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At this point in our detailed study of Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna has exhausted his arguments based on materialistic religious principles and acceptance of false gurus, and is ready to learn the Absolute Truth directly from Kṛṣṇa.

na hi prapasyami mamapanudyad
yac chokam ucchosanam indriyanam
avapya bhumav asapatnam rddham
rajyam suranam api cadhipatyam

“I can find no means to drive away this grief which is drying up my senses. I will not be able to destroy it if even if I win an unrivalled kingdom on the earth with sovereignty like the demigods in heaven.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.8]

Ordinary men think, “We are earning so much money. What is the use of accepting a guru? I can understand everything in my own way.” And another rascal philosophy is: “Yes, yata mata tata patha. Whatever you think, that’s all right. You can make your own opinion.” People think you can make up your own opinion to understand God, accept any nonsense philosophy you like, and change your mind tomorrow. So these foolish rascals, they’re making up their own religion, based on their own opinion. But it is not possible to know God in this way.

Therefore Arjuna says: avapya bhumav asapatnam rddham. In this sloka, sapatni is a very significant word. Sapatni means ‘rival wife, co-wife.’ This example is given in the Srimad-Bhagavatam that just like we have got our senses, similarly, if somebody has got several wives or girlfriends, one wife is coaxing him, “You come to my room,” another wife is trying to get him, “You come to my room.” So he’s perplexed.

Similarly we, the spirit soul, have got these wives, the material senses. The eyes are dragging: “Please come to the cinema.” The tongue is dragging: “Please come to the restaurant.” The hand is driving us somewhere else. The leg is pulling us somewhere else. So we become perplexed, not knowing which one to serve. Just like the man who has got several wives, each dragging him to a different room.

This is our position in this material existence. So why is this position a problem? Because these wives are rivals. If we ordinary men have two or three wives, then we will be in trouble, because they are rivals. If we satisfy one, then the others will all be dissatisfied and make our lives miserable. Here: sapatnyam rddham. If there are many kings to claim one property, there is difficulty.

But Arjuna says, avapya bhumav asaptnyam rddham: “Even if by fighting I get riches for which I am the only proprietor, it will not make me happy. Even if I get such rajyam, such a kingdom, suranam api cadhipatyam, like the kingdom of the higher planetary system, the heavenly planets, it will not make me happy.”

This earth planet is only one of many, many millions of planets in this universe. Some of the planets are lower than the earth, and they are called hellish planets. But others are higher planets, subtle planets inhabited by demigods in charge of various aspects of material nature. They are very powerful.

Just like Indra, the powerful controller of rain and weather. His weapon is the thunderbolt. People today do not believe this, but whatever is described in the Vedic literatures is a fact. The thunderbolt is a very powerful phenomenon. Is it scientific to believe that such power is without a guiding intelligence, a controlling personality? Who is arranging for the rain and other phenomena of weather?

Whenever we see some extraordinary power, there must be intelligence to give it direction. In the government, there are so many departments to manage the power of the state; similarly in God’s government there must be so many directors, so many officers who manage the different departments of natural law. They are called demigods.

saha-yajnah prajah srstva
purovaca prajapatih
anena prasavisyadhvam
esa vo ’stv ista-kama-dhuk

“In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures [Brahma] sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Visnu, and blessed them by saying, “Be thou happy by this yajna [sacrifice] because its performance will bestow upon you everything desirable for living happily and achieving liberation.” [Bhagavad-gita 3.10]

Devatah, the demigods, are supplying our material necessities by the order of Kṛṣṇa. For example, Indra is supplying us with rain. Formerly, there were sacrifices, yajnas, for satisfying the different demigods. But Kṛṣṇa stopped this demigod yajna. That means anyone who is Kṛṣṇa conscious, for him, there is no need of any demigod yajna.

devarsi-bhutapta-nrnam pitrnam
na kinkaro nayam rni ca rajan
sarvatmana yah saranam saranyam
gato mukundam parihrtya kartam

“O King, one who has given up all material duties and has taken full shelter of the lotus feet of Mukunda, who offers shelter to all, is not indebted to the demigods, great sages, ordinary living beings, relatives, friends, mankind or even one’s forefathers who have passed away. Since all such classes of living entities are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, one who has surrendered to the Lord’s service has no need to serve such persons separately.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.5.41]

Especially in this age, Kali-yuga, it is very difficult to perform different kinds of Vedic yajna. That was possible only in the Treta-yuga.

krte yad dhyayato visnum
tretayam yajato makhaih
dvapare paricaryayam
kalau tad dhari-kirtanat

“Whatever result was obtained in Satya-yuga by meditating on Visnu, in Treta-yuga by performing sacrifices, and in Dvapara-yuga by serving the Lord’s lotus feet can be obtained in Kali-yuga simply by chanting the Holy Names of the Lord.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 12.3.52]

A similar verse is found in the Visnu Purana (6.2.17), and also in the Padma Purana (Uttara-khanda 72.25) and the Brhan-naradiya Purana (38.97):

dhyayan krte yajan yajnais
tretayam dvapare ’rcayan
yad apnoti tad apnoti
kalau sankirtya kesavam

“Whatever is achieved by meditation in Satya-yuga, by the performance of sacrifice in Treta-yuga, and by the worship of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet in Dvapara-yuga is obtained in the age of Kali simply by glorifying the name of Lord Kesava.”

Srila Jiva Gosvami has further quoted from the Brahma-vaivarta Purana concerning the degraded condition of people in Kali-yuga:

atah kalau tapo-yoga-
vidya-yajnadikah kriyah
sanga bhavanti na krtah
kusalair api dehibhih

“Thus in the age of Kali the practices of austerity, yogic meditation, Deity worship, sacrifice and so on, along with their various subsidiary functions, are not properly carried out, even by the most expert embodied souls.”

But we do have to perform sacrifice for Visnu or Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead:

yajnarthat karmano ’nyatra
loko ’yam karma-bandhanah
tad-artham karma kaunteya
mukta-sangah samacara

“Work done as a sacrifice for Visnu has to be performed, otherwise work causes bondage in this material world. Therefore, O son of Kunti, perform your prescribed duties for His satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain free from bondage.” [Bhagavad-gita 3.9]

The sacrifice for this age of Kali-yuga is the chanting process of sankirtana. Srila Jiva Gosvami has also cited the Caturmasya-mahatmya of the Skanda Purana concerning the necessity of chanting the Holy Names of the Lord in this age:

tatha caivottamam loke
tapah sri-hari-kirtanam
kalau yuge visesena
visnu-prityai samacaret

“In this way the most perfect penance to be executed in this world is the chanting of the name of Lord Sri Hari. Especially in the age of Kali, one can satisfy the Supreme Lord Visnu by performing sankirtana.”

So nobody is following these Vedic formulas, these directions for self-realization. It is not possible to perform yogic meditation or sacrifices to the demigods in this age. Therefore the Vedic injunction is:

Kṛṣṇa-varnam tvisaKṛṣṇam
sangopangastra-parsadam
yajnaih sankirtanaih prayair
yajanti hi sumedhasah

“In the age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the names of Kṛṣṇa. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Kṛṣṇa Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.5.32]

Kṛṣṇa-varnam tvisaKṛṣṇam, Kṛṣṇa but not blackish, is Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He is Kṛṣṇa Himself, but His complexion is aKṛṣṇa, not blackish. Kṛṣṇa-varnam tvisa... Tvisa means by complexion; aKṛṣṇa: yellowish, golden. Sangopangastra-parsadam. And He’s accompanied by His associates, Nityananda Prabhu, Advaita Prabhu, srivasadi gaura-bhakta-vrnda.

Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the yuga-avatara, the worshipable Deity in this age of Kali. So what is the process of worship? Yajnaih sankirtanair prayair yajanti hi sumedhasah. This sankirtana-yajna as we are performing before Lord Caitanya, Nityananda and others, this is the perfect performance of yajna in this age.

Therefore this chanting process is the only prescribed yajna in this age. Sometimes in India, or in so-called yoga schools, they perform so-called yajnas for collecting some money. But it cannot be successful because the Vedic scriptures do not recommend this type of yajna in Kali-yuga.

asvamedham gavalambham
sannyasam pala-paitrkam
devarena sutotpattim
kalau panca vivarjayet

“In this Age of Kali, five acts are forbidden: the offering of a horse in sacrifice, the offering of a cow in sacrifice, the acceptance of the order of sannyasa, the offering of oblations of flesh to the forefathers, and a man’s begetting children in his brother’s wife.” [Brahma-vaivarta Purana, Kṛṣṇa-janma-khanda 185.180]

There is no yajna in this age. The only yajna is to chant the mantra of the Holy Name and dance in ecstasy. This is the only bona fide Vedic yajna in Kali-yuga.

In this Kali-yuga, people are so much disturbed. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa has come in the form of His name: Vasudeva, or Hare Kṛṣṇa. And because Kṛṣṇa is absolute, there is no difference between His name and Himself. Abhinnatvan nama-naminoh: the Holy Name of the Lord and the Lord Himself are always identical.

Nama-cintamani Kṛṣṇa-caitanya-rasa-vigrahah purnah suddho nitya-muktah: His Holy Name is full. As Kṛṣṇa is full, complete, similarly, Kṛṣṇa’s name is also full, complete. Suddha. It is not material. Purnah suddhah nityah: full, complete and eternal. As Kṛṣṇa is eternal, His name is also eternal. Purnah suddhah nitya-muktah. There is no material conception in chanting the Holy Name of the Lord.

So in this age of Kali-yuga we cannot be happy. Rajyam suranam api cadhipatyam. Even if we get the kingdom of the demigods, asapatya, without any rival, still we cannot be happy so long we have got material conception of life. It is not possible. That is explained in this verse. But chanting the Holy Name of the Lord as exemplified by the pastimes of Lord Caitanya is the cure for all material miseries.