Veda Vyasa is the bedrock of Sanatana Dharma having codified the four Vedas, composed Mahabharata that contains many jewels in it amongst Bhagavad Gita, Viduraneeti, Yaksha Prashnam, Vishnu Sahasaranamam and Sanatsujatiya; the eighteen Puranas including the Bhagavatam and Brahma Sutra (a set of aphorisms that provide the highest vedantic wisdom). He stands amongst the foremost of seers who has given not just the roadmap of the future in Bhagavatam, but also explained in detail the characteristics of people that were to come after thousands of years. This is more than predicting few events like seers of the exalted class of Nostradamus. The most interesting piece of this insight is, each one of us can validate it in our own personal lives without any room for misinterpretation.
Bhagavatam in its twelfth skanda (canto), second adhyaya (chapter) talks about the progress of Kali yuga. We already had a detailed insight into Parikshit’s encounter with Kali and how we can be protected from the evil effects of Kali. Dharma (धर्म:) is perceived to be standing on its four legs – Satyam (सत्यं) – Truth, Shaucham (शौचं)- Cleanliness, kshama (क्षमा) – Forbearance and daya (दया) – Compassion. Due to the passage of time, the last three will almost be gone and dharma will be resting on satya alone with great difficulty. This is a trend we can see both as a society and also within every individual.
Vyasa’s magnificent predictions of the dread ahead
Let us study a few of these deep insights.
वित्तमेव कलौ नृणां जन्माचारगुणोदय: । धर्मन्यायव्यवस्थायां कारणं बलमेव हि ॥ 12-2-2
vittam eva kalau nṝṇāṁ janmācāra-guṇodayaḥ dharma-nyāya-vyavasthāyāṁ kāraṇaṁ balam eva hi
In the age of Kali, wealth alone will be considered as the basis for superior birth, behavior and virtuous conduct. Might alone is right and will be the basis for determining dharma, justice and day today transactions.
Jnana and the pursuit of Truth were the supremely desired and respected qualities in the Sanatani society till Kaliyuga, when it gets replaced by money and power. Money becomes the lingua franca that gets the job done. It appears to substitute even the heritage or bad behavior and seems to give an aura of greatness where none exists. While money becomes the primary force, power becomes its effect. Together they determine the nature of justice and societal transactions. Needless to say that Moksha and Dharma are out of the equation like even in the most orthodox circles and Artha and Kama reign supreme.
दाम्पत्येऽभिरुचिर्हेतुर्मायैव व्यावहारिके । स्त्रीत्वे पुंस्त्वे च हि रतिर्विप्रत्वे सूत्रमेव हि ॥ 12-2-3
dāmpatye ’bhirucir hetur māyaiva vyāvahārike strītve puṁstve ca hi ratir vipratve sūtram eva hi
Mutual attraction alone forms the reason for marital relationship. Success in business will depend on fraud. Skill in love-making will translate to manliness and womanliness. The sacred thread alone will be the identity of a Brahmana.
It is not uncommon to have endless years of dating or marriage being dissolved in weeks and months and even in few days. This despite the fact apart from the ability to bring money and power, relationship is purely based on mere physical attraction. How many picture perfect power couples we know who end up in splitsville? How many characterless powerful people come to our minds that are charming and ravishing? The yardstick for marital success gets shrunk to mere lovemaking skills. This vanity can be seen in the number of unhappy marriages and divorces in modern India, in a land where grihastashrama formed the bedrock for dharma.
Fraud and deception has crept into everything related to business, including the imported religions which follow this model. There seems to be no shame in doing anything to get ahead. One can see this in the large scale food adulterations for instance, where government itself is silenced by its own sold out agencies to allow chemicals into food. We learnt how anyone can be a Brahmana (through the wisdom of Krishna and Yudhishtra). But in Kaliyuga, the sacred thread remains as a mere external symbol to identify a Brahmana, who is far removed from all the character traits that must define him.
लिङ्गमेवाश्रमख्यातावन्योन्यापत्तिकारणम् । अवृत्त्या न्यायदौर्बल्यं पाण्डित्ये चापलं वच: ॥ 12-2-4
liṅgam evāśrama-khyātāv anyonyāpatti-kāraṇam avṛttyā nyāya-daurbalyaṁ pāṇḍitye cāpalaṁ vacaḥ
Ashramas will be based on mere external insignia and the only way to see the transition. Poverty will imply justice denied due to weakness. Mere word jugglery or vocabulary will define scholarliness.
The four ashramas – brahmacharya, grihasta, vanaprasta and sannyasa imply the focus of the individual. (Read more in society classification in Hinduism). Today with the loss of our understanding of Dharma and Moksha the last two ashramas are practically absent. The brahmacharya focus has reduced to exclude dharma and center only on mundane ways to make a living. With many going back to studies after college, on-going education, it appears they two have fused as well.
The weak will be denied justice as power and wealth are seen controlling the judiciary. The reach is so strong that they can bend the legislative to even enact special laws in their favor. Having a vocabulary of bombastic words satisfies the definition of being a scholar, even if they have no understanding of the related content. Compare the acharyas who excelled in philosophy and had experience with characters that merely spit out tough words in the thesaurus.
अनाढ्यतैवासाधुत्वे साधुत्वे दम्भ एव तु । स्वीकार एव चोद्वाहे स्नानमेव प्रसाधनम् ॥ 12-2-5
anāḍhyataivāsādhutvesādhutve dambha eva tu svīkāra eva codvāhe snānam eva prasādhanam
Poverty will be deemed as unholy and hypocrisy will define good character. Mating will be deemed as marriage. Bathing will be for hygiene and not purification.
दूरे वार्ययनं तीर्थं लावण्यं केशधारणम् । उदरंभरता स्वार्थ: सत्यत्वे धार्ष्ट्यमेव हि ॥ 12-2-6
dūre
vāry-ayanaṁ tīrthaṁ lāvaṇyaṁ keśa-dhāraṇam udaraṁ-bharatā svārthaḥ satyatve
dhārṣṭyam eva hi
Tirtham will be considered as a far off water body. Beauty will be reduced to having a nice hairdo. Filling the stomach will be synonymous with the purpose of life. One who is vociferous and audacious will be deemed as truthful.
दाक्ष्यं कुटुम्बभरणं यशोऽर्थे धर्मसेवनम् ॥ 12-2-7
dākṣyaṁ kuṭumba-bharaṇaṁ yaśo ’rthe dharma-sevanam
One who maintains a family by any means will be considered as an expert (successful). Reputation alone will be the reason for adherence of dharma or a semblance of it.
ब्रह्मविट्क्षत्रशूद्राणां यो बली भविता नृप: । प्रजा हि लुब्धै राजन्यैर्निर्घृणैर्दस्युधर्मभि: ॥ 12-2-8
brahma-viṭ-kṣatra-śūdrāṇāṁ yo balī bhavitā nṛpaḥ prajā hi lubdhai rājanyairnirghṛṇair dasyu-dharmabhiḥ
The one who is most powerful will emerge as the rulers (or political class) and the guna karma based societal classification will have no bearing in this regard. These greedy and merciless rulers will live the way of robbers and thieves.
Vyasa goes in greater detail about what is in store and it gets grim with every advancing sloka and eventually he gives hope that Kalki avatara will happen to restore dharma and protect dharmis. As this timeline is quite stretched and as we are already feeling the ill effects of Kali Yuga, it will be prudent on our part to inoculate and protect ourselves.
In Ailing Hinduism – inversion of values, we saw that the core reason for rot in the society is the erosion of values. Dharma must be the basis for obtaining Artha which must be able to support the Kama not opposed to Dharma. If so, the outcome of this Dharma is Moksha. Having divorced Dharma and Moksha, we end up with unregulated Artha-Kama hedonistic fest. Due to this everything revolves around the individual who is slave to the senses and sense objects. Selfishness rules every aspect of the individual, who believes that gratifying the desires alone will make one complete.
With the gross reduction of Purusharthas to mere self-gratification, the individual has trapped oneself into becoming a massive slave of the senses. So relationships get redefined as what is in it for me, be it parents, spouse or children, let alone extended family. Spouse, having lost the purpose to co-evolve in the dharmic spiritual journey of life, look at each other as pleasure providers or facilitators be it gastronomic, economic or relationship and everything in between.
Hypocrisy, being the top dog in a dog-eat-dog world, money, power, flaunting even the ignorance as scholarship amongst others define the basic skills needed to thrive in Kali Yuga. So violence becomes completely justified in this timeline as it justifies the means to an end. As this lack of Dharma becomes more rooted at an individual level, it gathers momentum in its expression in the society. Abuse, exploitation, grave transgression, corruption and violence get completely justified as tools of politicians and the wealthy, who abide by the saying – might is right.
This results in rampant abuse of nature, ignoring the wisdom of the rishis and acharyas. Vyasa highlights not only the impact on the individual’s character traits, but also its shadow on the society and Nature.
An oasis we all can create around us:
The primary reason for the evil effects of Kali Yuga is the dominant direction of our mind. Currently it is centered only on sense and sense gratification. If we translate the wisdom of the rishis the direction may look more like:
- Cleansing the bad vasanas move away from a sense gratification driven life > Moving away from purely body and mind driven orientation to an intellect based one. This intellect must be elevated to the exalted Supreme. (Bhagavad Gita 6-5)
- In other words,
Selfish ego and ego centric desires > Include larger values of Satyam, daanam, kshama, daya > Include others based on dharma not mere Artha and Kama in life, especially spouse > As mind gets purified include larger ideas of community, society, nation and the world > Expand the mind to include all living beings > expand the mind to a cosmic level.
- Commit to studying scriptures regularly – itihasapuranas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita.
- Unless the individual is committed to some form of Sadhana conducive to one’s vasanas, spiritual evolution is impossible. The easiest way is to do satsangha on periodic basis.
- One must strive to purify one’s own gunas. We are all an admixture of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. We must strive hard to replace the latter two. It is everyone’s experience that Tamas cannot be directly replace by Sattva alone, hence a temporary via media of Rajas based on Sattva is required.
- As more individuals commit to this inner journey of cleansing one’s vasanas and gunas through some form of Sadhana, it has a ripple effect on the family and beyond.
Spirituality is a personal journey of inner discovery. Each one begins where we are, with our baggage and vasanas. Obviously no two persons experience will be similar despite many parallels. That is why Sanatana Dharma doesn’t prescribe a handbook of rules like Abrahamic cults.
When one is oriented and strives to live these ideals, one is said to live the life of a man. As one achieves refinement, it is said to be the life of a deva, illumined being and living a materialism centric life, adding more problems by strengthening wrong vasanas, one falls to the mindset and lifestyle of an asura or rakshasa.
The biggest beneficiary in this journey is for us, despite the positive impact on others. So even for ultimate selfish reasons one must focus on the SELF. The intense sense oriented living, materialism, is the pure result of our ignorance. We misinterpret our real SELF as the body and feel the emotional mind as its pinnacle. This folly is behind the fall of the man in Kali Yuga. As the idea takes firm root, the idea of us enjoying and only through the sensory enjoyment one can experience a grander side of SELF becomes dominant.
The confused “I” feels incomplete and to make itself more complete it expands with “I want”. When it contacts the object, it realizes a temporary state of desirelessness which is experienced as happiness in the mind. But the next second, it realizes its incompleteness and wants to repeat this cycle. Only with it develops the Viveka of what is permanent and what is the nature of relationship of the Jiva and Jagat, it can naturally root itself in a larger idea, Ishwara. The idea is not to live a sannyasa life, but keeping the priorities right.
Grihastashrama must be centered on dharma. The lack of it results in a pompous Artha-Kama fest which will result in the misery of everyone involved. It is not the responsibility of the spouse but oneself to bring that foundation. Materialism that replaces dharma in the family can be easily observed as movies, media, politics and selfish pursuit of Artha and Kama. Dharma when upheld, upholds us. Understanding this subtlety one must constantly strive to refine one’s adherence.
We can reverse this Kali Yuga effects, provided we realize which the real Atman is, cleanse our vasanas by focusing on increasing our sattvic gunas. The ripple effects we see in the society begin with the individual. May we all strive to work on ourselves and realize the subtler truths expounded by the great rishis. May we create this small oasis in our heart, far from the reach of Kali that Bhagawan would love to guide us from within.
ॐ तत् सत
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