Å›rÄ«-prahrÄda uvÄca
kaumÄra Äcaret prÄjño
dharmÄn bhÄgavatÄn iha
durlabhaá¹ mÄnuá¹£aá¹ janma
tad apy adhruvam arthadam
Å›rÄ«-prahrÄdaḥ uvÄca - PrahlÄda MahÄrÄja said; kaumÄraḥ - in the tender age of childhood; Äcaret - should practice; prÄjñaḥ - one who is intelligent; dharmÄn - occupational duties; bhÄgavatÄn - which are devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead; iha - in this life; durlabham - very rarely obtained; mÄnuá¹£am - human; janma - birth; tat - that; api - even; adhruvam - impermanent, temporary; artha-dam - full of meaning.
The whole purpose of Vedic civilization and of reading the Vedas is to attain the perfect stage of devotional service in the human form of life. According to the Vedic system, therefore, from the very beginning of life the brahmacarya system is introduced so that from one’s very childhood — from the age of five years — one can practice modifying one’s human activities so as to engage perfectly in devotional service. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ (2.40), svalpam apy asya dharmasya trÄyate mahato bhayÄt: “Even a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear.†Modern civilization, not referring to the verdicts of Vedic literature, is so cruel to the members of human society that instead of teaching children to become brahmacÄrÄ«s, it teaches mothers to kill their children even in the womb, on the plea of curbing the increase of population. And if by chance a child is saved, he is educated only for sense gratification. Gradually, throughout the entire world, human society is losing interest in the perfection of life. Indeed, men are living like cats and dogs, spoiling the duration of their human lives by actually preparing to transmigrate again to the degraded species among the 8,400,000 forms of life. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is anxious to serve human society by teaching people to perform devotional service, which can save a human being from being degraded again to animal life. As already stated by PrahlÄda MahÄrÄja, bhÄgavata-dharma consists of Å›ravaṇaá¹ kÄ«rtanaá¹ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaá¹ pÄda-sevanam/ arcanaá¹ vandanaá¹ dÄsyaá¹ sakhyam Ätma-nivedanam. In all the schools, colleges and universities, and at home, all children and youths should be taught to hear about the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In other words, they should be taught to hear the instructions of Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ, to put them into practice in their lives, and thus to become strong in devotional service, free from fear of being degraded to animal life. Following bhÄgavata-dharma has been made extremely easy in this Age of Kali. The Å›Ästra says:
harer nÄma harer nÄma
harer nÄmaiva kevalam
kalau nÄsty eva nÄsty eva
nÄsty eva gatir anyathÄ
One need only chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahÄ-mantra. Everyone engaged in the practice of chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahÄ-mantra will be completely cleansed, from the core of his heart, and be saved from the cycle of birth and death.