y morality then is said to wait on men,
with only a fourth part of itself remaining. Know, O Yudhishthira, that
the period of life, the energy, intellect and the physical strength of
men decrease in every Yuga! O Pandava, the Brahmanas and Kshatriyas and
Vaisyas and Sudras, (in the Kali age) will practise morality and virtue
deceitfully and men in general will deceive their fellows by spreading
the net of virtue. And men with false reputation of learning will, by
their acts, cause Truth to be contracted and concealed. And in
consequence of the shortness of their lives they will not be able to
acquire much knowledge. And in consequence of the littleness of their
knowledge, they will have no wisdom. And for this, covetousness and
avarice will overwhelm them all. And wedded to avarice and wrath and
ignorance and lust men will entertain animosities towards one another,
desiring to take one another's lives. And Brahmanas and Kshatriyas and
Vaisyas with their virtue contracted and divested of asceticism and truth
will all be reduced to an equality with the Sudras. And the lowest orders
of men will rise to the position of the intermediate ones, and those in
intermediate stations will, without doubt, descend to the level of the
lowest ones. Even such, O Yudhishthira, will become the state of the
world at the end of the Yuga. Of robes those will be regarded the best
that are made of flax and of grain the Paspalum frumentacea[45] will be
regarded the best. Towards this period men will regard their wives as
their (only) friends. And men will live on fish and milk, goats and
sheep, for cows will be extinct. And towards that period, even they that
are always observant of vows, will become covetous. And opposed to one
another, men will, at such a time, seek one another's lives; and divested
of Yuga, people will become atheists and thieves. And they will even dig
the banks of streams with their spades and sow grains thereon. And even
those places will prove barren for them at such a time. And those men who
are devoted to ceremonial rites in honour of the deceased and of the
gods, will be avaricious and will also appropriate and enjoy what belongs
to others. The father will enjoy what belongs to the son; and the son,
what belongs to the father. And those things will also be enjoyed by men
in such times, the enjoyment of which hath been forbidden in the
scriptures. And the Brahmanas, speaking disrespectfully of the Vedas,
will not practis