So therefore we have to practice this Kṛṣṇa consciousness method. Here it is said that kāmasya nendriya-prītir jīveta yāvatā (SB 1.2.10). Try to live decently by taking kṛṣṇa-prasāda and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Jīveta: in this way you can live hundreds of years. That is recommended in the Īśopaniṣad, īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). So jīveta yāvatā, jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā nārtho yaś ceha karmabhiḥ. And why shall you live at all? What is the use of living? The trees are also living for ten thousands of years. What is the meaning of that living? Similarly you if live for a hundred years or two hundred years. What is the meaning of your living? Of course, living in this material world is not very comfortable. Every one of us will know it. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām (SB 10.14.58). Those who are living in Bombay city, they know it very well. When you pass through the road in taxi-cab or motorcar, so much congested, and at any moment there may be some danger, padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām. In America also, the cars are running in seventy-mile speed, and if one car collides with another, immediately four, five cars-disaster. So actually you are living in such a condition. Pādaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām. Every moment there is danger. It is not very peaceful living at the present moment. We are running, we are flying in the sky, we are... We do not say that this should be stopped, neither it can be stopped, but you do everything in Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that even danger takes place, ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ (SB 2.1.6), you can at least remember Kṛṣṇa at the time of death. Then your life is successful. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran loke tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6), Kṛṣṇa says. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi. At the time of death our remembrance to a certain thing gives me next body. If I think like a dog, then I become next life a dog, and if I think like a god, then I, next life I become god. That is the test at the time of death.
So unless you practice, how you can remember Kṛṣṇa at the time of death? Therefore, Saṁrāj Kulaśekhara, the great emperor devotee, he is praying to Kṛṣṇa,
- kṛṣṇa tvadīya-pada-paṅkaja-pañjarāntam
- adyaiva viśatu me mānasa-rāja-haṁsaḥ
- prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ
- kaṇṭhāvarodhana-vidhau smaraṇaṁ kutas te
- (MM 33)
"My dear Lord Kṛṣṇa, now I am healthy. I am thinking rightly. Kindly give me immediately death, and I can be entangled with Your lotus feet tight, like the swan entangles itself with the lotus stem." You have seen, the swans take pleasure by entangling itself with the lotus stem. It goes down the water and catches the stem and binds itself. In this way, it is a sporting of the swan. So Samraj Kulaśekhara says, mānasa. Kṛṣṇa tvadīya-pada-paṅkaja-pañjarāntam adyaiva viśatu me mānasa-rāja-hāmsaḥ. "At the present moment my mind is just like the swan. It is playing with Your lotus stem. So, let me die immediately. Otherwise, if I die ordinarily," prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ, "the three elements kapha, pitha, bile, they will overwhelm me, and I may not remember You at that time. I may forget You. So Kṛṣṇa, give me immediately death so that I, remembering, I may die." This is process. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means somehow or other try to remember Kṛṣṇa at the time of death, ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ (SB 2.1.6). Then your life is successful. Just like Ajāmila. Ajāmila, he was a great sinner—we shall one day describe about Ajāmila's life—but at the time of death, out of his affection for his youngest son, whose name was Nārāyaṇa, he thrice called "Nārāyaṇa! Nārāyaṇa!" But the original Nārāyaṇa took notice of it: "Oh, this man is calling Nārāyaṇa." Immediately sent His personal assistant to take him back to home, back to Godhead. Ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ (SB 2.1.6). Somehow or other. He was not remembering the original Nārāyaṇa, but Nārāyaṇa was the name of his son. Therefore according to our Vedic system we keep God's name our children or family member, so that somehow or other, there are thousands of names of Kṛṣṇa, if we remember one of them, our life is successful. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.