According to Vedic civilization, one should perform activities for the benefit of the public, such as

constructing public roads, planting trees on both sides of the road so that people can walk in the shade,
and constructing public wells so that everyone can take water without difficulty. One should perform
austerity to control one's desires, and one must simultaneously worship the Supreme Personality of
Godhead. Thus one becomes pious, and as a result one is happy even in material conditions of life.
(10.7.32)

(June 1976, the Hare Kåñëa farming village at New Våndaban, West Virginia)