The Kali Era

Maitreya wanted to know more about the kali era.

In the kali era, the norms of varna and ashrama will not be followed as is laid down in the Vedas. No one will pray to the gods . Relations between guru and shishya will cease. Might will be right. Women will all the time take care of their hair. Wealth will mean everything. Instead of spending money on dharma , people will spend money on building houses. Money will be spent for oneself and not for guests. Men will be selfish. Money will be earned through evil means. There will be drought.

Men will not bathe before their meals. Both men and women will become shorter. Women will not obey their husbands. The kings will not take care of the subjects, but will only impose taxes. People will become old when they reach the age of twelve and no one will live for more than twenty years. Evil will flourish. No one will worship Vishnu. All the classes will become like shudras.

There is only one good thing about kali yuga. In satya yuga one had to do a lot of tapasya to earn some punya. In kali yuga the same punya can be acquired through a little tapasya. The equivalence is like this. Ten years of tapasya in satya yuga are equal to one year of tapasya in treta yuga, one month of tapasya in dvapara yuga and one day of tapasya in kali yuga.

Vyasadeva said that shudras and women are fortunate. The other varnas have to do many things to enter that dharma is being followed. But for the shudras the path of dharma is simple. They only have to serve the other varnas to acquire punya. Similarly men have to do many things to achieve punya. For women, the attainment of punya is easy; they only have to serve their husbands.