“People do not know what real progress is. The Vedic civilization is not interested in the false progress of economic development. For instance, sometimes people boast, ‘We have gone from the hut to the skyscraper.’ They think this is progress. But in the Vedic system of civilization, one thinks about how much he is advanced in self-realization. He may live in a hut and become very advanced in self-realization. But if he wastes his time turning his hut into a skyscraper, then his whole life is wasted. Modern so-called civilization is simply a dog’s race. The dog is running on four legs, and modern people are running on four wheels. The learned, astute person will use this life to gain what he has missed in countless prior lives – namely, realization of self and realization of God.”
From the book Civilization and Transcendence, by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada