Text 23]
Questions by the Sages
81
those who want to utilize this life for self-realization. The people are so busy with sense gratification that they completely forget about self-realization. Out of madness they frankly say that there is no need for self-realization because they do not realize that this brief life is but a moment on our great journey towards self-realization. The whole system of education is geared to sense gratification, and if a learned man thinks it over, he sees that the children of this age are being intentionally sent to the slaughterhouses of so-called education. Learned men, therefore, must be cautious of this dangerous age, and if they at all want to cross over the dangerous ocean of Kali, they must follow the footsteps of the sages of Naimiṣāraṇya and accept Śrī Sūta Gosvāmī or his bona fide representative as the captain of the ship. The ship is the message of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa in the shape of  Bhagavad-gītā  or the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam .
TEXT 23
ब्रूहि योगेश्वरे कृष्णे ब्रह्मण्ये धर्मवर्मणि । स्वां काष्ठामधुनोपेते धर्मः कं शरणं गतः ॥२३॥
brūhi yogeśvare kṛṣṇe brahmaṇye dharma-varmaṇi svām kāṣṭhām adhunopete dharmaḥ kaṁ śaraṇaṁ gataḥ
brūhi —please tell;  yoga-īśvare —the Lord of all mystic powers;  kṛṣṇe —Lord Kṛṣṇa;  brahmaṇye —the Absolute Truth;  dharma —religion;  varmaṇi —protector;  svām —own;  kāṣṭhām —abode;  adhunā —nowadays;  upete —having gone away;  dharmaḥ —religion;  kam —unto whom;  śaraṇam —shelter;  gataḥ —gone.
TRANSLATION
Now that Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Absolute Truth, the master of all mystic powers, has departed for His own abode, please tell us by whom religious principles are presently protected.
PURPORT
Essentially religion is the prescribed codes enunciated by the Personality of Godhead Himself. Whenever there is gross misuse or neglect of the