Cuz we are living in Kali Yug and I am a Kali Yug Girl

präyeëälpäyuñaù sabhya
kaläv asmin yuge janäù
mandäù sumanda-matayo
manda-bhägyä hy upadrutäù
SYNONYMS
präyeëa—almost always; alpa—meager; äyuñaù—duration of life; sabhya—member of a learned society; kalau—in this age of Kali (quarrel); asmin—herein; yuge—age; janäù—the public; mandäù—lazy; sumanda-matayaù—misguided; manda-bhägyäù—unlucky; hi—and above all; upadrutäù—disturbed.
TRANSLATION
O learned one, in this iron age of Kali men have but short lives. They are quarrelsome, lazy, misguided, unlucky and, above all, always disturbed.
PURPORT
The devotees of the Lord are always anxious for the spiritual improvement of the general public. When the sages of Naimiñäraëya analyzed the state of affairs of the people in this age of Kali, they foresaw that men would live short lives. In Kali-yuga, the duration of life is shortened not so much because of insufficient food but because of irregular habits. By keeping regular habits and eating simple food, any man can maintain his health. Overeating, over-sense gratification, overdependence on another's mercy, and artificial standards of living sap the very vitality of human energy. Therefore the duration of life is shortened.
The people of this age are also very lazy, not only materially but in the matter of self-realization. The human life is especially meant for self-realization. That is to say, man should come to know what he is, what the world is, and what the supreme truth is. Human life is a means by which the living entity can end all the miseries of the hard struggle for life in material existence and by which he can return to Godhead, his eternal home. But, due to a bad system of education, men have no desire for self-realization. Even if they come to know about it, they unfortunately become victims of misguided teachers.
In this age, men are victims not only of different political creeds and parties, but also of many different types of sense-gratificatory diversions, such as cinemas, sports, gambling, clubs, mundane libraries, bad association, smoking, drinking, cheating, pilfering, bickerings, and so on. Their minds are always disturbed and full of anxieties due to so many different engagements. In this age, many unscrupulous men manufacture their own religious faiths which are not based on any revealed scriptures, and very often people who are addicted to sense gratification are attracted by such institutions. Consequently, in the name of religion so many sinful acts are being carried on that the people in general have neither peace of mind nor health of body. The student (brahmacäré) communities are no longer being maintained, and householders do not observe the rules and regulations of the gåhastha-äçrama. Consequently, the so-called vänaprasthas and sannyäsés who come out of such gåhastha-äçramas are easily deviated from the rigid path. In the Kali-yuga the whole atmosphere is surcharged with faithlessness. Men are no longer interested in spiritual values. Material sense gratification is now the standard of civilization. For the maintenance of such material civilizations, man has formed complex nations and communities, and there is a constant strain of hot and cold wars between these different groups. It has become very difficult, therefore, to raise the spiritual standard due to the present distorted values of human society. The sages of Naimiñäraëya are anxious to disentangle all fallen souls, and here they are seeking the remedy from Çréla Süta Gosvämé.

Chitraketu

The account of how Chitraketu went back home, back to Godhead is very interesting.

Upon seeing Ananta Shesha, he extolled the Lord with prayers to his own capacity. Pleased, the Lord told him that he is already perfect, simply by having seen the Supreme Person.

In a somewhat contradictory way, the Lord then explained how all living entities are part of expansions of Him only, and told Chitraketu to accept what He was saying, and become perfect in that way.

How a person who is already perfect can become perfect by following something, is very mysterious. This is actually understood by grasping the concept of eternal time of the spiritual and material worlds.

In any case, Chitraketu understood what he had to do, and set about enjoying himself by chanting the glories of the Holy name of God. Upon meeting Parvati and Lord Shiva, he laughed and expressed wonder, seeing the uncommon activities of Rudra.

Parvati cursed Chitraketu, and Lord Shiva knew that this would happen, after all, he has knowledge of the past, present and future (tri-kala-gnya). Chitraketu, for no fault of his own, accepted this curse, saying that whatever we obtain in this world, is a result of our own past activities. One must understand, that no one is to blame. Parvati is not to be blamed, that Chitraketu was cursed. He, as per the law of karma, was getting what he deserved through the via medium of Parvati. He took it very politely, and accepted his fate without retaliation.

The truth everyone knows, Chitraketu had to take birth as a demon named Vrtrasura. Vrtra had fearful features, and eyes like burning embers. He was treated like a demon. However, the point to be noted is, that he never forgot the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He remembered to chant constantly, and by the dint of his knowledge, he was able to conquer the ocean of illusory energy, and when Indra killed him, he went right back home, back to Godhead.

So we see how a Vaishnavi's curse is very desirable indeed. It took Vrtra to Vaikuntha. And we see that everything is actually for the best, not that we console ourselves and say it for the sake of it. Also, we can understand that when we are unjustly insulted or humiliated by someone, it is better to leave the place, and take it humbly without anger, than to lose temper and behave like an animal. The simple explanation for our anger being misdirected towards the person who insulted us, is that he is simply the medium. In our past life, we may have insulted someone double as badly. This is to teach us to treat everyone with respect and love, although they may be unworthy of it. That is because every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future. No one remains as he is, people transform. This natural spiritual transformation cannot be stopped. Even if one is an atheist, he will still advance in spiritual life, for the simple reason that it is the natural thing to happen, just like everyone has puberty.

So coming back to anger. My main purpose in writing this blog article is to remind myself of what happened today. In the class, Narayani mataji was explaining offenses. We like to steal energy. That is the root cause of offense. AB mataji spoke to me as if I were a thief. She was going on saying that the money is not tallying with the receipts, and that I need to give her the money. I counted, and said that the accounts are clear, the tally is right. But she was in another mood. She insisted "you cannot go inside, you have to pay me the money first". The class had started three minutes ago, and I rose, stating that I had paid for the class, and that this issue could be resolved after the class. "I have paid you the money, I have put it all out in front of you, I am going inside because as far as I am concerned the accounts are clear. You are confusing me." "What? I am abusing you?" "No, you are confusing me." I could feel the pit of my stomach emptying out, and all my energy draining out of me.I felt powerless, insulted, accused, and the right word is Threatened. I felt threatened. This is the cause of my anger. I seemed to have progressed though. Because I did not raise my voice, I was firm, and calm, and stuttering. I was defensive, and I was feeling very very angry. But I did not stay there, and the feeling went away after an hour. Yes, one hour. The initial stomach feeling went away. But I was still in a defensive state of mind, and I could not focus, or feel ok for quite some time.

I think that the clue here is - Vrtra was not threatened. He was fine. He could have been accused of anything - murder, treachery, arson, blah. He would be just fine. He knows that I cannot be harmed. I am not this body. I am a pure spirit soul, and nothing can harm me. Krishna is there to protect me from everything, I do not have to worry for my well-being. So any accusation, or insult, would not be able to steal energy from Vrtra, because he would remain unperturbed by it. He would simply not react. Not feel anything.

Whereas, I, am threatened, I feel like I need to defend myself. So there. I simply lose the handle. Now this time I just was emotionally on fire, when I stammered to AB mataji "You cannot stop me from going inside, I have also paid for this course, and this is just not done." But I said it as nicely as I could at the time, and she saw that I was losing my energy, and she smiled.

She was happy to see me angry. So she said "Ok. Let me join my hands and please forgive me for this mataji, you can go inside." But I was not looking at her, she was saying this as I entered the room. And my anxiety spread inside the room a little as well. It took me time to calm down.

"What the hell does she mean I have to pay her - I don't need to steal this money - she must be a thief - what the hell does she think." "How can she say you can't go in?" "How dare she try to enslave me, and accuse me falsely." "She thinks she is doing me a favor by giving me the opportunity to interact with Narayani mataji? She thinks that I should be grateful that because of her, I am doing something free of charge and tolerating her nonsense, instead of attending the class that I have actually paid to attend?" "What a silly woman."

"Ok Vyoma, what if you knew that you have treated someone unfairly like this in a past life?" "Yes, I could be wrong to think she is the cause of my misery." "The cause of everyone's misery is that they must taste the fruits of their actions - whether good, or bad." "O lord, give me the understanding and ability to tolerate all the good and bad I obtain in this material world, realising that I simply get the fruit of past activities." "No one is to blame for this." "What AB mataji did is not correct, yes, that is true. But I should not feel threatened either. What if her accusatory tone failed to agitate me? Her need to make me angry would not become successful." It is then my fault that I became angry. And in the future, no matter how harshly, cruelly, or unfairly I may be treated, if I can use that opportunity to practice feeling safe and unthreatened, then my life will become successful. Dear Prahlad maharaj, I have heard about you since my childhood. You never felt threatened by your demoniac father Hiranyakashipu who tried to kill you several times. You simply tolerated all his misbehaviour without retaliation, and simply relied on Sri Hari Narasimha to protect you and save you. In fact when Narasimha dev tore hiranyakashipu apart, you prayed to the Lord to forgive him for his ignorance, and save him. To which the Lord said, that as he has been touched by Me, he is now pure. All living entities are pure. This world is but a stage, and we are actors. It does not become us to identify with this play and become overtly emotional. What has the play to do with us? It is just acting. The relations are all temporary, and it is simply a matter of time before the drama ends. Better to play our part in knowledge of the truth, than play it in the darkness of ignorance. Better to know what its all about, than become attached, and upon losing the object of attachment, cry tears of sorrow for the loss.

On Conceiving the Inconceivable

We conditioned souls are originally Krsna conscious living entities, but owing to a desire to be independent of God and to be the Supreme ourselves, we have fallen from our original position and become covered by maya (illusion), who provides us with false identities of gross and subtle matter. By the grace of Krsna and His pure devotees we fallen souls can regain our original Krsna consciousness and in so doing go back to Godhead.

This simple dramatic narrative tells the story of who we are, where we came from, how we fell, and how we can be restored. Srila Prabhupada tells us this story, and so do the previous acaryas and the scriptures. This story is the
profoundest truth about ourselves, and there is no fault in it.

Yet the story becomes complicated when we discover (from the identical infallible sources) that the souls in the spiritual world are nitya-siddha, eternally or perpetually liberated souls, and that no one falls from the spiritual world. Further, the souls in the material world are nitya-baddha, eternally or perpetually conditioned, and we learn that their conditioned
state is anadi, or without any beginning. These statements, also, are true without a doubt.

How can these facts be reconciled with the story of fall and redemption? It is necessary to recognize that the seemingly straightforward linear narrative is more complicated than it appears because the narrative's scope of action spans two "worlds," one eternal and the other temporal.

We can get some sense of the relation between these two worlds if we recollect the temporal structure of the material
universe as presented in Srimad-Bhagavatam. As one ascends from Martya-loka (our level or plane), through Svarga-loka (the plane of the enjoying and administrating demigods, or devas), and further through Mahar-loka
and so on (the planes of the austere sages) to Satya-loka (the plane of Lord Brahma), time progressively dilates.
Thus, as 360 years go by here in Martya-loka, only a year passes for the devas in Svarga-loka. And 300 billion
years have to come and go down here for a single year to transpire in Satya-loka for Lord Brahma.

Srimad-Bhagavatam mentions that when Brahma, on earth, kidnapped the cowherd boys and calves from Krsna, the victims were gone a complete year by human experience, but for Brahma, operating on Satya-loka time, only a moment (a truti) had passed. A truti lasts exactly 8/13,500 of a second.

On another occasion Maharaja Kakudmi, seeking a husband for his daughter Revati, took her to Satya-loka to ask
Lord Brahma to arrange the match. Brahma kept them waiting until he had finished hearing a recital by Gandharva
musicians. When Kakudmi finally presented his request, Brahma burst out laughing. Everyone Kakudmi would have
wanted for his daughter was long gone, for twenty-seven yuga cycles had passed (about 160 million years) while the
supplicant and his daughter cooled their heels in the anteroom.

A live television broadcast on Satya-loka of events on Martya-loka would disclose everything moving with dizzying speed, a blur of mountains rising up and dissolving away, oceans swelling and shrinking, peoples and civilizations rushing on and off the earth. By the same token, a livebroadcast on Martya-loka of current events on Satya-loka would transmit
motion so slow as to be undetectable by normal human vision. Only time-lapse photography, snapping the shutter every
thousand years or so, would disclose activity.

Keeping all this in mind, imagine the temporal structure of the universe depicted in the form of an equilateral
triangle, with the base representing Martya-loka. Its width at the base stands for the duration of the universe
in our years -- that is, 311 trillion 40 billion years. As we go up, the triangle narrows, so that at the level of Brahma
the duration of the universe (still depicted as the width of the triangle) is 100 of his years.

Now continue up the universe, past Satya-loka. The unit-measure of duration continues to dilate, time slows more and
more, and finally, at the point where the material realm borders the spiritual, time has its stop. Here, at
the apex of the triangle, we reach the point of translation between material and spiritual worlds, between time and
eternity.

This is the "now moment of eternity," an everlasting instant without past or future. We have seen how, when we go up
the universe, a unit-measure of time includes more and more of our years. What then happens when we take that
process to the limit, as we do when we reach the apex? That single climactic moment embodies time without beginning
and end. From this point of view, the lifetimes of a trillion, trillion Brahmas are over as soon as they begin. Who can even express such inconceivable things?

It remains to be mentioned, for the sake of thoroughness, that the apex of our triangle marks the limit of the ascent
to the Absolute by mystical speculation. According to mystic speculators, the everlasting moment of eternity is
necessarily spent in stasis, immobility. Vaisnavas, however, pure devotees of the Lord, know of transcendental
variegatedness and activities. Although eternity is described as having no past or future, there is still sequence (for
there are lilas, pastimes); and knowledge, bliss, and beauty eternally increase.

If we were to continue with our figure of a triangle, we would have to envision the two lines of its sides extending
through the apex to form a second, inverted triangle. Let this triangle, with its base up and its apex down,
signify the spiritual realm of transcendental variegatedness as it expands beyond the zero point of nirvana. The figure of the two triangles, apex to apex, is simply another representation of what the Bhagavad-gita signifies by the metaphor
of an inverted tree, a reflection of the original tree standing on the water's bank.

Our minds boggle even at the "now moment of eternity" of the impersonal speculators. Even further from our conceptions is a realm in which transcendental time, which has neither past nor future, allows for activities -- pastimes -- and ever-increasing qualities of beauty, joy, and knowledge. Now to consider the issue before us, we must not only contemplate that inconceivable eternal realm, but we must think about it in relationship with our world of past, passing, and to come. Let us proceed to do so.

As we have seen, the transcendental realm is eternal present, an everlasting instant. Every soul in that realm must
accordingly be characterized as nitya-mukta, eternally liberated. This includes the souls that come from the
material world. For if a soul enters that realm from the material world, can we ask, "When did that soul arrive?" The
question does not apply. Once the soul gets there, that soul can only be nitya-mukta. He has, necessarily, always
been there. This is the logic of eternity.

Now let us go to a matter equally inconceivable. Let us say, for the purposes of discussion, that a soul "falls" from eternity and sojourns in the material world. When did he enter the material world? We can only say that the fall is a non-temporal act that renders the conditioned soul bound from all time. The history of his incarceration in time has no beginning. The conditioned soul has always been conditioned. Strictly speaking, the question of when does not apply.
Although bondage is not the soul's original condition, the state of bondage is necessarily described as anadi, or
beginningless, and the conditioned soul himself is characterized as nitya-baddha -- eternally bound or conditioned. There was no time when he was not bound.

Yet such souls can attain release and enter the spiritual realm. Let us say that the soul who has fallen from that
realm into beginningless bondage now returns. The duration of that bondage spans time without limit, as we have
seen. Yet now, if we inquire, from the perspective of eternity, "How long has that fallen and restored soul been
absent?" the answer is "He never left." Or, alternatively, "The question does not apply." For the logic of eternity
dictates that no one falls from eternity -- even if he does so.

The logic of eternity also dictates that no conditioned soul can begin his eternal life -- even though he does so.
In considering both falling from and returning to transcendence, we must accept the logic of eternity to be true to what is real.

Thus we see that while it is true that no one falls from the spiritual world, we in fact have done so, and yet there
is no contradiction.

The dramatic narration of a life with God, a fall from that life, a sojourn in the alien world of illusion, and a final
restoration to God is not a fiction. It is a profound truth. It need not be rejected on the mistaken notion that it
conflicts with other, equally true, statements of authorities.

For our better understanding, however, we need to be aware of one simplification that takes place -- quite naturally -- in the telling of the narrative of fall and redemption. This is the representation of all the events in the story as though they take place on a single temporal continuum. For example, we habitually characterize our entry into time as though it were itself a temporal occasion, a dateable event. However, as we have seen, once we become conditioned, we have always been conditioned.

Similarly, we think of our rebellion against God as a distant, aboriginal event, one that took place long ago and far away, in that world. In truth, that single act of rebellion is perpetual; that very same aboriginal event is taking place right now. We have only to look into our hearts to confirm this. Furthermore, when we "return" to the spiritual world, it will only be to
discover that indeed we never left, and "there" has always been right "here." We are right now with Krsna, for Krsna
consciousness is our svarupa, our eternal identity. We need only wake up and see where we are.

All this is known to Srila Prabhupada and to the acaryas, previous teachers. They know how one can fall from a place
no one falls from, enter into an ignorance that has always been, and return to a place one never actually left. Because such matters are inconceivable to mundane minds, when teachers speak of such things their words may seem contradictory. But in one way or another they all tell the whole truth.