The previous episode witnessed the conclusion of the eleventh Skandha of the Shrimad Bhaagwatha Puraana, which spanned across the entire “Keshava-Uddhava-Samvaadham”, wherein Bhagawan Krishna gives some important pieces of advice to Uddhava, as He prepares Himself to ascend back to Vaikunta. In fact, this section of the eleventh Skandha is a condensed version of Bhagawad Gita, which Bhagawan gave to Arjuna. It contains the essense of the entire 700-sloka-long Bhagawad Gita, wherein Bhagawan Krishna talks at length on detachment and how do we practice it in this world. In that, we also witnessed how Bhagawan Krishna talks at length about the three “Gunas” – The “Satva Guna”, “Rajo Guna” and “Tamo Guna” and how does He classify important essentialities of life into these three Gunas. Thus the message from this section is that, we should eliminate all of those which are high on the “Rajo Guna” and “Tamo Guna” and grasp only those that are high on “Satva Guna”. It is only then, Bhagawan Krishna’s heart gets pleased and happy with us, which would automatically guide us towards the path of “Moksha”.
Subsequently, we had also witnessed how Bhagawan Krishna ascended towards Vaikunta after His 125-year-long stint in this world. We also witnessed how the Yaadava community was totally destroyed, thanks to the curse of Sage Vishwaamitra. Eventually as Bhagawan Krishna ascended back to Vaikunta, the entire Dwaaraka city was taken back by the ocean waters, and the remains of which we can see even today, off the Gujarat coast in the western part of India. As Bhagawan Krishna ascends back, even the Paandavas lose their prowess with their valor, and with that, they too descend towards the Svarga Lokha. With this, the advent of the Kali Yuga commences in this world. Now, in this twelfth Skandha, Sage Sukhaachaarya is going to give us an accord on how the Kali Yuga will span out to be. Let’s commence this discussion how.
We might be wondering here that we ourselves know the salient features of this Kali Yuga, as we’re currently living in this Yuga only! Of course, we’ve to remember here that we’ve witnessed only 5,120 years of the Kali Yuga as yet, but Sage Sukhaachaarya has already written about how this Kali Yuga is going to be for 4,32,100 years! We should understand the foresighted approach by our ancient “Maharishis” here. Anyway, let us commence the discussion here. Sage Sukhaachaarya commences the discussion with the key aspects of “Dharma” in Kali Yuga.
Sage Sukhaachaarya begins here with a shocker! He explains that as the Kali Yuga commences, people’s physical height and life span would start coming down gradually! We’ve witnessed in the previous Skandhas of this text itself that in Krita Yuga, people were of 9-feet height. This gradually reduced to 8 feet in the Tretha Yuga. This subsequently reduced to 7 feet in the Dwaapara Yuga. In the beginning of the Kali Yuga, it was 6 feet. Here, Sage Sukhaachaarya explains that during the fag end of the Kali Yuga, people are going to be only of 4 feet height! We can see the gradual reduction here, isn’t it? From 9 feet to 4 feet, across the Krita, Tretha, Dwaapara and Kali Yugas – This is how our heights are reducing Yuga after Yuga.
Next, Sage Sukhaachaarya drops another bombshell here – People in the Kali Yuga would suffer from acute water scarcity! People would scamper here and there in search of portable and clean drinking water, and with this search, they would start fighting with each other too! In fact, we’re witnessing this today at many places, isn’t it? We’ve witnessed how different states in India fight for water sharing – All this was already documented by Sage Sukhaachaarya, 5000 years ago! Next, he explains, who is a “Vidhwan” (Expert) in Kali Yuga – Normally a “Vidhwan” is a person who is a veteran in any particular domain like arts, science, etc. But in Kali Yuga, this is all going to be measured in terms of money! A “Vidhwan” thus in Kali Yuga signifies a person who’s having truckloads of money! Again, we’re witnessing this in today’s world – How many of us are commercialising our knowledge and selling it for money? This is thus, the “Dharma” of Kali Yuga!
Subsequently, Sage Sukhaachaarya explains who is a good speaker in Kali Yuga – A person who talks a lot, with lot of force, raising his / her voice against another person, talking derogatory language and abusing others, would be considered as an excellent speaker or an orator! This too we’ve started witnessing, isn’t it? We nowadays talk about “assertiveness”! What is this assertiveness here? It is a capability to simply establish one’s points with lot of surety, irrespective of whether he / she is right or wrong! If someone is going to ask what is “Nyaaya” or “Dharma” in Kali Yuga, those who raise up their hand and threatens to hit or kill someone would be considered to be experts in “Nyaaya”. Gone are those days wherein reasoning was done in a meaningful way, so that the outcome would be justice to all parties. Now in this Kali Yuga, Sage Sukhaachaarya explains that justice would be gone for a toss! We’re witnessing this in our present judicial system in India itself, isn’t it? Who is getting timely justice today? Every case extends for minimum 20 years, and at the end, nobody gets anything! Those who are politically strong and influencial in the society would be able to manipulate the justice to their favor, even though they would be criminals by nature. We’re thus witnessing all of this today and this is the characteristic of the Kali Yuga!
So for today, let us digest this first section of “shockers” given by Sage Sukhaachaarya, and let us wait till the next episode for the next set of “shockers” that are on the way! Stay tuned! 😊
The Indian Dharma 