"When there are too many materialistic activities by the people in general all over the world, there is no wonder that a person or a nation attacks another person or nation on slight provocation. That is the rule of this age of Kali, or quarrel. The atmosphere is already polluted with corruption of all description, and everyone knows it well. There are so many unwanted literatures full of materialistic ideas of sense gratification. The people in general want to read, and that is their natural instinct. But because their minds are polluted, they want such literatures. Under the circumstances, transcendental literature like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam will not only diminish the activities of the corrupt mind of the people in general, but also it will supply food for their hankering after reading some interesting literature."
"In the beginning they may not like it, because one suffering from jaundice is reluctant to take sugar candy, but we should know that sugar candy is the only remedy for the jaundice. Similarly, let there be systematic propaganda for popularizing reading of the Bhagavad-gītā and the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which will act like sugar candy for the jaundicelike condition of sense gratification. When men have a taste for this literature, the other literatures, which are catering poison to society, will then automatically cease."
"We are sure, therefore, that everyone in human society will welcome Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, even though it is now presented with so many faults, for it is recommended by Śrī Nārada, who has very kindly appeared in this chapter."
Prabhupāda: In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there is a description of the age of Kali. Age of . . . this is age of Kali. According to Vedic understanding, there are four ages: Satya-yuga, Dvāpara-yuga, Tretā-yuga and Kali-yuga. This age is called Kali-yuga. It has begun about five thousand years ago, after the Battle of Kurukṣetra. The duration of this Kali-yuga is estimated four hundred thousand . . . four hundred and twenty-seven thousands of years. Out of that, we have passed only five thousand years.
So the symptom of the human being in this age is that prāyeṇālpāyuṣa: people will become very short duration of life. It is said that time, at the end of Kali-yuga, if somebody lives for twenty to thirty years, he will be considered as very old man. So gradually the food grains like rice, wheat, milk and sugar will disappear. In this way, in the Kali-yuga, prāyeṇālpāyuṣaḥ kalāv asmin yuge janāḥ. In this age, people will be of short duration of life; manda, very slow; sumanda-matayo, accepting some rubbish theology. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyāḥ (SB 1.1.10): almost all of them are unfortunate. Manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ: over and above that, they will be disturbed, especially by lack of rain, lack of . . . scarcity of food grains, and overtaxed by the government, so much so that people will give up their hearth and home and go to the forest and hills in disappointment and confusion. So these are the symptoms of Kali-yuga, gradually degrading.
So this is also recommended, prāyeṇa . . . in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in another chapter, Twelfth Canto, it is said, kaler doṣa-nidhe rājan (SB 12.3.51). These instructions were given by Śukadeva Gosvāmī to Mahārāja Parīkṣit. So he addressed the king, "My dear King, in this age the faults are like the ocean," kaler doṣa-nidhe rājan. Doṣa-nidhe. Nidhi means ocean. "There are so many faults in this age that it can be accepted as the ocean of faults." Kaler doṣa-nidhe rājan asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ. "There is one great opportunity. Although it is full of faulty things, still there is one hope.
That hope is," kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet (SB 12.3.51), "If one simply chants the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, then gradually he becomes purified from the contamination of this age." Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ: "He becomes free from the contamination of this age." It is just like vaccine. In contagious disease there is vaccine, cholera. So this mantra, mahā-mantra, this is not ordinary sound. This is spiritual. So by chanting this mantra—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare—one becomes free from the contamination of this age. And not only he becomes free from the contamination of this age, but paraṁ vrajet, he goes back to the spiritual world.
We have no information in this age, at the present time, what is that spiritual world, but they are all stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: paras tasmāt tu bhāvo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20). Everything is there in the Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is the preliminary study of spiritual life, A-B-C-D of spiritual life. The people cannot understand even the A-B-C-D of Bhagavad-gītā, and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the graduate study. So everything is there. Unfortunately it was not distributed. So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement has started to distribute this literature, especially Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. We have already translated about twenty books. They are present before you, and our aim is to present to the human society sixty books. Still translation is going on. So our request to the publishers and booksellers that, "Let this literature be distributed properly. People will be benefited."