Just I wish to thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your coming here to participate in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. This movement is not a new thing or something concocted, but it is authorized and very old movement. There was a meeting about five thousand years ago in a place which is called Naimiṣāraṇya. That Naimiṣāraṇya is still there in India. There is a railway station which is called Nimsar. It is near Lucknow, in the northern part of India. Those who have gone to India, they may know this place. This is very old place. And still, if you go, you will find there immediately a spiritual atmosphere. There are many places in India where, if you go, you will find immediately a spiritual atmosphere.
So this verse I am just now quoting is the verse given by Sūta Gosvāmī, the president of the meeting. In that meeting many learned scholars, brāhmaṇas, they assembled to discuss about Kṛṣṇa. The question was that, "After departure of Kṛṣṇa from this planet, dharma and jñāna"—dharma means religious principles, and jñāna means knowledge—"these two things, who has taken care of them?" Dharma-jñānādibhiḥ saha (SB 1.3.43). Actually, human society should be concerned with two things: dharma and jñāna. Dharma means the characteristic.
The meaning of dharma translated in English is not adequate. Dharma means which cannot be given up. The so-called dharma, or religion . . . suppose I am Hindu and somebody is Christian. This is called faith. The dictionary meaning is, "Religion is faith." So faith can be changed. "I believe in Christian religion," so it can be changed next day—I accept Hindu religion or Muslim religion. But actually, dharma cannot be changed.
The example is given: just like water. The characteristic of water is liquidity. So you cannot change this quality of water, liquidity. Similarly, stone is solid. You cannot change the quality of solid. This unchangeable quality is called dharma. That is really Sanskrit significance. Now, you can argue that water sometimes becomes solid, ice. That is conditional. Under certain condition, the water becomes solid, but immediately it begins to become liquid. It melts. The tendency is to melt, not to keep solidity. So this consistency of keeping water in liquid form is called dharma.