Search:
Bhakti List Archives

Re: Number one Divya Desam - 2

From the Bhakti List Archives

Ram Gopalaswamy • August 18, 1998 


shrii Anantha PadmanAbha dAsan writes:

> [...]
>    NArAyanA : Is there any special purpose for your visit ?
>      
>    NAradar  : Eventhough You know whats going on in adiyen's mind , it is
>               Your Wish to hear from adiyen itself . So, as a servant of
>               Yours , adiyen will act as per Your desire . 
>  
>               adiyen is not able to tolerate the aj~nAnam (ignorance) 
>               prevailing in the earth. kali yugA is very horrible . 
                                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> [...]


shriimad bhaagataM (12.2.1-16  & 12.3.24-44) contains descriptions of 
the Kali age.

- Ram


The following translation is by disciples of His Divine Grace 
A.C. Bhaktivedaanta Svaami Prabhupaada.


BEGIN_QUOTE

"Sukadeva Goswami said: Then, O King, religion, truthfulness,
cleanliness, tolerance, mercy, duration of life, physical strength and
memory will all diminish day by day because of the powerful influence
of the age of Kali. 

In Kali-yuga, wealth alone will be considered a sign of a man's good
birth, proper behavior and fine qualities. And law and justice will be
applied only on the basis of one's power. 

Men and women will live together merely because of superficial attraction,
and success in business will depend on deceit. 

Womanliness and manliness will be judged according to one's expertise
in sex, and a man will be known as a brahmana just by his wearing a
thread. 

A person's spiritual position will be ascertained merely according to 
external symbols, and on the same basis people will change from one
spiritual order to the next. 

A person's propiety will be seriously questioned if he does not earn a
good living. And one who is very  clever at juggling words will be
considered a learned scholar.  

A person will be judged unholy if he does not have money, and hypocrisy
will be accepted as virtue. 

Marriage will be arranged simply by verbal agreement, and a person
will think he is fit to appear in public if he has merely taken a bath. 

A sacred place will be taken to consist of no more than a reservoir of
water located at a distance, and beauty will be thought to depend on
one's hairstyle. 

Filling the belly will become the goal of life, and one who is
audacious will be accepted as truthful. 

He who can maintain a family will be regarded as an expert man, and
the principles of religion will be observed only for the sake of reputation.  

As the earth becomes crowded with a corrupt population, whoever among
any of the social classes shows himself to be the strongest will gain
political power. 

Losing their wives and properties to such avaricious
and merciless rulers, who will behave no better than ordinary
theives, the citizens will flee to the mountains and forests. 
Harassed by famine and excessive taxes, people will resort to eating leaves,
roots, flesh, wild honey, fruits, flowers and seeds. 
Struck by drought, they will become completely ruined. 
The citizens will suffer greatly from cold, wind, heat, rain and snow.
They will be further tormented by quarrels, hunger, thirst, disease
and severe anxiety. 
The maximum duration of life for human beings in Kali-yuga will become
fifty years. 

By the time the age of Kali ends, the bodies of all creatures will be
greatly reduced in size, and the religious principles of followers of
varnasrama will be ruined. 
The path of the Vedas will be completely forgotten in human society,
and so-called religion will be mostly atheistic. 

The kings will mostly be theives, the occupations of men will be
stealing, lying and needless violence, and all the social classes will
be reduced to the lowest level of sudras. 

Cows will be like goats, spiritual hermitages will be no different
from mundane houses, and family ties will extend no further than the
immediate bonds of marriage. 

Most plants and herbs will be tiny, and all trees will appear like
dwarf shaami trees. Clouds will be full of lightning, homes will be 
devoid of piety, and all human beings will have become like asses. At
that time, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will appear on the
earth. Acting with the power of pure spiritual goodness, He will
rescue eternal religion."   

- shriimad bhaagavataM 12.2.1-16 

######

"In the age of Kali only one fourth of the religious principles
remains. That last remnant will continuously be decreased by the
ever-increasing principles of irreligion and will finally be destroyed.  

In the age of Kali people tend to be greedy, ill-behaved and
merciless, and they fight one another without good reason. 

Unfortunate and obsessed with material desires, the people of
Kali-yuga are almost all sudras and barbarians. 

When there is a predominance of cheating, lying, sloth, sleepiness,
violence, depression, lamentation, bewilderment, fear and poverty,
that age is Kali, the age of the mode of ignorance. Because of the bad
qualities of the age of Kali, human  beings will become shortsighted,
unfortunate, gluttonous, lustful and  poverty-stricken. 

The women, becoming unchaste, will freely wander from one man to the
next.  Cities will be dominated by theives, the Vedas will be
contaminated by  speculative interpretations of atheists, political
leaders will virtually consume the citizens, and the so-called priests and
intellectualls will be devotees of their bellies and genitals. 

The brahmacaris will fail to execute their vows and become generally
unclean, the householders will become beggars, the varnaprasthas will
live in the villages, and the sannyasis will become greedy for wealth.  

Women become much smaller in size, and they will eat too much, have
more children than they can properly take care of, and lose all
shyness. They will speak harshly and will exhibit qualities of
theivery, deceit and unrestrained audacity.  

Businessmen will engage in petty commerce and earn their money by
cheating. Even when there is no emergency, people will consider any
degraded occupation quite acceptable. Servants will abandon a master
who has lost his wealth, even if that master is a saintly person of
exemplary character. Masters will abandon an incapacitated servant,
even if that servant has been in the family for generations. Cows will
be abandoned or killed when they stop giving milk. 

In Kali-yuga men will be wretched and controlled by women. 
They will reject their fathers, brothers, other relatives and friends
and will instead associate with the sisters and brothers of their wives. 
Thus their conception of friendship will be based exclusively 
on sexual ties. 

Uncultured men will accept charity on behalf of the Lord and
will earn their livelihood by making a show of austerity and wearing a
mendicant's dress. Those who know nothing about religion will mount a
high seat and presume to speak on religious principles.  

In the age of Kali, people's minds will always be agitated. They will
become emanciated by famine and taxation, my dear King, and will
always be disturbed by fear of drought. They will lack adequate
clothing, food and drink, will be unable to properly rest, have sex
or bathe themselves, and will have no ornaments to decorate their
bodies. In fact, the people of Kali-yuga will gradually come to appear
like ghostly, haunted creatures.  

In Kali-yuga men will develop hatred for each other even over a few
coins. Giving up friendly relations, they will be ready to lose their
own lives and kill even their own relatives. Men will no longer
protect their elderly parents, their children or their respectable
wives. Thoroughly degraded, they will care only to satisfy their own
bellies and genitals.  

O King, in the age of Kali people's intelligence will be diverted by
atheism, and they will almost never offer sacrifice to the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, who is the supreme spiritual master of the
universe. Although the great personalities who control the three
worlds all bow down to the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, the petty
and miserable human beings of this age will not do so.  

Terrified, about to die, a man collapses on his bed. Although his
voice is faltering and he is hardly conscious of what he is saying, if
he utters the holy name of the Supreme Lord he can be freed from the
reaction of his fruitive work and achieve the supreme
destination. But still people in the age of Kali will not worship the
Supreme Lord."  

- shriimad bhaagavataM 12.3.24-44

END_QUOTE