protect ourselves from the rains by having an umbrella or a raincoat. So, like that, we can protect ourselves from these influences. And also, we can inspire others to also use umbrellas and not get soaked.

Similarly, if we can share the wisdom of the spiritual literature like Bhagavad Gita with people, then that is like providing an umbrella to them so that they don't get soaked and drenched by these corrupting influences that are pervading human society today. So, yes, they are factors of Samurai, they are factors of material existence, but there is a system of social and spiritual guidance which brings in their influences and gradually frees people from their influences entirely. And that we can all do by practicing Krishna Consciousness.

And to the extent we share this with others, to that extent, we can minimize the influence of this, which will get minimized for the next 10,000 years. And then, after that, it increases at the end of Kali Yuga and then again decreases at the start of Satya Yuga.