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Rāja-vidyā: The King of Knowledge
do with possessions or lack of possessions. “I have nothing to lose and nothing to gain,” he thinks. “I am completely separate from all this.” Nor does he see anyone else as rich or poor, educated or uneducated, beautiful or ugly, etc. He does not see any material dualities, for his vision is completely on the spiritual platform, and he sees that every living entity is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Thus seeing all entities in their true identity, he tries to take them back to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. His viewpoint is that everyone—whether he be  brāhmaṇa  or  śūdra , black or white, Hindu, Christian, or whatever—should come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When one is situated in this way, then:  mad-bhaktim labhate parām —he becomes eligible for becoming a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa’s.
Practically speaking, this process is not very easy in this age of Kali. In  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  a description is given of the people of this age. Their duration of life is said to be very short, they tend to be phlegmatic and slow and to sleep a great deal, and when they’re not sleeping, they are busy earning money. At the most they only have two hours a day for spiritual activities, so what is the hope for spiritual understanding? It is also stated that even if one is anxious to make spiritual progress, there are many pseudo-spiritual societies to take advantage of him. People are also characterized in this age as being unfortunate. They have a great deal of difficulty meeting the primary demands of life—eating, defending, mating, and sleeping—necessities which are met even by the animals. Even if people are meeting these necessities in this age, they are always