Kali yuga— Are there solutions to reduce the difficulty of Kali?

Question

This age of Kali is full of unlimited faults. Indeed, it is just like an ocean of faults (dosa-nidhi). But there is one chance, one opportunity. There are many many hundreds and thousands of faults. People will suffer.

kaler dosa-nidhe rajann asti hy eko mahan gunah kirtanad eva krsnasya mukta-sangah param vrajet People’s intelligence, bodily strength, mercifulness–everything will be reduced.Dampatye ratim eva hi: “Marriage, husband and wife, they will be simply by agreement.” Nowadays that is happening. You go to a marriage-maker and agree, and marriage is finished. Not like before.
Svikara eva codvahe. These are stated, all. Vipratve sutram eva hi: “Become a brahmana, just have a sacred thread.” Sacred or not sacred, get a thread. That’s all, without executing the brahminical duties. That is going on. In this way there is a long list of Kali-yuga’s activities. In the Kali-yuga there is no yajna. Therefore there is anavrsti, anavrsti. The Kali-yuga people will forget performing yajna. They will be busy in ghora-rupa activities, horrible and fierceful activities, not yajna. They will neglect yajna. Are there any solutions for these difficulties to get reduced? Simply do not say chant Hare Krsna Mantra. Any evidences from age old puranas.

Answer 1

According to some scriptures Nama Samkirtana (singing the names of Gods) is a good remedy/protection against the evils of Kali Yuga.

The book Dharma Bindu quotes in this context Narada and Bhrigu Rishis as follows:

Koti shomanu jaanaamvai bheetidam samupasthitam,
Rama Rameti sankeertya sannaashayati maanavah/

(Bhrigu Maharshi assures that fears and mental instabilities in crores get cleared with intense ‘Rama Sankeerana’ continuously).

Narada Brahmarshi states that the intensity of Kali Yuga is gradually diminished with Nitya Keertana:

Shiva Shankara Rudresha Neelakantha Trilochana, Iteerayantiye nityam na Kalirbhaadhyate chataan/
Mahadeva Virupaksha Gangaadhara Mridaavyaya, Iteeranti ye nityam te kritaadhona shamshayah/

(Nitya keertana of ‘Shiva Shankara Rudresha Neelakantha Trilochana’ or ‘Mahadeva Virupaaksha Gangaadhara Mrida - avyaya’ assuages the severity of Kali Yuga, reduces its impact and bestows fulfillment of one’s life!)

And as per other scriptures (like Manu Smriti, Parashara Smriti). Danam (charity) is the only solution in Kali Yuga.

Tapah param kritayuge tretayam jnyanam uchyate |
Dwapare yajnam evahur danam ekam kalau yuge ||

Manu smriti 1.86. In the Krita age the chief (virtue) is declared to be (the performance of) austerities, in the Treta (divine) knowledge, in the Dvapara (the performance of) sacrifices, in the Kali charity alone

Answer 2

Srimad Bhagavatam has answers to all your doubts.

SB 12.3.45: In the Kali-yuga, objects, places and even individual personalities are all polluted. The almighty Personality of Godhead, however, can remove all such contamination from the life of one who fixes the Lord within his mind.

SB 12.3.46: If a person hears about, glorifies, meditates upon, worships or simply offers great respect to the Supreme Lord, who is situated within the heart, the Lord will remove from his mind the contamination accumulated during many thousands of lifetimes.

SB 12.3.47: Just as fire applied to gold removes any discoloration caused by traces of other metals, Lord Viṣṇu within the heart purifies the minds of the yogīs.

SB 12.3.48: By one's engaging in the processes of demigod worship, austerities, breath control, compassion, bathing in holy places, strict vows, charity and chanting of various mantras, one's mind cannot attain the same absolute purification as that achieved when the unlimited Personality of Godhead appears within one's heart.

SB 12.3.49: Therefore, O King, endeavor with all your might to fix the Supreme Lord Keśava within your heart. Maintain this concentration upon the Lord, and at the time of death you will certainly attain the supreme destination.

SB 12.3.50: My dear King, the Personality of Godhead is the ultimate controller. He is the Supreme Soul and the supreme shelter of all beings. When meditated upon by those about to die, He reveals to them their own eternal spiritual identity.

SB 12.3.51: My dear King, although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still one good quality about this age: Simply by doing Hari Kirtan, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted to the transcendental kingdom.

SB 12.3.52: Whatever result was obtained in Satya-yuga by meditating on Viṣṇu, in Tretā-yuga by performing sacrifices, and in Dvāpara-yuga by serving the Lord's lotus feet can be obtained in Kali-yuga simply by doing Hari Kirtan.

Note: I have copied this from an ISKCON site, so I've edited their version of getting moksha from "Hare Krishna mahamantra" to "doing Hari kirtan", because the original Sanskrit mentions the general term "hari-kīrtanāt", which is essentially any form of kirtan, not only the ISKCON way.

Also this is a passage from The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna:

Vijay: "But those who discriminate according to the Vedanta philosophy also realize Him in the end, don't they?"

Sri Ramakrishna: "Yes, one may reach Him by following the path of discrimination too: that is called jnana yoga. But it is an extremely difficult path. I have told you already of the seven planes of consciousness. On reaching the seventh plane the mind goes into samadhi. If a man acquires the firm knowledge that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory, then his mind merges in samadhi. But in the Kaliyuga the life of a man depends entirely on food. How can he have the consciousness that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory? In the Kaliyuga it is difficult to have the feeling, 'I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am not the twenty-four cosmic principles; I am beyond pleasure and pain, I am above disease and grief, old age and death.' However you may reason and argue, the feeling that the body is identical with the soul will somehow crop up from an unexpected quarter. You may cut a peepal-tree to the ground and think it is dead to its very root, but the next morning you will find a new sprout shooting up from the dead stump. One cannot get rid of this identification with the body; therefore the path of bhakti is best for the people of the Kaliyuga. It is an easy path."

[...]

"But it isn't any and every kind of bhakti that enables one to realize God. One cannot realize God without prema-bhakti. Another name for prema-bhakti is raga-bhakti. (Supreme love, which makes one attached only to God.) God cannot be realized without love and longing. Unless one has learnt to love God, one cannot realize Him.

"There is another kind of bhakti, known as vaidhi-bhakti, according to which one must repeat the name of God a fixed number of times, fast, make pilgrimages, worship God with prescribed offerings, make so many sacrifices, and so forth and so on. By continuing such practices a long time one gradually acquires raga-bhakti. God cannot be realized until one has raga-bhakti. One must love God. In order to realize God one must be completely free from worldliness and direct all of one's mind to Him."