Doesn’t technology save lives? Casualties in USA are less than in India due to disaster predictors.

Yes.

Hare Krishna. Question. When natural calamities strike, say in India or in America, the amount of casualties are far lesser in America because they have much more sophisticated technology.

And although there may be huge calamities, people are warned and people are protected. Whereas in India, calamities cause huge amount of casualties. Doesn't this demonstrate that technology can help people and technology is not always bad and technology can also save lives? Answer.

That technology can save lives in today's culture is undeniable. In the past, if a person would have got a heart attack, then the person would have died. Now there are various forms of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and other forms of medical therapy and technology and legal intervention by which people can be saved.

So it is some immature creatures of Krishna consciousness may condemn technology in a blanket way. But that is not the proper understanding. As devotees, we are not against technology.

Against the belief that technology itself can make us happy and technology can replace spirituality and technology has made spirituality outdated and unneeded. In that way, when technology is made by people into God, then that is undesirable. But there is another way of looking at technology.

That is, actually it is the same God who has given us knowledge of living in this world, has also given the knowledge to the scientists by which they have developed technology. Now, that technology, if it is used for good purposes, then that is not necessarily considered to be bad. And with respect to the specific issue of natural calamities, we have to understand that it is not just technology.

Yes, technology is one aspect of it. But it is overall preparedness. It is an overall ethos of governmental responsibility and material competence that is at stake.

In general, the West and especially America nowadays is materially quite competent. And Americans have developed a high level of professionalism and an ethics of responsibility with respect to governmental functions. So, it is a matter of governmental responsibility whereas in India, there has been for many decades a culture of apathy and a culture of irresponsibility even with nobody caring.

And this has bred a culture of incompetence. So, to some extent, this is because there were British rulers in India and in general, when the Vedic culture was there, the rulers were caring for the citizens. The Bhagavatam describes how the kings would care for the citizens as if they were their own children.

But then, for the last thousand years, India has been ruled by people whose values were different from the values of the general population. For example, first there were the Muslims and then there were the Britishers. And both of them had their own elitist mentality.

And they didn't really treat the masses as even proper human beings. There are quotes by some British governor generals who have said that actually the intelligence of a Hindu is lower than that of a dog. And in all activities, they are very primitive.

And they cannot be considered human beings. Now, this may not be the mainstream attitude but it was an attitude. So, that attitude, unfortunately, was carried on even when India became independent.

India continued more or less the same governmental management structure. And those who joined the government, and especially the politicians, they have an elitist attitude. And an uncaring attitude pervades India's governmental ethos.

Although, hopefully, things are changing now. But the important point is, this is not just an issue of technology. It is an issue of governmental incompetence.

And the rot is not just at the top. The rot is everywhere. In general, people don't care for hygiene.

People don't care for cleanliness in public places. And actually, it is not just… Now, there is the Aam Aadmi Party coming up. And the important point is that it is not that the party can change the nation.

It is the Aam Aadmi also who has to change so that the nation can change, not just from top down but from bottom up also. So, yes, that means there are two parts to this question. And its answer is that it is not that we have to deny the beneficial effects of technology whenever they are present.

Although, at the same time, we also have to acknowledge that technology has also been misused extensively. And it has also caused the greatest disasters in recent recorded history in terms of World War II or Chernobyl or Hiroshima and Nagasaki and other such disasters. Apart from, of course, we look at the pollution and the environmental degradation and the many diseases like cancer which have resulted because of the somewhat unnatural way of living with carcinogenic and other elements being induced by the techno-centered culture.

So, there are its harms also. But this is not a talk about the harms of technology. It is wherever technology has benefited, we can see the benefit but we have to see the holistic picture that technology alone cannot solve all our problems.

We need spirituality. Technology should not be allowed to become a replacement for God. That is what spiritualists are against.

And secondly, the issue of natural calamities causing much more casualties is not just an issue of technological competence but is also an issue of governmental preparedness and an ethos of responsibility which is present in America and which is not in India. So, India also needs to develop that and that was there also in the ancient times. It is not that it is something which was not there in India.

We see that in the 4th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, Maharaj Pruthu, when there was a natural calamity in the form of famine, he took proactive action and he ensured that the citizens were provided for. He did not just let casualties take place and he did not let things stay like that. He worked to change situations.

So, governmental competence is a Kshatriya attribute and that has to be developed by having trained Kshatriyas and the Vedic culture incorporated that. And at different times, the method that may be used to incorporate the social security and the social relief measures may vary. Now, yes, we can have, with sophisticated technology, we can have alert systems, tsunami alert or cyclone alert and these are essential in today's society.

But then we also have to understand that we also need a spiritual education so that there are spiritual alerts. Ultimately, these calamities come as karmic reactions and as long as people are going to do bad karma, the reactions are going to come. So, spiritual education is also required so that there are spiritual alerts that if I do such a wrong thing, sooner or later a reaction is going to come and therefore best let me avoid this.

So, spiritual culture also has its own mechanisms for protecting people from suffering and they involve alerts of a much more sophisticated kind based on a much more complete and deeper understanding of the working of the universe. Thank you. Hare Krishna.