Kalau doṣa-nidhe rājann asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ. Kalau, kalau means "In this age of Kali, it is full of faulty things. But there is one boon." What is that? Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet (SB 12.3.51). Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya: Simply by chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare—simply by chanting the holy name . . ." kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya. Kṛṣṇasya. So, mukta-saṅgaḥ, "He becomes free from all these contamination by one thing: simply chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa." Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ. There are so many contaminations, so many faults of this age, but simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, one becomes kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ, he becomes free from the contaminated association.
Just like if there is some epidemic, disease, and if you take vaccine, it is supposed that you are freed from the contamination. So this vaccine of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra will keep you fit without any contamination of this age of Kali. And that is happening. All over the world people are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. And practically we see, those who are chanting, they're becoming free from the contamination. If you follow the rules and regulation, very simple thing, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra—that is our only request—then, in spite of this contaminated age of Kali, you'll be saved. You'll be saved. That we are . . . that is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means that we are preaching this cult.
- harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam
- kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā
- (CC Adi 17.21)
Without this, there is no other way of saving you from the contamination of Kali.
So here another question is . . . the dharma uvāca. Personified dharma, he's inquiring from the cow. He's addressing cow, amba. Amba means mother. So cow is our mother. Why mother? Because from practical point of view, we drink milk. So how mother . . . how cow is not mother? She's mother. We are taking her milk. There are seven mothers according to Vedic civilization:
- adau-mātā guroḥ patnī
- brāhmaṇī rāja-patnikā
- dhenur dhātrī tathā pṛthvī
- saptaitā mātaraḥ smṛtāḥ
- (Nīti Śāstra)
Real mother, from whose womb we have come to this world, real mother, adau-mātā. Then guru patnī, wife of the teacher or spiritual master, guru patnī. Brāhmaṇī, the wife of a brāhmaṇa. Adau-mātā guru patnī brāhmaṇī rāja-patnikā, and the wife of the king, or the queen, she's also mother. Dhenu, the cow. Cow is also mother. And dhātrī means nurse. Nurse is also mother. Tathā pṛthvī, and the earth, the earth is also our mother. That we say in country, in the country which we take birth, we say deśa-mātṛkā. In Sanskrit it is called deśa-mātṛkā. That is also mother. Motherland, mother language.