Çukadeva
Gosvämé continued: “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 thieves, the
Vedas will be contaminated by speculative interpretations of atheists,
political leaders will virtually consume the citizens, and the so-called
priests and intellectuals will be devotees of their bellies and genitals. The brahmacärés will fail to execute their
vows and become generally unclean, the householders will become beggars, the
vänaprasthas will live in the villages, and the sannyäsés will become greedy
for wealth.”
Çréla Viçvanätha Cakravärté Öhäkura
elaborates:
The householders will beg instead of
giving in charity. The vanaprañöhas will give up the forest and live in
the village and will show off their austerities to the householders. The
sannyäsés will attempt to hoard money [instead of living day-to-day by the
Lord’s mercy].
Çukadeva
Gosvämé continued: “Women will 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 always speak harshly
and will exhibit qualities of thievery, 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 emaciated 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 all
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.”
