According to injunction of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, meditation is possible in the age of goodness, when cent percent people were all in the modes of goodness. There are three modes of nature: modes of goodness, modes of passion and modes of ignorance. Similarly, the ages are also conducted by the three modes of material nature. Just like there are seasonal changes—in our experience in one year sometimes it is summer, sometimes it is winter, sometimes it is spring—similarly, in course of nature's way there are different yugas, millennium.
So in the Satya-yuga people are all in the modes of goodness. Therefore, at that time they could concentrate the mind in the Supreme, and meditation was recommended at that time. Kṛṣṇa-'dhyāna' kare loka jñāna-adhikārī. Jñāna-adhikārī means they were quite fit to understand spiritual knowledge. Because without developing the modes of goodness, nobody can understand spiritual knowledge. In the ignorance, the lowest grade of men, they are in ignorance.
The ignorance, the symptom of ignorance we have already described in the Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā. Ignorance means laziness. Laziness. That is ignorance. And passion means active. And goodness means sober. So we cannot find all men in this world of the same quality. Some of them are in goodness, some of them are in passion, some of them are in ignorance. But in this age, seventy-five percent or more than that, they are in ignorance. And maybe ten or fifteen percent in passion, and hardly five percent, they are in goodness.
Therefore majority population of this age, they cannot perform meditation or great sacrifices or temple worship. They cannot. Therefore Lord Caitanya has, by His causeless mercy . . . of course, it is according to the Vedic injunction. Kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇum (SB 12.3.52).
The same achievement which was obtained in the age of goodness by meditation was achieved in the next age by sacrifices and the next age by temple worship. At the present age it is recommended to achieve that success, that perfection, spiritual perfection, by hari-kīrtanāt, by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.
It doesn't require any previous qualification to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Anybody and everybody can join, and by chanting this, the result will be that progressive chanting will help him in cleansing the dust on the mirror of the mind.
The whole trouble in the world is misunderstanding. That's all. Under the spell of this material nature, we are simply misunderstanding. But when you come to the pure stage . . . just like mirror, when cleansed of all the dust we can see our face nicely, similarly, when the mind is cleared of all material dust, then we can see what we are.
In ignorance we identify with this body and bodily relationship. And in passion we are very much active for this bodily comfort. And in goodness we can see what we are. So in goodness we can see that "I am not this body." Of course, it is very common thing to understand that "I am not this body," the distinction between a dead man and living man. When a man is dead, the relative cry, lament, "Oh, my son is gone," "My father is gone," "My wife is gone." But if we think, "Your wife is there lying. Your son is lying there. Why do you say he is gone?" Actually he is gone, but so long he does not go, we think this body as my son, as my daughter.
This is ignorance. At the end we can understand, "Oh, this body is not my son," "This body is not my daughter," "This body is not my father"—when the end is done. But still, even after that experience, we think that, "This body is myself." This is called ignorance. Ahany ahani lokāni gacchanti yama-mandiram (Mahābhārata, Vana-parva 297.116).
In every moment, every second, we are seeing that body is this matter; the soul, when gone from the body, it has no value. Still, I am thinking that "I shall live in this world eternally, and I shall . . . let me enjoy this bodily sense gratification." This is ignorance.
So this ignorance has to be removed if we actually want to be happy and peaceful. Nobody in ignorance can be happy. We have got experience here. Those who are advanced in knowledge, they are comparatively happy in this world, and those who are ignorance, they are not happy. Of course, by the spell of this illusory energy, although he is not happy, he thinks, "I am happy." Just like in the Bowery road, street, you will see so many drunkards, they are lying. They are thinking happy, but others, those are passing on the street, they are seeing they are not happy. So this is going on.