The “Golden Age” Of The Sankirtan Movement

 

The “Golden Age” Of The Sankirtan Movement

The „Golden Age“ within in Kali-Yuga, the „Dark Age“
– or the concoction of 10.000 years Satya-yuga inside Kali-yuga –

 

Many people within and without the ISKCONs institution are speaking now of a “golden age”. Some devotees prophesy the coming of a “golden age” within this dark age of Kali-yuga, or a so-called “mini-Satya-yuga“.

Some say it has become “golden” since the appearance of the golden avatar, called Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the most merciful incarnation of Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then some say that Kali-Yuga has ended and there will be no more Kalki-Avatara because of Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s appearance. Others say, we already live in an ascending golden age which is just at the beginning. But really is this a beautiful and blissful “golden age” that everyone is experiencing now!? Is this “present age” of Kali-yuga (the age of quarrel and hypocrisy) really like a Satya-yuga? What is golden in this age is the existence of Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s Sankirtan momement, that is for sure, but it does not turn this Kali-yuga into a Satya-yuga!

These are all concoctions and gross speculations! We can not find in the Puranas any scriptural predictions which say that a Golden Age will begin now after 5000 years of Kaliyuga which seems to be a popular believe nowadays. It is NOT stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam. Śrīla Prabhupāda never said, that there is a „Golden Age“ within in Kali-yuga. Nowhere in the Srimad-Bhagavatam is there any verse or statement, saying there is a “mini Satya-yuga” inside Kali-yuga. It does not exist. Please proof the opposite by quoting one relevant verse from Srimad-Bhagavatam, if you think otherwise.

The so-called 10.000 years Śrīla Prabhupāda is talking about, refers to the existence of  Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s Sankirtan movement, which will end after 10.000 years. Śrīla Prabhupāda said many times that this movement ISKCON As He has established will go on without fail for the duration of 10.000 years:

Morning Walk — June 5, 1976, Los Angeles:
Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, when I first came to this, to your movement, the first thing I was told is that Lord Caitanya’s movement in this age will, like a moon, rise for ten thousand years. I was told that number, ten thousand years. Is that true?
Prabhupāda: Hmm.
Rāmeśvara: And then after that, they will…
Prabhupāda: This movement will go for ten thousand years without any impediment.
Rāmeśvara: So that means increasing, because it’s the nature of the spiritual energy.
Prabhupāda: It increases; you should take this opportunity. You work sincerely; it will increase, it will increase.
Rāmeśvara: Ten thousand years, there is a good opportunity to…
Prabhupāda: Many fallen souls will be delivered back to home, back to Godhead.

Morning Walk LA 1976
Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you said yesterday, or a few days ago, that this movement will go on unimpeded for ten thousand years, so . . .
Prabhupāda: Yes, provided we keep it uncontaminated. You should take this opportunity.

So, clearly Śrīla Prabhupāda says, this movement will go for ten thousand years without any impediment, but it DOES NOT make it a “golden age” – maybe a golden opportunity to preach, as Rameswara implies.

So Śrīla Prabhupāda doesn’t speak of an “special age in the age of kali”, but that the movement will increase and everyone gets the golden opportunity to take part in it. Since the Sankirtan movement was established by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, it is simply a golden opportunity for human beings to take part in it and become Krishna conscious, thus going back home, back to godhead.

Everything else is incorrect and gross speculation, because Satya-yuga is what it is, a „THE golden age” which starts after Kali-yuga is finished, which is after 427.000 years.

Prabhupāda: Kali-yuga, the duration of life of Kali-yuga is 432,000’s of years. Out of that, we have passed five thousand years. There is balance, 427,000’s of years. Out of that, ten thousand years is nothing.
Prabhupāda: No. Hare Kṛṣṇa will be finished within ten thousand years. There will be no more Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Hare Kṛṣṇa will be finished within ten thousand years

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg – May 13, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Allen Ginsberg: 400,000 years. Will people still be chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa in 400,000…
Prabhupāda: No. Hare Kṛṣṇa will be finished within ten thousand years. There will be no more Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Allen Ginsberg: Ah. So what will be left?
Prabhupāda: Nothing. Left will be I’ll kill you and eat you, and you shall kill me. You shall eat me. That will be left.
Allen Ginsberg: After ten thousand years?
Prabhupāda: Yes. There will be no grain, no milk, no sugar, no fruit. So I have to eat you, and you will have to eat me. Full facility for meat-eating. (laughter) Full facility. Kṛṣṇa is very kind. He’ll give you facility: “All right. Why cows and calves? You take your own son. Yes. Eat nicely.” Just like serpents, snakes, they eat their own offsprings, tigers. So this will happen.
Allen Ginsberg: Kali eats her own…
Prabhupāda: Yes. And there will be no brain to understand, no preacher, nothing else. Go. Go to, to the dog. And then Kṛṣṇa will come: “All right, let me kill you so that you are saved.”
Allen Ginsberg: But you see it as actually a historical thing of ten thousand years for the chanting, of the diminishing chanting of…
Prabhupāda: Yes. These are…
Allen Ginsberg: Well, then do you think more people will chant Hare Kṛṣṇa or fewer?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. More people. Now it will increase.
Allen Ginsberg: Until?
Prabhupāda: Up to ten thousand years.
Allen Ginsberg: And then?
Prabhupāda: Then diminish.
Allen Ginsberg: So what is the purpose of right now, a world increase…
Prabhupāda: People will take advantage of this up to ten thousand years. Then they will…
Allen Ginsberg: So this is like the last rope, the last gasp.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. So the sooner we take to shelter, shelter of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is better.

How long will the Hare Krishna Movement last in this Kali-yuga

Allen Ginsberg: Well, then, according to Vedic theory, when did this yuga begin? According to this Vedic theory… Or… This is śāstra?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Allen Ginsberg: When did this yuga…?
Prabhupāda: Begin from this Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He introduced five hundred years ago, and it will continue now.
Hayagrīva: Kali-yuga.
Prabhupāda: Kali-yuga has begun five thousand years ago.
Allen Ginsberg: Began five thousand years ago.
Kīrtanānanda: But this wave within Kali-yuga, in which Hare Kṛṣṇa increases and then diminishes, is about ten thousand years and that began five hundred years ago.
Prabhupāda: Kali-yuga, the duration of life of Kali-yuga is 432,000’s of years. Out of that, we have passed five thousand years. There is balance, 427,000’s of years. Out of that, ten thousand years is nothing.

Allen Ginsberg: So Kalki comes at the end of the Kali-yuga?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Allen Ginsberg: And is Kalki connected with the Kali-yuga cycle?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Kalki, yes.
Allen Ginsberg: So He would come at the end of Kali-yuga to end the yuga.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Then Satya-yuga will begin.
Allen Ginsberg: Then what begins?
Prabhupāda: Satya-yuga.
Allen Ginsberg: Which is?
Prabhupāda: Satya-yuga, the pious. Satya-yuga. People will be pious, truthful, long-living.
Allen Ginsberg: Are those people that remain or whatever new creation comes out of the destruction?
Rāmeśvara: These demons that are trying to challenge us, they cannot stop our movement for ten thousand years.
Prabhupāda: What is their challenge? They have no…, nothing to challenge. Unless they are, what is called, violent. That much they can do, like demons.

Note: Śrīla Prabhupāda give three clear answers in this conversation.

1. Kali-yuga, the duration of life of Kali-yuga is 432,000’s of years. Out of that, we have passed five thousand years. There is balance, 427,000’s of years. Out of that, ten thousand years is nothing.

2. Hare Kṛṣṇa will be finished within ten thousand years. There will be no more Hare Kṛṣṇa.

3. People will take advantage of this up to ten thousand years.

There is NO talk about a 10.000 year “mini-golden age” inside Kali-Yuga

Śrīla Prabhupāda doesn’t speak of a “special age in the age of kali”, but that the movement will increase and everyone gets the “golden” opportunity to take part in it. Everything else is concoction and speculation. The “golden opportunity” is described by Śrīla Prabhupāda as follows:

The “golden opportunity”

“You have now got the golden opportunity of this human form of life, and it is not by accident that you have met your spiritual master, so if you are actually intelligent you will take advantage of Krsna’s blessings upon you and go back to home, back to Godhead.” (Letter to devotees – Bombay 5 January)

“You have asked ‘How serious would it be for me if I should miss the golden opportunity to become your initiated disciple?’ You should know that the value of accepting a bonafide spiritual master is more than we can calculate. It is not a mere formality. Of course everyone is encouraged to chant Hare Krishna, but until one gives up sinful activities and becomes determined to serve Krishna through His representative then the firm fixing up of devotional service will not take hold, and there is every chance that one will fall prey to all sorts of material desires and have to come back again in the next life—and one cannot guarantee that he will be born in the form of life he may desire.” (Śrīla Prabhupāda Letter to Ravendra Gupta, February 12, 1974)

“You know that in the Western countries, the hippy movements. What are the hippies? They’re also educated, coming from very rich family also, but they do not like the way of envelopment as their fathers and grandfathers liked. They have rejected. So this is the golden opportunity to preach the Kṛṣṇa cult all over the world. You are lamenting because a few yards of land has been taken away from your country as Pakistan, but if you spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, the whole world will become Hindustan. There is such potency; I give you my direct perception. People are hankering after it. So long I am in India, practically I am wasting my time. Outside India, this reception is taken so seriously that every part of my moment is properly utilized.” (University-Lecture-Calcutta-January29)

The 10.000 Year Sankirtan Movement

Prabhupāda: The politicians, they: “These books are useless. Throw them in the water.” They say like that publicly. They are not interested. Rather, this Movement, as I have now began with my disciples, European, American boys, they’re… They are not very satisfied, the present politicians. They are not very satisfied. They don’t want. Everywhere this…, more or less the same mentality. But it is our duty on behalf of Kṛṣṇa to push on this Movement. So we are doing, and we are getting response. It is not without response. It will increase. That is also stated, that for ten thousand years Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement will increase. Yes. (Conversation TORONTO – June 21, 1976)

Prabhupāda: Within ten thousand years, if they become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then life is successful. After ten thousand years, the gloomy picture of Kali-yuga will come. Still there is time. Ten thousand years is not small period. Yes. So we have passed five thousand year. So still ten thousand. We have got to the fifteen thousand year. Kali-yuga’s duration of life is four hundred thousand…, four hundred and twenty-seven thousand. Chār-lakh murti saja(?). Yes. (Coversation LONDON – July 22, 1973)

Śrīla Prabhupāda mentioned this same concept of the ten thousand year-period of Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement in SB canto 8, chapter 5, text 23, as follows:

“When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared He ushered in the era for this sankirtan movement. It is also said that for ten thousand years this era will continue. This means that simply by accepting the sankirtan movement and chanting the Hare Krsna maha-mantra, the fallen souls of Kali-yuga will be delivered [ ] …the ten thousand years of the sankirtan movement inaugurated by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu 500 years ago provide the opportunity for the fallen souls of Kali-yuga to take to the Krsna consciousness movement.”

Note: This does NOT say that the 10.000 years are a “mini-golden-age” or Satya-yuga. It only says: “opportunity for the fallen souls of Kali-yuga”.
“It is said that the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement will be prominent within the next ten thousand years, but after that people will all become mlecchas and yavanas. Thus at the end of the yuga, Kṛṣṇa will appear as the Kalki avatāra and kill them without consideration.”  (cc/antya/3/50)

Kali-yuga is described by Śrīla Prabhupāda as follows:

This description of the Kali-yuga [the present age of quarrel and hypocrisy] is given in the Twelfth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was written five thousand years ago, when the Kali-yuga was about to begin, and many things that would happen in the future are spoken of there. Therefore we accept Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as śāstra [revealed scripture]. The compiler of śāstra (the śāstra-kāra) must be a liberated person so that he can describe past, present, and future.

Of course, there are other yugas besides Kali-yuga. During the Satya-yuga, which lasted eighteen hundred thousand years, human beings lived for one hundred thousand years. The duration of the next age, the Tretā-yuga, was twelve hundred thousand years, and the people of that age used to live for ten thousand years. In other words, the duration of life was ten times reduced. In the next age, Dvāpara-yuga, the life span was again ten times reduced—people used to live for one thousand years—and the duration of the Dvāpara Age was eight hundred thousand years. Then, in the next age, this Kali-yuga, we can live up to one hundred years at the utmost. We are not living one hundred years, but still, the limit is one hundred years. So just see: from one hundred years the average duration of life has decreased to about seventy years. And it will eventually decrease to the point where if a man lives for twenty to thirty years, he will be considered a very old man.

„The meditation process in right earnest was possible in the golden age of Satya-yuga, because the people at that time lived for a hundred thousand years on the average. If you want success in practical yoga, take to the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, and feel for yourself how you are making progress“ (Lecture – Seattle, October 11, 1968)

„This meditation process was possible to be executed in the age when people were very pious and very honest and the duration of life was very long. That is called Golden Age, or Satya-yuga. According to Sanskrit word, it is called Satya-yuga. This meditation process was possible to be executed in the Satya-yuga, Satya millennium.“ (Lecture at International Student Society – Boston, May 3, 1969)

The four Yugas or ages

The four yugas or ages: Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara, and Kali. The cycle of Satya is characterized by virtue, wisdom and religion, there being practically no ignorance and vice, and the yuga lasts 1,728,000 years. In the Tretā-yuga vice is introduced, and this yuga lasts 1,296,000 years. In the Dvāpara-yuga there is an even greater decline in virtue and religion, vice increasing, and this yuga lasts 864,000 years. And finally in Kali-yuga (the yuga we have now been experiencing over the past 5,000 years) there is an abundance of strife, ignorance, irreligion and vice, true virtue being practically nonexistent, and this yuga lasts 432,000 years. In Kali-yuga vice increases to such a point that at the termination of the yuga the Supreme Lord Himself appears as the Kalki avatara, vanquishes the demons, saves His devotees, and commences another Satya-yuga. Then the process is set rolling again. These four yugas, rotating a thousand times, comprise one day of Brahmā, the creator god, and the same number comprise one night. Brahmā lives one hundred of such “years” and then dies. These “hundred years” by earth calculations total to 311 trillion and 40 million earth years. By these calculations the life of Brahmā seems fantastic and interminable, but from the viewpoint of eternity it is as brief as a lightning flash. (BG/8/17)

What other Puranas say

Since there is no reference in Srimad Bhagavatam concerning a “mini-Satya-yuga” within the age of Kali-yuga, some devotees try to quote questionable translations of Brahma-vaivarta Purana. Studying other Puranas, such as the Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa, one can not find anywhere statements that there will be a period now for the next 10.000 years of golden age, which means, after 5.000 yrs of Kali-yuga has passed then 10.000 years of golden age is coming, but this is what people usually speculate and believe nowadays, spreading false propaganda.

The closest of such interpretation can be found in two ślokas from the Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa. kaler dasha-sahasrani, madbhaktah santi bhu-tale, ekavarna bhavishyanti, madbhakteshu gateshu ca (1.29.49) [see the quote below]

In Bhrahma-vaivarta Purana there is a dialogue between Ganga personified and Krishna, when Sri Krishna was leaving the planet, saying that, for the next 10.000 years of Kali-yuga My Archa-vigraha will be available on earth, and a half of the period (means 5.000 years), Ganga will be on earth. And this statement matches with the other one where it says that, My devotees will be there for 10.000 yrs. (this was the verse 49 from 129 chapter)

So if devotees are there then, Archa-vigraha is there, and when there is no devotees then there is no deity form. In these two statements they are mentioned properly. There is also one other statement that in Chanakya Niti, also saying that Ganga will stay on this earth for another 5.000 yrs, and then disappear. “After completion of five thousand years of Kaliyuga you will be freed from the curse and the form of the rivers and shall return to me.” (Text 89)

This specific dialogue in the Brahma-vaivarta Purana is between Lord Krsna and Mother Ganga. Verse 49 is a question by Ganga, verses 50-60 are Krsna’s answer.

Text 59
kaler daśa-sahasrāṇi
madbhaktāḥ saṁti bhu-tale
ekavarṇā bhaviṣyaṁti
madbhakteṣu gateṣu ca

“For 10,000 years of Kali such devotees of Mine will be present on earth. After the departure of My devotees there will be only one varna [outcaste].”

Text 60
madbhaktaśunyā pṛthivi
kaligrastā bhaviṣyati
etasminnaṁtare tatra
kṛṣṇadehādvinirgataḥ

“Devoid of My devotees, the earth will be shackled by Kali. Saying this, Krsna departed.”

The above is supported in 4.90.32-33

kalau daśa-sahasrāni
haris tiṣṭhati medinī
devānāṃ pratimā pūjyā
śāstrāṇi ca purāṇakam

“(Sri Krsna said:) Lord Hari will stay on this earth for the first ten-thousand years of Kali-yuga. For that time the deities of the demigods will be worshiped and the Puranas and scriptures will also be present.”

tad-ardham api tīrthāni
gangādīni su niścitam
tad-ardham grāma-devāś ca
vedāś ca viduṣām api

“For half that period the Ganga and other holy places will be present. For half that period the village temples and the Vedas studied by learned brahmanas will be present.” (half that period the Ganga will be present”. That means after 5.000 years Ganga will disappear.)

Please Note: Śrīla Prabhupāda suggested in SB (8.5.23 p.) 10 000 years long era from the time of Sri Caitanya, i.e. until about 11 500 CE. Similar quotes: CC 3.3.50 (“It is said that the Krsna consciousness movement will be prominent within the next ten thousand years, but after that people will all become mlecchas and yavanas.”

Brahma-vaivarta Purana, Chapter 7 – The story of Kuli-yuga,
Measures of time and the divine dance of Krsna in Goloka

“After the completion of five thousand years in Kali-yuga, all of them living there in river forms [Gaṅgā, Sarasvatī, Padmāvatī (Lakṣmī)] reverted to the abode of lord Visnu. The sacred places of Kasi,  Vrndavana and all other returned to Vaikuntha with them.” (7.10-11)

“After the completion of ten thousand years the image of Salagrama and Jagannatha would also revert to Visnuloka.” (7.12)

“The attendants of Visnu, the Puranas, the conch, the sraddhas, tarpana and all the rites prescribed in the Vedas will also disappear. The adoration of the lord, the name of the lord, recitation of their names, the sixth parts of the Vedas and the Sastras will also disappear. The saints, the truth, dharma, Vedas, village deities, resolution, penance and fast will also disappear with them.” (7.13-15)

In the two ślokas from the Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa there is no mentioning of a “mini-Satya-yuga” inside Kali-yuga. They only confirm what Śrīla Prabhupāda said.

Text 59 – “For the first 10.000 years there will be My (Krishna) devotees on earth. After that there will be no devotees and people will belong to one varna, or class only.”

According to vedic terminology, one varna here means a class of non-devotees. That means after 10.000 years of Kali-yuga there will hardly be any devotee left on earth, or as Śrīla Prabhupāda says: “Hare Kṛṣṇa will be finished within ten thousand years. There will be no more Hare Kṛṣṇa”.

The other verse says that after 5.000 years Ganga will disappear and My arca-vigraha will be there for 10.000 years. This matches with the verse quoted above because as long as the devotees are there, arca-vigraha will also be there. That period is 10.000 years of Kaliyuga, which Śrīla Prabhupāda confirmed. After that: “There will be no more Hare Kṛṣṇa”.

(compiled by Aruna das)