Verse 1.14.133

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 1.14.133:

ঈশ্বর-ভজন অতি দুর্গম অপার যুগ-ধর্ম স্থাপিযাছে করি পরচার ॥ ১৩৩ ॥

ईश्वर-भजन अति दुर्गम अपार युग-धर्म स्थापियाछे करि परचार ॥ १३३ ॥

īśvara-bhajana ati durgama apāra yuga-dharma sthāpiyāche kari paracāra || 133 ||

isvara-bhajana ati durgama apara yuga-dharma sthapiyache kari paracara (133)

English translation:

(133) “Worship of the Supreme Lord, however, is difficult to achieve. The Lord Himself personally teaches the principles of religion for the age.

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

Devotional service to the Lord is an extremely incomprehensible subject. To begin, with questions such as, “Who is the Lord? Who are His servants?” often bewilder the conditioned souls. Being maddened with pride, the conditioned souls always consider themselves the supreme and thus desire profit, adoration, and distinction from others. But those who possesses the opposite mood, or those who possess nonduplicitous humility and surrender in their hearts, are glorious. Only such pious souls engage in the devotional service of the Lord. They neither exhibit any interest in their own sense gratification nor do they accept worship from others. Persons who are devoid of devotional service and full of anarthas always gratify their senses by always accepting worship from others. In

order to liberate these fallen conditioned souls from their excessive anarthas, the Supreme Lord and His devotees preach topics of the Lord from time to time, and as a result, the yuga-dharma, the religion of the age, is established. Time is generally divided into four ages—Kṛta (Satya), Dvāpara, Tretā, and Kali. In the beginning, when there was no scarcity of simplicity in the hearts of the living entities, it was possible for them to meditate on the Supreme Lord in their hearts; therefore this age is known as Kṛta-yuga. Later on, the performance of sacrifice for the worship of Lord Viṣṇu, Yajñeśvara, was established as the yuga-dharma. Since three-fourths of religious principles were maintained in this age, it is known as Tretā-yuga. When half of the religious principles were maintained, the temple worship of Lord Viṣṇu was established as the yuga-dharma. Because two-fourths of religious principles were followed, the age is called Dvāpara-yuga. Thereafter the two-fourths of religious principles gradually diminished, and only one-fourth remained in the beginning of Kali-yuga. In Kali-yuga, even the one-fourth principles of religion have begun to diminish. Therefore there cannot be any means of progress other than congregational chanting of the holy names of the Lord. The only yuga-dharma for the age of Kali is congregational chanting of the holy names of the Lord. Wherever propagation of Kṛṣṇa’s names and topics is lacking, there will be temple ceremonies based on solitary worship devoid of preaching, external performances of sacrifice, and the process of meditation and remembrance also based on solitary worship. The Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, established the superiority of nāma-saṅkīrtana over the three processes of the three previous ages. It is to be understood that those who do not accept the glories of kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtana have never heard topics of pure devotional service to the Lord.