ess like cowards.
And towards the end of the Yuga men will cease to trust one another. And
full of avarice and folly the whole world will have but one kind of food.
And sin will increase and prosper, while virtue will fade and cease to
flourish. And Brahmanas and Kshatriyas and Vaisyas will disappear,
leaving, O king, no remnants of their orders. And all men towards the end
of the Yuga will become members of one common order, without distinction
of any kind. And sires will not forgive sons, and sons will not forgive
sires. And when the end approaches, wives will not wait upon and serve
their husbands. And at such a time men will seek those countries where
wheat and barley form the staple food. And, O monarch, both men and women
will become perfectly free in their behaviour and will not tolerate one
another's acts. And, O Yudhishthira, the whole world will be mlecchified.
And men will cease to gratify the gods by offerings of Sraddhas. And no
one will listen to the words of others and no one will be regarded as a
preceptor by another. And, O ruler of men, intellectual darkness will
envelop the whole earth, and the life of man will then be measured by
sixteen years, on attaining to which age death will ensue. And girls of
five or six years of age will bring forth children and boys of seven or
eight years of age will become fathers. And, O tiger among kings, when
the end of the Yuga will come, the wife will never be content with her
husband, nor the husband with his wife. And the possessions of men will
never be much, and people will falsely bear the marks of religion, and
jealousy and malice will fill the world. And no one will, at that time,
be a giver (of wealth or anything else) in respect to any one else. And
the inhabited regions of the earth will be afflicted with dearth and
famine, and the highways will be filled with lustful men and women of
evil repute. And, at such a time, the women will also entertain an
aversion towards their husbands. And without doubt all men will adopt the
behaviour of the mlecchas, become omnivorous without distinction, and
cruel in all their acts, when the end of the Yuga will come. And, O thou
foremost of the Bharatas, urged by avarice, men will, at that time,
deceive one another when they sell and purchase. And without a knowledge
of the ordinance, men will perform ceremonies and rites, and, indeed,
behave as listeth them, when the end of the Yuga comes. And when the end
of the Yuga comes