I'm sitting here in the Riga, Latvia airport on 1 November 2006 waiting for a flight to Amsterdam, as I deeply consider what should be the topic for this week's lesson. What immediately comes to mind is the topic that surfaced during the Srimad Bhagavatam lecture I gave this morning at our Riga temple. What was that topic? Restoring the Krishna conscious world order.
Many people would find this topic preposterous because it assumes that previously there was a Krishna conscious world order on this planet. But such a title is proper because in former times the entire planet earth was indeed ruled by Krishna conscious enlightened leaders. This is confirmed in the historical records of India's ancient Vedic culture, especially the Srimad Bhagavatam and the Bhagavad-gita. Sadly under the influence of the present Kali Yuga, the age of quarrel and hypocrisy, during the last 5,000 years those glorious days of Vedic culture have faded away more and more until we are finally stuck with a ruling class that has become totally irresponsible in regard to religious principles, and has thus become a burden on the earth.
The dissatisfied citizens become so frustrated with the corrupt leadership that they periodically make revolutions to overthrow the rotten governments to replace them with what they think will be better ones. But they are disappointed again and again. The difficulty is that in the absence of enlightened leadership they end up with new governments that are invariably just as bad if not worse than the ones that they defeat. The Srimad Bhagavatam predicts that gradually the government leaders will become so cruel and oppressive that the people will hide in the forest to escape governmental torture and excessive taxation.
In such an ever-worsening situation there is a yearning arising more and more within the heart of the world population that the happy days of good government and a peaceful society as was found in the Vedic culture can be restored to planet earth. This is our mission. We cannot stand to see such mismanagement being imposed on the poor citizens. Governments which sanction abortion and animal slaughter are the enemies of their own citizens.
Something must be done to restore sanity. Something must be done to relieve the burden of the earth. It is predicted in the Vedic literature that there will be a 10,000 year enlightened golden era during which everyone throughout the world will become peaceful and happy. That 10,000 year began 500 years ago with the advent of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So there is great hope that something can now be done to rectify the increasingly problematic situation.
The first step is to properly re-establish a world-wide saintly-intellectual class, the brahmanas. A large class of such God conscious brahmanas, enlightened teachers, can easily revolutionize the entire world by teaching everyone how to execute their social duties in such a way as to achieve spiritual perfection and at the same time make the world a peaceful and happy place for everyone's living even the animals. My spiritual master Srila Prabhupada has stated in this connection:
"The Krishna consciousness movement has spread all over the world within a very short time (within five years), and mundane people are very much astonished at this. However, by the grace of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we understand that everything is possible by the grace of Krishna. Why does Krishna have to take five years? In five days He can spread His name and fame all over the world like wildfire. Those who have faith in and devotion to Krishna can understand that these things happen so wonderfully by the grace of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. We are simply the instruments."
So I am absolutely convinced that even within a matter of days the entire world civilization can be transformed. I am praying that I will see that transformation before my death. If Krishna likes, He can easily fulfill my desire. That is up to Him. My goal is to live my life in such a way that He will fulfill my desire to see that the entire planet earth has become Krishna conscious.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
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