658 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 1, Ch. 12
Bhagavatam says, therefore, that the prime duty of the human being is to
satisfy the Supreme Lord by the performance of one’s occupational duty.
(Bhag. 1.2.13)

Let any man of any place of community, caste or creed be engaged in
any sort of occupational duty, but he must agree to perform sacrifices as it
is recommended in the scriptures for the particular place, time and person.
In the Vedic literatures it is recommended that in Kali-yuga people engage
in glorifying the Lord by chanting the holy name of Krsna (Kirtandd eva
krsnasya mukta-sangah param vrajet) without offense. By doing so one can
be freed from all sins and thus can attain the highest perfection of life by
returning home, back to Godhead. We have already discussed this more
than once in this great literature in different places, especially in the intro-
ductory portion by sketching the life of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu,
and still we are repeating the same with a view to bring about peace and
prosperity in society.

The Lord has declared openly in the Bhagavad-gita how He becomes
pleased with us, and the same process is practically demonstrated in the
life and preaching work of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The perfect
process of performing yajfas or sacrifice to please the Supreme Lord
Hari (the Personality of Godhead who gets us free from all miseries of
existence) is to follow the ways of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in
this dark age of quarrel and dissension.

Maharaja Yudhisthira had to collect heaps of gold to secure the para-
phernalia for the horse sacrifice yajia in days of sufficiency, so we can
hardly think of such performance of yajfias in these days of insufficiency
and complete scarcity of gold. At the present moment we have heaps
of papers and promises of their being converted into gold by economic
development of modern civilization, and still there is no possibility of
spending riches like Maharaja Yudhisthira, either individually or collectively
or by state patronization. Just suitable, therefore, for the age, is the
method recommended by Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in terms of the
§astra. Such a method requires no expenditure at all and yet can award
more benefit than other expensive methods of yajia performances.

The horse sacrifice yajfia or cow sacrifice yajiia performed by the Vedic
regulations shouldn’t be misunderstood as a process of killing animals. On
the contrary, animals offered for the yajfia were rejuvenated to a new span
of life by the transcendental power of chanting the Vedic hymns, which, if
properly chanted, are different from what is understood by the common
layman. The Veda-mantras are all practical, and the proof is rejuvenation
of the sacrificed animal.
