Symptoms of Kali Yuga

We can see all these symptoms today. It was predicted 5000 years ago but these things are considered fashionable.

In Kali-yuga, wealth alone will be considered the sign of a man’s good birth, proper behavior and fine qualities. And law and justice will be applied only on the basis of one’s power. Men and women will live together merely because of superficial attraction, and success in business will depend on deceit. Womanliness and manliness will be judged according to one’s expertise in sex, and a man will be known as a brāhmaṇa just by his wearing a thread. - Srimad Bhagavatam 12.2.2-3

montage of life

Human life is short. We can make it worthwhile by inquiring into the metaphysics of life!

Hare Krishna

Pa-Varga

In sanskrit grammar, Pa stands for five and varga stands for divisions or categories so put together Pa-Varga means five divisional categories. These five categories begin with five letters namely pa, pha, ba, bha and ma. These five letters or Pa-varga outlines the sequence of material outcomes a soul has to undergo in order to survive in this world.

1. The first varga begins with Pa meaning Parishrama. Parishrama in sanskrit means to work with lot of effort or simply put hard labor. For a living being in this world to survive has to work hard from morning to night. This is especially true for human beings. This hard struggle for existence scientists call survival of the fittest. To the degree we are able to use our human faculties to think and act in a timely and efficient way, we can make progress materially in this world. Therefore an individual in order to succeed must always be vigilant and pro-active to solve life's problems. This requires effort and hard labor. This is the beginning of material life if you will - Pa or Parishrama.
2. The second varga begins with Pha meaning Phena. Phena in sanskrit literally means foam. Following hard labor comes exhaustion. Exhaustion exaggerated is called foaming in the mouth. Of course, in animals like say donkeys or horses, we can actually see the foam of exhaustion in their mouths. This symbolic foaming in human beings manifest as stress and other mental and physical anomalies. In other words, with hard labor, human beings begin their material life but to sustain their social and economic stature requires consistent performance which can result in stress and other concomitant problems (foaming in the mouth) - Pha or Phena.
3. The third varga begins with the letter Ba meaning Vyarthataa. Vyarthataa in sanskrit means frustration. Human beings have to work hard to the point they are stressed out (foaming) and despite such hard labor, the outcome may not be satisfactory or at best temporary. This unsatisfactory or temporary results can lead to frustration. To get relief from this frustration, people take a break from mundanity in the form media entertainment, vacations, drinking, dining, sex etc. For a self satisfied person, a need for extraneous relief does not exist . This is called Ba or Vyarthataa.
4. The fourth varga begins with the letter Bha meaning Bhaya. Bhaya in sanskrit means fearfulness. Although fearfulness is a constant companion for living beings, fear will become bigger and bigger as we approach old age, and disease. This fear especially is more telling to individuals who are completely devoid of anything spiritual. Materialistic people live their whole lives following Pa and Pha just to avoid Ba and Bha. But eventually Bha or Bhaya will catch up.
5. The fifth and final varga begins with the word Ma meaning Mrtyu. Mrtyu in sanskrit means death. While fear is a constant companion all our lives, it catches up on us as we approach old age and it is fully blown at the time of  death. Death or mrtyu has the last laugh for individuals who completely ignore the existence of the soul and Supersoul. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that He is death and will come at the end of life. - Ma or Mrtyu

To summarize, a living being especially human beings are born, grow, work hard in labor to the point of stress (foaming) leading up to frustration with fear (of losing or left behind) as their constant companion only to finally end their miserable life in death. This is the fate of material civilization - Pa-Varga. No one is exempt from it.

The solution is to follow the principle of apa-varga. Krishna is apavarga hence He is God. Krishna is not disturbed by the Pa-vargas of material existence. He is beyond material existence. So as long as we intimately identify and associate our self with material life (Pa-varga), we will have to undergo the above five transformations. If however, we associate with Krishna who is apavarga, then we will also become apavarga (liberated) from the hard knot of material existence. 

Hare Krishna

Etymology of KṚṢṆA

K - Kamala Kanta
R - Rama
S - Sad guna pati (Lord of the six opulences)/ Lord of Svetadvip
H - Nara-Narayana Rishi
N - Narasimha
A - Agni bhuk (ultimate beneficiary of all fire sacrifices)/the eternal one

by Garga Muni in Sri Garga Samhita

Hare Krishna

Life is easy till we complicate it

Western culture means complicated superficial culture. Western culture believes in industrialization and today all of the world is following this culture thinking it to be the most civilized culture. But if we look at data objectively, you will find all the diseases, depression, wars, natural resources depletion takes place in urban populated centers, not in places where there is no industrialization. In other words, the true cost of industrialization is our own physical and mental health.

On the other hand, people from the east are supposed to be more spiritual in tune with nature more. Unfortunately, more and more this is not the case any more. The art of simple living and high thinking is completely lost. Srila Prabhupada constantly preached the concept of a simple life on what he called "getting away from unnecessary necessities". People today are more connected with facebook than they are with their next door neighbors.

Anyways...here is a man who is showing us how to live a simple yet a very happy life - example is better than precept. From watching this video, I concluded, he may not be a university graduate but surely a very intelligent, sensitive and common sense individual - things you don't learn in universities.





Hare Krishna

Prayer of a pure devotee

An Acharya is teaching by example. If this is humility in Krishna consciousness, then I consider myself less than a neophyte.

Personally, I have no hope for any direct service for the coming crores of births of the sojourn of my life, but I am confident that some day or other I shall be delivered from this mire of delusion in which I am at present so deeply sunk. Therefore let me with all my earnestness pray at the lotus feet of my divine master to allow me to suffer the lot for which I am destined due to my past misdoings, but to let me have this power of recollection: that I am nothing but a tiny servant of the Almighty Absolute Godhead, realized through the unflinching mercy of my divine master. Let me therefore bow down at his lotus feet with all the humility at my command.

- Srila Prabhupada's Vyasa Puja Offering, 1936

Hare Krishna

Satyam Bruyat Priyam Bruyat

Satyam bruyat priyam bruyat ma bruyat satyam abruyat. It is social convention that if you want to speak truth, you speak truth very palatable, flattering. Don't speak unpalatable truth. But we are not meant for that purpose, social convention. We are preacher, we are servant of God. We must speak the real truth. You may like it or may not like it, that a godless civilization cannot be happy in any stage. That is a fact. Therefore we have started this Krsna consciousness movement to awaken this godless civilization, that you try to love God.

-Srila Prabhupada lecture to College Students -Seattle, October 20, 1968

The scriptures advise satyam bruyat priyam bruyat, "in the material world only palatable truths should be spoken. Unpalatable truths should be carefully avoided." Devotees always humbly offer respect to everyone, but when there is a discussion on a point of sastra, they do not observe the usual etiquette, satyam bruyat priyam bruyat. They speak only the satyam although it may not be necessarily be priyam

- Srila Prabhupada Letter to Sumati Murarji, 1976

Hare Krishna