(Click to enlarge vintage photo of Radha Madan Mohan)
"This is called Kali-yuga. The first symptom is: our span of life is very short, decreasing. With the advancement of Kali-yuga, our duration of life is decreasing. Everyone knows that. My father lived so many years, my grandfather lived so many years, but it is certain I am not going to live so many years. And then my son is not... Gradually, it is reduced. Reducing, reducing, reducing. By the end of Kali-yuga, the duration of life from twenty years to thirty years will be considered very, very old age, very, very old. If a man is living for twenty-five years, he will be considered a very grand old man. Yes. That is coming gradually. So therefore it is said, manda. Manda. Manda means everything bad or everything slow. Duration of life is bad, then their activities also very bad, always sinful activities. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo (SB 1.1.10). And if somebody is little anxious to take shelter of somebody for spiritual advancement, then he will accept some bogus thing, sumanda-matayo, some bogus incarnation of God, some bogus yogi, some bogus... They will take. Sumanda-matayo. Will not come to the real.
Real... Here it is said that mat-sarvasva-padāmbhojau rādhā-madana-mohanau. One should take shelter of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Instead of taking shelter of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, he will take shelter of the lotus feet of some bogus. That's it. They are called manda-matayo, manufacturing something new: 'This is our process of religion.' They do not know that religion cannot be manufactured. Religion is eternal. Religion... Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Religion means the law given by God. The God is eternal; therefore His law is eternal. So how we can manufacture? You cannot manufacture religion. God is eternal, and His law is also eternal. Therefore God personally comes, and He says that 'You have manufactured so many religions, but that is not religion. You give it up. You give them up.' Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66): 'Give up all this nonsense.' Then what should be my religion? Mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, that's all. This is eternal religion. Mām ekaṁ: 'Only unto Me.'
The religion is very simplified, but still, people are... Because mandāḥ sumanda-matayo (SB 1.1.10), they have got some, I mean to say, nasty ideas; they manufacture different types of religion. Religion is one. That is eternal. God is one. That is eternal. Take anything, like gold. Gold is gold, always gold. Millions of years ago the what was gold, the metal, the same metal is still there. You cannot say, 'This is Hindu gold,' 'This is Muslim gold,' 'This is Christian gold.' Gold is gold. Similarly, God is one. You cannot say, 'This is Hindu God,' 'This is Muslim God,' 'This is Christian God.' God is one, and eternal. Therefore religion is one, eternal. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or God consciousness. God is one. You are also one because you are part and parcel. But you have created your struggle for existence because you are thinking otherwise, without Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati (BG 15.7). Because you have created different types of mind, different types of desires, and you are trying to fulfill it, that is called struggle for existence. Otherwise you are existing eternally, and your consciousness is one: think of Kṛṣṇa. But because you are doing not, not doing that, therefore there is struggle. That is māyā. That is māyā. Otherwise there is no question of struggling. Everything is there, plain and simple.
So that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We are preaching that God is one and to think of God is also one, and to become obedient servant of God, that is also one. Not that you have to become a different servant, I have to become different ser... Everyone is servant originally. So we accept to serve God. Then our religion is there; our fulfillment of desires are there. Therefore the author said, mat-sarvasva-padāmbhojau: 'That is my everything. To take shelter of Rādhā-Madana-mohana, that is my everything. I have no other desire.' This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ
mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ
bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ
padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām
(SB 10.14.58)
This is the solution. To take shelter of the padāmbhojau of Rādhā-Madana-mohana, that is the solution of all problem. And for a person who has taken shelter of the lotus feet, samāśritā ye pada-pallavam-plavam... Pada-pallavam. His lotus feet is compared with the lotus flower. The lotus flower has got petals, and the petal is just like in the shape of a boat. Everyone has got this experience. If you take the shelter of this boat, then we can cross over the ocean of material world very easily. You require some boat to cross over some watery span. So here, if you take one boat and if you want to cross the Pacific Ocean or Atlantic Ocean, it is very difficult. It may not... The boat may not go up to the end. But if you... Samāśritā ye pada-pallavam-plavam. If you take shelter of the lotus petal boatlike of... What is that lotus flower? Samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ. Murāri, Murāri means Kṛṣṇa. If you take shelter of the boat of the lotus feet of Murāri... What is that feet? Now, mahat-padam. Mahat-padam means the whole universal creation, the cosmic manifestation, is also resting there. It is not only a small thing. Mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ: 'And who is famous very piously.'
Then what the result? Now, bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padam. Bhavāmbudhiḥ means the great ocean of material existence. We are struggling here, trying to swim. That becomes vatsa-padam. Vatsa-padam. Vatsa means calf. So you have no experience. In our country, the, in the... The calf walks, and the hoof makes some hole, and there is some water also. So as it is not difficult to cross that water, similarly, the whole material ocean become like that hole of the calf's hoof. In this way you can cross over this material ocean and go back to home, back to Godhead. Why I shall go there? Because here, padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām (SB 10.14.58). Here, in every step there is danger. Why shall you live here? Take this boat and go, cross the material ocean, and go back to home, back to Godhead. This is the philosophy. Therefore our Kavirāja Gosvāmī is saying, mat-sarvasva: 'Everything. This is my everything. I take shelter of You.'"
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Dallas, March 4, 1975)
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