Householder is not bad. That is not condemned. Real thing condemned: apasyatam atma-tattvam. That is condemned. Because they do not know what is the aim of life. That is missing. All these people… Ask anybody that “What is the aim of your life?” Nobody… Nobody will be able to say. Any householder, any businessman, ask. They will simply say that “It is my duty to earn money. It is my duty to maintain my children, to give them education, to give them good opportunity for prospective life. And if I have got little more money, then I can give in charity to the poor man, daridra-narayana.” These are their program. But nobody knows the necessity of liberating the soul which is conditioned by this material covering. Nobody knows. That you will find. Nobody knows. Big, big professors, big, big… They simply say that “Yes…” If you ask, “Why you are constructing some big, big scheme?” “Oh, for the future generation. That’s all,” they will reply. Nobody will reply… Nobody knows about the necessity of the soul. That is the important point. Apasyatam atma-tattvam. Nobody knows. Nobody has any vision of the atma-tattva. Simply they are talking superfluously. This is the defect.

From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.1.3 – March 18, 1974, Vrndavana