Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.16.19 Pradyumna: (leads chanting, etc.) dharma uvaca kaccid bhadre ’namayam atmanas te vicchayasi mlayatesan mukhena alaksaye bhavatim antaradhim dure bandhum socasi kancanamba Translation: “Dharma, in the form of a bull, asked: Madam, are you not hale and hearty? Why are you covered with the shadow of grief? It appears by your face that you have become black. Are you suffering from some internal disease, or are you thinking of some relative who is away in a distant place?” Prabhupada: You can read the purport; it’s small. Pradyumna: “The people of the world in this age of Kali are always full of anxieties. Everyone is diseased with some kind of ailment. From the very faces of the people of this age, one can find out the index of the mind. Everyone feels the absence of his relative who is away from home. The particular symptom of the age of Kali is that no family is now blessed to live together. To earn a livelihood, the father lives at a place far away from the son, or the wife lives far away from the husband and so on. There are sufferings from internal diseases, separation from those near and dear, and anxieties for maintaining the status quo. These are but some important factors which make the people of this age always unhappy.” Prabhupada: So this age of Kali, we have discussed in the previous verses, is very degraded age. In the beginning, there is Satya-yuga; and next, Treta-yuga; next, Dvapara-yuga; and this is the Kali-yuga. The aggregate of all these four yugas is called yuga: sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmano viduh [Bg. 8.17]. The duration of Satya-yuga is 1,800,000’s of years; and the next, Treta-yuga, roughly 1,200,000’s of years; and Dvapara-yuga, 800,000’s of years; and this Kali-yuga, 432,000’s of years. So we are in this Kali-yuga. In this Kali-yuga we have passed only five thousand years. Out of 432,000’s of years we have passed only five thousand. Since the Battle of Kuruksetra, which took place five thousand years ago, the Kali-yuga has begun. So this chapter is on the subject matter, “How Pariksit Received the Age of Kali.” We are studying this chapter at the present moment. In Los Angeles we were studying, and again, after that, we are presenting. So Kali-yuga is not very good age, simply faults. We have several times discussed that in this age, people’s duration of life, mercifulness, bodily strength and so many things, eight kinds of things, will be reduced. The age is reducing; the bodily strength is also reducing. Now you American generation, you are not as strong as your father or grandfather. You can understand that. You are not so luxuriantly grown up, bodily growth. There are so many reasons, but this is the symptom of age of Kali. And they’re described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, foretold, five thousand years ago, what will happen in this Kali-yuga. That is all explained in the Twelfth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, third, fourth chapter. So simply full of faults. Social life, political life, religious life— everything has been described there. And one thing I can see very practical, that in this age, lavanyam kesa-dharanam. It is stated there that people will think that by keeping long hairs they will become very beautiful. That is stated there. Dampatye ratim eva hi. Husband and wife’s relation will depend on the strength of sex. These are described there. Svikara eva codvahe. Marriage will be performed simply by agreement. Now, this is sastra. Five thousand years ago, what was written, that is now becoming true. Now there is no marriage as it was taking formerly, Vedic marriage. The father (and) mother will select the bride, bridegroom, and there will be gorgeous ceremony and marriage. The father will spend… Both parties, the girl’s father and the boy’s father, will spend. Still in India, there are cases like that. They’ll spend their hard-earned money during the marriage ceremony of their son and daughter. But in this age, gradually, it is said, svikara eva codvahe. Udvaha means marriage, taking the charge of the girl. The boy takes charge of the young girl from the custody of her father. This is marriage. Woman, according to Vedic civilization, they are not recommended freedom. They should be taken care just like children are taken care of. You cannot give independence to the children. That is not possible. Then it is not good for them. Similarly, woman also should be taken care of. They should not be given freedom. That is not good for them. They should be protected by the father in childhood, by the husband in youthhood, and by the grown-up children in old age. Three stages. But in this age, women are trying to take independence of father, husband or children. That is not good. That is described in the sastra. So so many symptoms are described, but at the end the remedy is suggested because sastra means it will guide you for the ultimate goal of life, for the perfection of life. So if the world condition is so bad, then how people will be saved? That is also suggested in the sastra: kaler dosa-nidhe rajann asti hy eko mahan gunah. Pariksit Maharaja was advised by Sukadeva Gosvami, “My dear King, I’ve described so many faults. It is like the ocean of faults. But there is one boon also. That is special prerogative, special advantage of this age.” Kaler dosa-nidhe rajann asti hy eko mahan gunah. Kalau, kalau means “In this age of Kali, it is full of faulty things. But there is one boon.” What is that? Kirtanad eva krsnasya mukta-sangah param vrajet. Kirtanad eva krsnasya: Simply by chanting the holy name of Krsna—Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare—simply by chanting the holy name…,” kirtanad eva krsnasya, krsnasya, so, mukta-sangah, “he becomes free from all these contaminations, by one thing, simply chanting Hare Krsna.” Kirtanad eva krsnasya mukta-sangah. There are so many contaminations, so many faults of this age, but simply by chanting Hare Krsna maha-mantra, one becomes kirtanad eva krsnasya mukta-sangah, he becomes free from the contaminated association. Just like if there is some epidemic, disease, and if you take vaccine, it is supposed that you are free from the contamination. So this vaccine of chanting Hare Krsna maha-mantra will keep you fit without any contamination of this age of Kali. And that is happening. All over the world people are chanting Hare Krsna maha-mantra. And practically we see, those who are chanting, they’re becoming free from the contamination. If you follow the rules and regulations, very simple thing, and chant Hare Krsna maha-mantra… That is our only request. Then, in spite of this contaminated age of Kali, you’ll be saved. You’ll be saved. That we are… That is our… Krsna consciousness movement means that we are preaching this cult. harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha [Adi 17.21] Without this, there is no other way of saving you from the contamination of Kali. So here another question is… The dharma uvaca. Personified dharma, he’s inquiring from the cow. He’s addressing cow, amba. Amba means mother. So cow is our mother. Why mother? Because from practical point of view, we drink milk. So how mother… How cow is not mother? She’s mother. We are taking her milk. There are seven mothers according to Vedic civilization: atma-mata guroh patni brahmani raja-patnika dhenur dhatri tatha prthvi saptaita matarah smrtah Real mother, from whose womb we have come to this world, real mother, atma-mata. Then guroh patni, wife of the teacher or spiritual master, guroh patni. Brahmani, the wife of a brahmana. Atma-mata guroh patni brahmani raja-patnika, and the wife of the king, or the queen. She’s also mother. Dhenu, the cow. Cow is also mother. And dhatri means nurse. Nurse is also mother. Tatha prthvi, and the earth, the earth is also our mother. That we say in country, in the country which we take birth, we say desa-matrka. In Sanskrit it is called desa-matrka. That is also mother. Mother land, mother language. So this… So many mothers we have got, out of which, cow is also mother. Therefore she’s addressed as amba. Amba means mother. Still in Gujarat province, they call amba. And in U.P., United States, er, United Province, in India, they also call amba, or in a broken language they call amma. Still… That is from very long time, mother is… Amba-devi. There is a… From Amba-devi, there is a big temple of Mother Durga, Kali, in Bombay. So this Amba-devi was pronounced by the Englishmens as Bamba-devi, and from Bamba- devi it has come to “Bombay.” Actually, there is a big temple of Amba in Bombay. From that name, instead of Amba, they have become Bamba. Just like from Sindhu, they have called, they have designated the inhabitants of Sindhu-desa as “Hindu.” The Muhammadans, they pronounce s as h. So from “Sindhu,” it has come to “Hindu.” Otherwise, this “Hindu” name is not mentioned in any Vedic literature. It is given by the… This name is given by the other foreigners. Especially the Arabian countries, they used to call this nation, Bharata-varsa… Actually, Hindu is not a religion. Hindu is a name given by the foreigners. The religion is, of India, varnasrama-dharma, following the institution of four varnas and four asramas. That is varn… Or sanatana-dharma. Sanatana-dharma means eternal, eternal religion. Religion of human being is one. That is called sanatana. A living entity is described as sanatana. Mamaivamso jiva-bhuto jiva-loke sanatanah. In the Bhagavad-gita you’ll find sanatanah, and Krsna is also addressed in the Eleventh Chapter as sanatanas tvam. And there is another place, or spiritual world, which is also called sanatana. In the Bhagavad-gita you’ll find, paras tasmat tu bhavo ’nyo ’vyakto ’vyaktat sanatanah [Bg. 8.20] So this sanatana term is very important. The living entity is sanatana and God is sanatana and the spiritual world is sanatana, and the process by which your lost relationship with God established and you go back to home back to Godhead, that is called sanatana-dharma. Sanatana-dharma. That is our eternal relationship with God. And there is a place. So the system which makes these two sanatana, God and the living entity, meet again and they go back to enjoy life in the spiritual world, that system is called sanatana-dharma. Therefore sanatana-dharma is not meant for any particular class or particular country or particular nation or community. No. It is meant for the whole human being, especially human being; otherwise, all living entities. Living entities, they are in this material world in different forms. That is accepted by Krsna, sarva-yonisu kaunteya sambhavanti murtayo yah [Bg. 14.4]. There are as many forms of life amongst the living entities. Tasam mahad yonir brahma aham bija-pradah pita. The mahad yonih, mahat, this material world, material elements, or the sum total of material elements… Mother Durga, she is the mother. And God is the father. Just like father and mother gives birth to a child, similarly, we spirit soul, the part and parcel of the supreme father, and the material elements, bhumir apo ’nalo vayuh, they’re the recipient. Tasmin garbham dadamy aham. Just like father gives the seed in the womb of the mother, then the child gets a body and it grows and come out, similarly this body is given by mother, material, material energy, but the father is the Supreme Lord Krsna. Aham bija-pradah pita. This is the factual position. We are not this material body. dehino ’smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara tatha dehantara-praptir dhiras tatra na muhyati [Bg. 2.13] So we have got all information in the Vedic literature beginning from Bhagavad-gita and then described further in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, four Vedas. The four Vedas—Sama, Yajur, Rk, Atharva— they are concentrated in the Vedanta-sutra, and the Vedanta-sutra is explained in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Therefore, our propagation, this Krsna consciousness movement, is that we are trying to get our students well conversed in Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. So those who are our students, we have got our books now ready published so nicely. People are accepting it. I was very glad to hear from our Maharaja that we are selling about hundred… Sudama: Close to, yes. Prabhupada: Eh? Sudama: Close to. They’re doing many…, close to a hundred Krsna books a day sometimes. Prabhupada: Yes. So it is very good news that people are reading our books. They have already got about more than one dozen such books, four hundred pages each. And besides the smaller books, now we are immediately going to add six more books. And what are those? Three Bhagavatams? Bali-mardana: Three Bhagavatam, Caitanya-caritamrta. Prabhupada: One, all four hundred pages, like this. We don’t publish a book less than this volume. So just imagine how much we have to learn about our spiritual life. In no other system—religious system you may call, or cultural system—can give you so many books to read. There is no comparison. The Christians, they can present only one small Bible, and the Muslims they can present one little Koran. But here, the Vedic culture is so great that we can simply give you sixty volumes like this only for Srimad-Bhagavatam. And Bhagavata is the eighteenth Purana. So there are seventeen Puranas, still more, not yet touched. Beside that, there are 108 Upanisads. Then there is big Mahabharata, the great history of India. Then Ramayana. There are so many books. So we are trying to present all these books into English translation. So it is a culture, Vedic culture, which, if it is spread all over the world, people will be benefited because at the present moment people do not know what is the treasure house of spiritual culture. They do not know. They have got some vague idea. Neither they are offered such volumes of books. So those who are present here, our disciple or not disciple, should understand that this Krsna consciousness movement is a great scientific movement; it is not a bogus bluffing movement. Very scientific movement. So in this movement, our one program is to respect the cows. We chant this mantra, namo brahmanya-devaya go-brahmana-hitaya ca. The brahminical culture and the cows… Why they have selected the cows? There are so many animals. Why cow protection is so important in Krsna consciousness? Why Krsna personally Himself became a cowherd boy and was taking the care of the cows and the calves? Oh, that is very essential. And here also, we see that the Dharmaraja is inquiring about the comforts of the cow. Amba, kaccid bhadre, what is, anamayam atmanas te. Amayam means disease. So “Whether you are quite comfortable by your health?” This is very essential to keep cows very comfortably. If they feel comfortable, then you get the most nourishing food, milk. We are practically seeing in our New Vrindaban center, because the cow are feeling secure in our custody, they’re delivering milk up to the eighty pounds daily. You’ll be surprised. So if you get milk products, milk, then you can prepare so many preparations full of vitamins, which will nourish your brain. Dull brain cannot understand what is spiritual knowledge. Therefore, that Mr. Bernard Shaw, he wrote a book. Perhaps you know it. You Are What You Eat. If you keep your brain dull, then how you can understand? Because without becoming very intelligent man, one cannot understand Krsna consciousness. That is stated in the Caitanya-caritamrta, krsna yei bhaje sei bada catura: “One who takes to Krsna consciousness seriously and perfectly, he must be very, very intelligent.” Dull brain cannot accept it. Bahunam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyate [Bg. 7.19] So we have to make our brain very clean. And for that purpose you require to drink not very much, at least, one pound or half-pound milk daily. That is essential. But no meat-eating. This is intelligence. The milk is also conversion of the blood, everyone knows. Just like we drink the milk of our mother. The color of the milk is white, but everyone knows that milk is produced from the red blood, red corpuscle. So this is the process, that people are very much anxious to drink the blood of cows from the slaughterhouse. They sometimes drink fresh blood, is it not? Bali-mardana: Yes. Prabhupada: That is not very good intelligence. You drink the blood of the cow by natural process, which turns into white milk. You’ll get better brain, better strength. Therefore cow protection is very essential in Vedic civilization. Therefore we offer respect Krsna: “Krsna is the benefactor of cows and the brahmanas.” Namo brahmanya-devaya go-brahmana-hitaya ca. Go-brahmana-hitaya ca. Krsna is well-wisher first—go, cow. You’ll find Krsna always with cows. Here is Krsna’s picture, you see how He’s loving the cow and the calf. He’s personally teaching from His childhood, from His boyhood. So we should follow. If we want to become Krsna conscious, we must give… The calf is also seeing to the face of Krsna for protection, and Krsna is giving protection, “Yes, I’ll give you protection.” So this is the position. And here is also dharma. Religious life must begin very clean. That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gita, yesam tv anta-gatam papam jananam punya-karmanam te dvandva-moha-nirmukta bhajante mam drdha-vratah [Bg. 7.28] Sinful life will not… [break] …that is practical, everyone knows. And we see so many varieties of people, men, in the society, and what is the difference of variety? One has got good brain, another has got dull brain. That is dis… That is the variety. So if you want good brain… Good brain means how to get relief from all the troubles of material existence. That is good brain. And bad brain means to become implicated more and more. They do not know… Because they have got bad brain, they do not know how spirit soul is transmigrating from one body to another, how he is becoming entangled. Today I have got very nice body, American body, but what is the guarantee next life? But they do not believe in the next life because they have no good brain. So in order to understand things as they are, you require good brain, and for good brain, you require milk preparation. In this way, as they’ve suggested a routine in the sastra also, and guided by sadhu-guru-sastra, if we accept, then we shall become very happy in this life and next life also. That is Krsna consciousness movement. Thank you very much. Sudama: Questions, Prabhupada? [break] Devotee: …one is sufficient to ask is that are Siddha-svarupananda Gosvami and Tusta-krsna Maharaja and their followers more advanced in their understanding of Krsna and the spiritual master than the other devotees in ISKCON; and secondly, are they, have they advanced beyond following the rules and regulations of ISKCON? Prabhupada: That is up to you to judge—by the result. If they are actually advanced, why they should leave this company of ISKCON? Therefore, I know they’re very good souls. They might have done some mistake out of misunderstanding, but you invite them to come back again and take their position. It is not very good sign that they have left. They’ll never be happy. That’s a fact. (pause) Hare Krsna. (end)
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Hawaii, January 15, 1974