Today, urban civilization (or what the Pope once called ‘the civilization of death’) is dependent on electricity and gas (petrol). Without cars, public transport, and electric lights, computers, and cell phones, it’s hard to imagine existing. This is one reason why a few people made a lot of money scaring us half to death about y2k. This dependence is another reason why Srila Prabhupada’s vision about varnasrama dharma has been so seemingly slow to manifest. We citified people (including this writer) find it next to impossible to live so close to the land that we don’t depend on electricity and petrol. Recently I met a devotee who lives in Auckland, New Zealand, who travels extensively as an economist/accountant. Last year he visited a vibrant devotee community in Indonesia where there is no electricity or petrol. He said that after a few days he was unconsciously grasping for his cell phone (which didn’t work there anyway).