Practicing Yoga in the Age of Quarrel 141
When this body is finished there is no guarantee what kind of body one
will take next. Suppose in my next life I by chance get the body of a tree.
For thousands of years I will have to stand up. But people are not very
serious. They even say, ‘‘What is that? Even if I have to stand up, I shall
forget.’ The lower species of life are situated in forgetfulness. If a tree
were not forgetful it would be impossible for it to live. Suppose we were .
told, ‘“You stand up for three days here!’’ Because we are not forgetful,
we would become mad. So, by nature’s law, all these lower species of life
are forgetful. Their consciousness is not developed. A tree has life, but
even if someone cuts it, because its consciousness is not developed, it
does not respond. So we should be very careful to utilize this human
form of life properly. The Krsna consciousness movement is meant for
achieving perfection in life. It is not a bluff or exploitation, but unfor-
tunately people are accustomed to being bluffed. There is a verse by an
Indian poet: ‘“‘If one speaks nice things, people will quarrel with him:
‘Oh, what nonsense you are speaking.’ But if he bluffs them and cheats
them, they will be very glad.”’ So if a bluffer says, ‘‘Just do this, give me
my fee, and within six months you will become God,”’ then they will
agree: ‘‘Yes, take this fee, and I shall become God within six months.”’
No. These cheating processes will not solve our problem. If one actually
wants to solve the problems of life in this age, then he has to take to this
process of kirtana. That is the recommended process.
harer nama harer nama
harer namaiva kevalam
kalau nasty eva nasty eva
nasty eva gatir anyatha
In this age, Kali-yuga, one cannot execute any process of self-realization
or perfection of life other than kirtana. Kirtana is essential in this age.
In all Vedic literatures it is confirmed that one must meditate on the
Supreme Absolute Truth, Visnu, not on anything else. But there are
different processes of meditation recommended for different ages. The -
process of mystic yogic meditation was possible in Satya-yuga, when men
lived for many thousands of years. Now people will not believe this, but
in a previous age there were people who lived for one hundred thousand
years. That age was called Satya-yuga, and the meditation of mystic yoga
was possible at that time. In that age the great yogi Valmiki Muni medi-
tated for sixty thousand years. So that is a long-term process, which is not ,
possible to execute in this age. If one wishes to conduct a farce, that is
