In the previous episode, we were amidst the description of the Kali Yuga, as narrated by Sage Paraashara to Sage Maithreya. Once Bhagawan Krishna leaves for Vaikunta, the Dwaapara Yuga comes to an end, and with this, the Kali Yuga takes over automatically. As the Kali Yuga commences, Sage Paraashara describes how this new Yuga is going to be. He gives a scary accord wherein he says how the “Varnaashrama Dharma” would be forgotten completely. Anybody would get married to anybody and there would be no norms, rules and regulations for marriages. Even if people get married, there wouldn’t be something called married life together. People would stray away from the marriage quite easily and would involve themselves into unwanted affairs. Moreover, if a person exhibits power in terms of words and physical strength, he / she would be branded as “powerful”. If a person has a loud voice, he / she would be considered to be “winners” in conversations and debates. If a person is able to speak harshly and with a high volume, he / she would be able to suppress the truth efficiently and establish the lie as a truth.
As we’ve witnessed this yesterday, we shall continue with what Sage Paraashara is going to narrate with respect to the Kali Yuga. He continues thus, “Oh Maithreya! From now onwards, people will go behind money. They would be ready to do anything and everything for money. There would be a lot of theft, robbery, murders, etc. in the name of money. There wouldn’t be any sort of security for people. People would always be in some sort of a fear of their property being abducted by someone. On the pretext of wealth, people would beg, borrow, steal, cheat, etc. If people take a loan from someone, they wouldn’t repay it back. They would make others run behind them for their money. The entire world would start running in debts. Everybody would start taking debts and loans at ease and would never repay anything that they take. In the name of “repaying” the debt, people would aimlessly keep working to earn more and more money. Ultimately, Bhagawan’s significance would totally be forgotten. Bhagawan would never find a place in any of the homes in the Kali Yuga.
As these kinds of “Adharma” prosper, the world would also undergo a lot of changes. As the Kali Yuga progresses further and further, the water bodies in the world would start shrinking. The levels at which spiritual offerings and oblations are offered would drastically come down. More and more houses would be built, but there would be no auspicious or spiritual offerings in any of the homes being built. Population would drastically increase and slowly the forests would be converted into cities. Animals would face a huge threat for existence as humans would try and dominate them in every way possible. There would largely be destruction of natural resources. People would plunder the world for their personal benefit. Politicians wouldn’t rule the country for the welfare of people. They would come to power at any cost to enable widespread corruption to happen. Taxes would be extremely high and people would end up paying more taxes than their income. This would render the people poorer than ever. Governments would flourish. Rulers would accumulate more and more wealth at the expense of the people. Rich would get richer and the poor would get poorer.
Saying thus, Sage Maithreya gets shocked. I’m sure we’re also getting shocked as we’re reading through all of these. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel! Although the Kali Yuga has so much “Adharma” going around, there is one good aspect that is an important characteristic of this Kali Yuga. Just like how an oasis beautifies a dry desert, there is one aspect that beautifies the Kali Yuga and adds enormous significance to it. What is this aspect? Let us wait till the next episode to find out! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 