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Kali yuga

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The Vedas measure cosmic time on a large scale. Four great ages, yugas—Satya, Treta, Dwapara, and Kali—rotate in cycles lasting millions of years. Kali-yuga is the last and worst of the four, characterized by an overall rise in vice and a degradation of virtue. The current Kali-yuga began around five thousand years ago.

The one advantage of Kali-yuga is the simplicity and straightforwardness of its recommended means of self-realization. In previous yugas, those seeking spiritual perfection had to perform long austerities, grand sacrifices, and costly Deity worship, none of which are possible today. The prescribed method for attaining the Supreme in Kali-yuga is simply kirtan, chanting the names of the Supreme Person.


Picture depicts the vices of Kali-yuga and the arrest of Kali personified.

QT Kali-Yuga

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  • The four yugas described:

    "The duration of the material universe is limited. It is manifested in cycles of kalpas. A kalpa is a day of Brahma (the first created being, engineer of the universe), and one day of Brahma consists of a thousand cycles of four yugas, or ages: Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali. The cycle of Satya is characterized by virtue, wisdom and religion, there being practically no ignorance and vice, and the yuga lasts 1,728,000 years. In the Treta-yuga vice is introduced, and this yuga lasts 1,296,000 years. In the Dvapara-yuga there is an even greater decline in virtue and religion, vice increasing, and this yuga lasts 864,000 years. And finally in Kali-yuga (the yuga we have now been experiencing over the past 5,000 years) there is an abundance of strife, ignorance, irreligion and vice, true virtue being practically nonexistent, and this yuga lasts 432,000 years. In Kali-yuga vice increases to such a point that at the termination of the yuga the Supreme Lord Himself appears as the Kalki avatara, vanquishes the demons, saves His devotees, and commences another Satya-yuga. Then the process is set rolling again."

    - Srila Prabhupada, in his commentary on Bhagavad-gita 8.17

  • Unfavorable qualities of Kali-yuga:

    "O learned one, in this iron age of Kali men almost always have but short lives. They are quarrelsome, lazy, misguided, unlucky and, above all, always disturbed."

    - the sages of Naimisharanya, in Srimad-Bhagavatam, 1.1.10

  • Each cosmic age has its own prescribed method of self-realization:

    "Whatever result was obtained in Satya-yuga by meditating on Vishnu, in Treta-yuga by performing sacrifices, and in Dvapara-yuga by serving the Lord's lotus feet can be obtained in Kali-yuga simply by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra."

    - Sukadeva Goswami, in Srimad-Bhagavatam 12.3.52

  • Kali is a fallen age, but a favorable time for achieving perfection:

    "Those who are actually advanced in knowledge are able to appreciate the essential value of this age of Kali. Such enlightened persons worship Kali-yuga because in this fallen age all perfection of life can easily be achieved by the performance of sankirtana."

    - Narada Muni, in Srimad-Bhagavatam , 11.5.36

  • The one good quality of Kali-yuga:

    "My dear King, although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still one good quality about this age: Simply by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted to the transcendental kingdom."

    - Sukadeva Goswami, in Srimad-Bhagavatam 12.3.51

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