The duration of Satya-yuga is about eighteen hundred thousand of years. Eighteen hundred thousands of years. Hundred thousand. Eighteen hundred. Similarly, Dvāpara-yuga . . . tretā-yuga, about twelve hundred thousands of years. Similarly, Dvāpara-yuga, eight hundred thousands of years. And Kali-yuga, four hundred thousands of years. This is beginning of Kali-yuga. Out of four hundred thousands of years, we have passed only five thousand years. Not only four hundred thousand—four hundred and thirty-two thousands of years. There is regular calculation in the Vedic śāstra. So out of that, we have passed five thousand years. That Kali-yuga has begun just after the Battle of Kurukṣetra. So we have passed only five thousand years of this Kali-yuga. There are still balance, four hundred twenty-seven hundred thousands of years. Still balance.
So the Kali's friends . . . just like a man is known by his company. So Kali-yuga is the age of irreligion. Therefore, quarrel and fighting. Quarrel and fighting, communal fighting. Unnecessarily they will form a community, a group, all rascals, another group, another group of rascals, and they will fight unnecessarily. Just like this nationalism. This is simply a group of rascals. That's all. Why rascal? Because irreligious, therefore rascal. So "Big, big men, big, big scientist, big, big . . . still, they are rascal?' Yes. They are . . . still, they are rascal. "Why?" Because irreligious. They do not know what is God. Therefore they are rascal.
This is the only test, "Whether you know God?" "No, sir." "Then you are rascal." That's all. No more test. One test. One test is sufficient: "Whether you know God?" Because this human life is meant for knowing God. This temple is meant for human being, not for the cats and dogs. So if you do not know God, then you are a rascal. You are exactly like the cats and dogs. That's all. This is the verdict. Now you can fight, "Why you are calling me cats and dogs?" But this is the . . . we are talking, following Kṛṣṇa, the great authority. But what Kṛṣṇa says, that is right. If you scrutinize by your logic, argument, philosophy, science, you will find that Kṛṣṇa is perfectly right. Therefore we accept Kṛṣṇa.
Unless Kṛṣṇa is perfectly right, why should we accept Kṛṣṇa? If He is ordinary rascal, then why, what is the use of reading His book, Bhagavad-gītā? No. All the ācāryas, all the saintly scholars, they have accepted. Therefore we have accepted. Because He is beyond all, I mean to say, faults. What is the difference between ordinary man and a liberated man? Liberated (Bengali: Means.) not under the conditions of material nature. He is called liberated. Liberated means who is not conditioned by the laws of nature. He is called liberated. So Kṛṣṇa is the liberated Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore He has no defects. And those who are . . . just like we are . . . we are not liberated. Therefore we have got four defects. The four defects are that we commit mistake. Anyone, big, big man, he must commit mistake, because he is not liberated. He is under the laws of material nature. Who is here in this meeting who can say that, "I have never committed any mistake"? Is there anybody? However learned scholar you may be, commit mistake is inherent.
Similarly, to become illusioned. Illusioned means to accept something which you are not or which is not fact. That is called illusion. Just like sometimes we see that the sun is on the western side, but reflection is on the glass, and the glass is reflecting some light. So we are thinking that sun has come to the other side. We have got this experience. Sun is this side, reflecting the sun shining, and on the glass or on mirror, and the same reflection is this side. So we are thinking that, "Sun is this side. The sunlight is coming . . ." That is called illusion. This is example of illusion—which is not fact, but it is appearing. False thing appearing as truth, that is called māyā. This is the explanation of māyā. Māyā . . . mā means "not"; yā means "this." Māyā, what you are experiencing, that is not. That is called māyā. So a conditioned soul . . . a child will think that . . . although the fact is sun is this side, by seeing the reflection a child may say: "The sun is this side." So that is called illusion.
So we are all illusioned, because we accept this body as self, "What you are?" "Oh, I am American." "Why American?" "Because this is American body." But I am not this body. So . . . but we accept. It is going on. This illusion is going on. Mistake is going on. And in spite of becoming illusioned and mistaken, I am posing myself as great scholar, philosopher, scientist. Therefore cheater. But I do not know the things, because I am already illusioned and I commit mistake. And still, I am proving that, "I am theologician," "I am scientist," "I am philosopher." Then change again. I say today something and tomorrow something else, because I am mistaken, illusioned. I must go on speaking like that nonsense, today something, tomorrow something. And this is going on advancement. What is this advancement? If you do not know something as real, you say something today, and tomorrow you say something, the same mistake, again, day after tomorrow, you say something, where is your knowledge? There is no knowledge, but still, he is posing to be man of knowledge. He is getting Nobel Prize. This is called cheating. And people are, those who are cheated, they are accepting this cheating knowledge. Therefore the whole human society is full of cheaters and cheated. Full of.
So bhrama, pramāda, vipralipsā and karaṇāpāṭava. Then if you . . . somebody says that, "Why you are speaking that these men are cheaters and cheated and illusioned and in māyā?" Now, because the senses are imperfect. Because you are gathering knowledge by the senses. There are five senses acquire knowledge, and the five senses act according to that knowledge. And these sense objects . . .
There are sense objects. Just like you have got eyes, you have to see something objective, rūpa, form. The knowledge acquired by the eyes is to understand the form. Similarly, the knowledge acquired by the ears is to acquire knowledge from the sound. Because physical means the sound, light, form. These things are physical things. So we have got senses to acquire knowledge. So five knowledge-acquiring senses, five working senses, and five sense objects, and I am there. This is called sixteen elements. And then a five material elements—earth, water, fire, air—and five subtle elements, er, three—eight. So in this way the whole world, this universe, cosmic manifestation, is a composition of these eight elements, er, twenty-four elements. And beyond these twenty-four elements, I am the soul, and beyond myself, there is the Supersoul. This is knowledge. This is knowledge.