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Ever wondered why there’s so much hatred in the world? Wondered why there’s no regard for virtue, value, honesty or commitment? Ever pondered upon why we accepted moral degradation as a part of civilization? Apparently, that’s how it was all supposed to be.

You see, the ancient Sanskrit scriptures say that we’re living the times of vices. We have come past the golden ages and this is the Kali Yug, the time of the demon. According to the predictions mentioned in the final canto of the Bhagavata Purana, all that the world has come to today had already been foreseen and told 5000 years before even Vedavyasa existed. Let’s find out what we were doomed for.

1. Truthfulness will cease to exist – Srimad Bhagavatam 12.2.1

sri-suka uvaca

tatas canu-dinam dharmah

satyam saucam ksama daya

kalena balina rajan

nanksyaty ayur balam smrtih

The verse translates to the prediction that mankind will do away with virtues of truthfulness, religion, mercy, and cleanliness. They would diminish in physical strength and longevity because of the influence of the Demon Kali, not to be confused with the Hindu deity. As we look at our world today, it does hold true that being truthful is like digging our own graves in this dog eat dog competition. Mercy is a word that we should rather delete from the dictionary for the oppression of the innocent all around the world doesn’t really justify the existence of the word.

By cleanliness, the Vedas had probably implied the cleanliness of the soul and not just squeaky clean clothes and cosmetic coated armpits. As far as religion is concerned, most of us have done away with it, which may or may not be a good thing and the rest use religion as a means to spread terror.

2. Worth of a man will be based only on his wealth – Srimad Bhagavatam 12.2.2

vittam eva kalau nṝṇāḿ

janmācāra-guṇodayaḥ

dharma-nyāya-vyavasthāyāḿ

kāraṇaḿ balam eva hi

It says, the virtue, finer qualities and behavior of a man will be judged only on the basis of his wealth and he will be exempted of all accusations because law and justice will favor only those who have wealth. It’s almost funny how thousand of years ago, sages knew exactly how the society was going to be.

It’s amazing how they knew we, the 21st-century people would be drawn towards rich people like flies are drawn to feces. With big shots getting away with murder, politicians getting away with larceny and scams, this prediction could not have been more appropriate.

3. Men and women will be attracted to each other only superficially – Srimad Bhagavatam 12.2.3

dāmpatye ‘bhirucir hetur

māyaiva vyāvahārike

strītve puḿstve ca hi ratir

vipratve sūtram eva hi

The verse says that man and women will live with each other but only out of superficial attraction. Sexual appeal and expertise of an individual will be the only standards of considering the femininity and masculinity of individuals. Also, in order to be successful in business, it will be mandatory to resort to deceit and anyone who would wear a thread around his torso would be considered a Brahman. Another point, the ancient Indian sages were spot on with.

It’s hard to argue the texts with all the objectification of men and women. How many of us hit the gym actually to be fit and not to get puffed up chests so that we may appear more promiscuous. That’s alright by our generation because nobody is really interested n who you are. Nobody wants to get past your skin anymore.

4. Religious frauds will flourish – Srimad Bhagavatam 12.3.38

sudrah pratigrahishyanti

tapo-veshopajivinah

dharmam vakshyanty adharma-jna

adhiruhyottamasanam

The verse solemnly adumbrates that people of no scholarly credibility will pose as the men of God or dress as a mendicant and accept charity in the name of the Divine. It also says that these fraudulent men and women, without having any knowledge of religion, will be made to sit on high pedestals and their half-baked discourse on God and religion will be listened by all.

As it turned out to be, these are kind of people who run religion as an entrepreneurship. You see them everywhere, with their numerous beads, hilarious costumes, salaried disciples and blind followers in huge numbers. What the ancient sages didn’t know that these people are going to be regular faces on television and some of them are even going to be movie stars.

5. Man will kill his family and friends over money – Srimad Bhagavatam 12.3.41

kalau kakinike ‘py arthe

vigrihya tyakta-sauhridah

tyakshyanti ca priyan pranan

hanishyanti svakan api

Another burning truth was pointed out about our times in this ancient verse. It said that hatred among humans would rise and over matters as trifle as a few coins. It says humans in this age would have no regard for friendly relations and they could even kill their friends, families and if needed, their own selves for petty reasons.

You would not contest this point if you are a regular reader of the newspaper where brothers killing brothers and friends stabbing friends over money is so common that it’s almost boring news these days. It has been like this since a long time before a lot of us were even born. Therefore, it occurs naturally to us but back in the Golden Ages, choosing wealth over humanity was tremendously unacceptable.

6. Then cities will be run by thieves – Srimad Bhagavatam 12.3.32

dasyutkrishta janapada

vedah pashanda-dushitah

rajanas ca praja-bhakshah

sisnodara-para dvijah

The verse portends that the society will live under the domination of thieves, the atheists will contaminate the essence of the Vedas with their own shallow interpretations and the priests and intellectuals of the society would be puppets to the corrupt politicians.

How many times did you see the common people, the poor, the destitute suffer because of corruption? How many times did industries take away lands, spoil natural resource and destroy lives with political backing? The instances are numerous and there’s no denying that the nation is actually run by swindlers.

7. Men and women will stop taking care of their older parents – Srimad Bhagavatam 12.3.42

na rakshishyanti manujah

sthavirau pitarav api

putran bharyam ca kula-jam

kshudrah sisnodaram-bharah

It is vaticinated, in this verse, that men and women will stop protecting their parents, their spouses or their children and will eventually be concerned only with their bellies and genitals. Well, it is not very unusual to see people sending their parents off to old age homes to spend the rest of their days in a strange new environment. Abandonment by a parent is a common thing faced by children these days.

Men and women let themselves be lured by lust and attractions of novelty seen in a new partner and they do not think much before leaving their families to gratify their desires. The old age homes are a booming business, the divorce rates are high and many of us don’t even bother to visit our children or partners whom we have left after a separation.

Seems like they were pretty accurate, doesn’t it?

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