Welcome to the Purely Prabhupada YouTube channel. This video series is called “Reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all.” My name is Kamrā devī dāsī, and I am a disciple of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda.
This is the second video of the series. It is called, “Take me to Your Leader.” As God, Krishna, is the Greatest, there is also a personality at the helm of the quarrel, hypocrisy, and false leadership that is so prevalent on the planet today. He is a powerful personality and represents all bad qualities, but at his core, he is also the well-wisher of the souls embroiled in the sufferings of this dark age by their own sinful desires.
In the political world today, there is a push to discover who is at the root of the evil agenda that is being uncovered daily, evil that has pervaded world governments and banking systems for many decades, even many centuries. One inquiry or arrest may lead to information of the next higher person, interrogating that person may reveal the person above him, and so on. The patriots of many nations are aiming to discover and bring to justice the darkest and most powerful of the criminal leaders, starting at the bottom and working upwards.
If we bring our focus to the Supreme Person, God, Krishna, we see that He embodies six qualities, six opulences, in full. God means full of all opulences. These qualities are wealth, power or influence, fame, beauty, wisdom, and renunciation, or detachment. So, if we are looking for the most beautiful person in our neighborhood, and then the most beautiful person in our region or state, and then the most beautiful person in the country, then in the world, then in the universe, then in all the universes, we will find Krishna, or God. Same with the other qualities, or opulences. The person who is fully endowed with these opulences is the Lord Himself, and if we search for the most beautiful person, the most wealthy, the most wise, the most famous, the most influential, the most renounced, going through all the universes, indeed, all of creation, our search will end finding all these qualities in total fullness in the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
So, in trying to find the leader of all the evil culprits of this world, we may similarly go up the chain, as I mentioned. Who is above who, who is paying off who, who is blackmailing who… We may think it is this senator or this billionaire or this businessman or this banker or this president, or even start to think it is a race of snaggy toothed fetid subterranean reptilians or cold-hearted mantid ETs, and so on. But, if we could tell any of them, “Take me to your leader,” we would eventually find the personality of Kali, for whom this dark age of Kali is named.
We must learn to see from the eye of scripture. The Vedic literatures describe the four universal ages, or seasons.
In Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, the author explains in his purport to Chapter 8, text 17-
The duration of the material universe is limited. It is manifested in cycles of kalpas. A kalpa is a day of Brahmā, and one day of Brahmā consists of a thousand cycles of four yugas or ages: Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara, and Kali. The cycle of Satya is characterized by virtue, wisdom and religion, there being practically no ignorance and vice, and the yuga lasts 1,728,000 years. In the Tretā–yuga vice is introduced, and this yuga lasts 1,296,000 years. In the Dvāpara–yuga there is an even greater decline in virtue and religion, vice increasing, and this yuga lasts 864,000 years. And finally in Kali–yuga (the yuga we have now been experiencing over the past 5,000 years) there is an abundance of strife, ignorance, irreligion and vice, true virtue being practically nonexistent, and this yuga lasts 432,000 years. In Kali–yuga vice increases to such a point that at the termination of the yuga the Supreme Lord Himself appears as the Kalki avatara, vanquishes the demons, saves His devotees, and commences another Satya–yuga. Then the process is set rolling again. ..
So, it is presently Kali-yuga, the “iron age of quarrel and hypocrisy.” At its helm, we find the personality of Kali. He is in charge, he is the “big boss,” the one we will discover if we continue to follow the chain of command. However, he also works under the direction of the Supreme Lord, and there are special blessings available in this dark age where there is an apparent absence of any good qualities.
CC Madhya 6.242
harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā
Translation
“ ‘In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy, the only means of deliverance is the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way.’ ”
( Bṛhan-nāradīya Purāṇa thirty-eighth chapter, verse 126)
Purport
Because the people of this age are so fallen, they can simply chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. In this way they can rid themselves of the bodily conception of life and become eligible to engage in the Lord’s devotional service. One cannot engage in the devotional service of the Lord without being purified of all contamination. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.28):
yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām
te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ
“Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life and whose sinful actions are completely eradicated are freed from the dualities of delusion, and they engage themselves in My service with determination.” Sometimes people are surprised to see young men and women take so seriously to the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. By giving up sinful activity — illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling — and strictly following the injunctions given by the spiritual master, they have become purified of all contamination. They can therefore fully engage in the devotional service of the Lord.
In this Age of Kali, hari-kīrtana is very, very important. The importance of chanting the holy name of the Lord is stated in the following verses from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (12.3.51-52):
“The most important factor in this Age of Kali, which is an ocean of faults, is that one can be free from all contamination and become eligible to enter the kingdom of God simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. The self-realization that was achieved in the Satya millennium by meditation, in the Tretā millennium by the performance of different sacrifices, and in the Dvāpara millennium by worship of Lord Kṛṣṇa can be achieved in the Age of Kali simply by chanting the holy names, Hare Kṛṣṇa.”
Please accept the blessings that this dark age of Kali offers, and chant-
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.
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