KALI YUGA IN THE SHASTRAS
... Thanks to Shriman Kunjabihari Adhikari for this post.
The Himalayas stood serene and immovable. The world below them basked in glory. "It won't be like this much longer," Lomasa Rsi warned them. "It's coming soon, the KaliYuga. The Celestials will disappear from our vision. In the Kali Yuga, the splendour of the earth will shrivel up. Virtue will be abandoned. Sickness will ravage the land. Deformities will be commonplace. The earth will shake from calamities. No family will be spared.
"The so-called kshatriyas will not protect the citizens, but rather exploit them for their own gain. Others will assume similar habits. Hypocrisy will rule the day. Uncultured men will put on fancy attire and procure wealth by nefarious means. Indeed, decisions will be based solely on how much wealth can be made, and wealth alone will determine a favourable outcome in a court of law. People will be overwhelmed by anxieties and will be forced to work hard like asses simply to maintain themselves. Any sane person will want to flee to the mountains. The people of the Kali Yuga will forget that one earns happiness by making others happy. It is especially our duty to please and protect the cows, the children, the women, the elderly and the brahmins." [Mahabharata]
'Losing their wives and properties to such avaricious and merciless rulers, who will behave no better than ordinary thieves, 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.
[Shrimad Bhagavatam 12.2.8-9]
"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." [Srimad Bhagavatam 12.3.32]
Shrila Prabhupada: Yes, leaders means government men. That is described. They are all thieves and rogues, anywhere. Dasyu-dharmabhih. Dasyu. Dasyu means plunderers, rogues. Unless you become a rogue you cannot go to the government. You cannot... Any honest man cannot stay with these government men. That is not possible at the present age. Any government. Unless... Just like first-class rogue, your Nixon, he became the president. Because he was a first-class rogue, he became the president.
So unless you are a first-class rogue, you cannot stay within the circle of government men.
Rajanya dasyu-dharmabhih. And their business will be to eat up the vital force of the people. Bhaksayisyanti praja sarve rajanya dasyu-dharmabhih. This is the statement. And people will be harassed. On account of their godlessness, they will be harassed by three things: famine, no rain, and taxation. Taxation by the government, and there will be no rain, there will be famine, no food, and they will be so much embarrassed that they will give up their family and go away, gacchanti giri-kananam, will go, enter into the hills and forest, giving up their hearth and home.
This is Kali-yuga. And this is due to their godlessness. On account of this, then the democracy, means anyone, brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra, anyone who becomes powerful, he will capture the government post. So the sudras, they are now powerful. Sudras. Industry means sudra. So they will capture the governmental power. Just like the Communists.
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