Are we lucky to live on planet Earth?

Ordinarily, being born on planet Earth during Kali-yuga is an extremely unfortunate event. The good thing, however, about this particular Kali-yuga, is that one can get liberation simply by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra - the great mantra for deliverance.

Time on earth passes through a progression of four ages, lasting together 4,32 million years. During this time, human society will gradually degenerate until now, in Kali-yuga, everything has degraded to the extent where knowledge of God is completely lost, the predominant culture being a culture of demons.

Fortunately, due to the glorious efforts of Srila Prabhupada and his ISKCON, which are the direct descendents of the bhakti-revival movement begun by God Himself, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, 500 years ago, Sanatan-dharma is now spreading like wild-fire all over the world.

This only happens once in a day of Brahma. One day of Brahma consists of 1000 yuga cycles of 4,32 million years, so one of Brahma’s days lasts 4,32 billion years.

IOW, God descends personally to planet Earth only every 4 billion years, so it’s an extremely rare occurrence. The present Kali-age is one out of 1000 Kali-yugas, where God personally descends to planet Earth in order to display His pastimes and deliver Bhagavad Gita.

And whenever Krishna descends, He comes again 4500 years later as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, to deliver people by the Hare Krishna mantra.

So in this particular Kali-yuga there will be a golden age of 10.000 years of Krishna consciousness. That period began 500 years ago with the descent of Chaitanaya Mahaprabhu in West Bengal.

It’s a work in progress, though, and it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. Nature, obviously, has to rid herself of the present ungodly consumer culture before the Golden age can really take root.

None the less, it is safe to say that to be born at this time, in this particular Kali-yuga, only 500 years after God was here, is very lucky.

Shukadev Goswami says:

My dear King, although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still one good quality about this age: Simply by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted to the transcendental kingdom.

Whatever result was obtained in Satya-yuga by meditating on Vishnu, in Treta-yuga by performing sacrifices, and in Dvapara-yuga by serving the Lord's lotus feet can be obtained in Kali-yuga simply by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.

—Srimad Bhagavatam 12.3.51-52