The Way of Chanting and Knowing Kṛṣṇa 19
perienced is but a perverted reflection of things in spiritual life.
When our constitutional position or  dharma  is deteriorated due to the contaminations of matter, the Lord Himself comes as an incarnation or sends some of His confidential servitors. Lord Jesus Christ called himself the “son of God,” and so is a representative of the Supreme. Similarly, Mohammed identified himself as a servant of the Supreme Lord. Thus whenever there is a discrepancy in our constitutional position, the Supreme Lord either comes Himself or sends His representative to inform us of the real position of the living entity.
Therefore, one should not make the mistake of thinking that  dharma  is a created faith. In its proper sense,  dharma  cannot be divorced from the living entity at all. It is to the living entity what sweetness is to sugar, or saltiness is to salt, or solidity is to stone. In no case can it be cut off. The  dharma  of the living entity is to serve, and we can easily see that every living entity has the tendency to serve himself or others. How to serve Kṛṣṇa, how to disentangle ourselves from materialistic service, how to attain Kṛṣṇa consciousness and become free from material designations is all taught as a science by Śrī Kṛṣṇa in  Bhagavad-gītā .
The word  sādhu  in the verse quoted above, beginning  paritrāṇāya sādhūnām  refers to a holy man or a saintly person. A saintly person is tolerant, very kind to everyone, is a friend to all living entities, is no one’s enemy and is always peaceful. There are twenty-six basic qualifications for a holy man, and in the