1. Have an Interesting Snippet to Share : Click Here
    Dismiss Notice

Blame it on Kali Yuga!

Discussion in 'Cheeniya's Senile Ramblings' started by Cheeniya, Nov 3, 2007.

  1. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    12,626
    Likes Received:
    16,903
    Trophy Points:
    538
    Gender:
    Male
    Are there really good people and bad people? If this question is put to anyone, he may perhaps answer in the affirmative or probably say that there is nothing good or bad; only thinking makes it so. It is really amazing that many come out with clever arguments more to defend the wrong than to promote the right. It is even more amazing that even eminent people come out with arguments which are more in the nature of a dig at people who confine themselves to generally accepted norms of virtue. How would you otherwise justify pronouncements like ‘Chastity is just lack of opportunity’ or ‘Many a man is saved from being a thief by finding everything locked up’? The lawyers who defend criminals and get them acquitted command a greater premium than the ones who plead the cause of innocent.


    Hindus classify the age of the Universe into four yougas. These are:
    Krita or Satya Yuga – 17,28,000 years (Kri – four times kali yuga)
    Threta Yuga – 12,96,000 years (Thre – three times kali yuga)
    Dwapara Yuga – 8,64,000 years ( Dwa – two times kali yuga)
    Kali yuga – 4,32,000 years
    A total of 43,20,000 years constitute a Maha Yuga!
    The most significant feature of this classification is the exemplification of the characteristics of man in each Yuga.

    Krita or Satya-yuga, or the golden age, is the ideal age, characterized by virtue, wisdom, religion, and practically no vice or ignorance. Humans do not hate or envy each other, nor do they ever feel anxious, fearful or threatened. They solely worship the one Supreme Personality of Godhead, hear the one Veda, obey the one law, and practice the one religious process -- meditation on the Supreme. People live for about 100,000 years.

    In Treta-yuga vice is introduced. The good qualities that humans had in Satya-yuga get reduced by one third. People introduce religious rites, sacrifices, and ceremonies. They start expecting a reward for their work and religious activities. They live for a maximum of 10,000 years.

    In Dvapara-yuga uprightness is only half of what it was in Satya-yuga. The Vedas are divided into four parts, and only a few people study them. Sensual desires and diseases begin to well up, and injustice spreads in human civilization. People live for a maximum of 1000 years.

    In Kali-yuga only one fourth of human uprightness remains and gradually reduces to nil as the age progresses. We now live in Kali-yuga, the iron age, the most degraded of the four ages (kali literally means "quarrel and hypocrisy"). In this age men are short lived and have less intelligence. They are especially lazy in performing their spiritual duties and exceedingly slow to surrender to the Lord. They are misled, frustrated and, above all, always disturbed. The qualities of religion (truthfulness, cleanliness, forbearance and mercy) take the back seat. The maximum duration of human life is 100 years, and even that is rare. Thus we see that the man is an epitome of virtue in the first Yuga. In each Yuga, he undergoes moral degradation until he reaches the last or Kali Yuga when his moral decay is so complete that the Lord thinks it fit to manifest Himself and destroy him laugh, stock and barrel. The cycle starts again and goes on.


    This classification is well brought out in the characters of the two epics, Raamaayana and the Mahabharat. The former, as we all know, pertains to the Thretha Yugas and the latter to the close of the third or Dwapara Yuga. We find that the characters portrayed in the former are thoroughly virtuous. Lakshmana, for example, is unable to describe his brother’s wife because he has never seen any of her features other than her toenail. Rama ceases to fight Ravana when He sees him lying wounded and weaponless. Mahabharat signifies the advent of the Kali Yuga. It describes man in his most cunning and even the Lord has to resort to questionable methods to help the right prevail over the wrong. The epic is full of episodes of cunning, deceit, revenge and such negative traits and the establishment of the right takes place only towards the very end after taking a severe beating throughout.


    We can, therefore, take solace from the fact that the utter moral degeneration that we see around us, of which even we are a part of, is typical of the times we live in. If the newspapers do not report macabre incidents, rape, bribery or massacre in the name of religion, we feel bored. Thus, in our deepest heart, if we admire the heroics of a medical practitioner who amasses wealth by filming the intimate acts of man and woman and selling the same to the whole world, there is no cause for us to feel ashamed of it. If we sit glued to the TV news channels to learn more about Noida killings or the Tehelka expose, there is no cause for us to feel repentant. If the news of a movie depicting the lust of a woman for her sister’s husband running for 100 days does not repulse us, blame it on the Yuga! We are after all only part of the evolution of the Universe!
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2007
    MonikaSG and mikku like this.
    Loading...

  2. Kamla

    Kamla IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    8,454
    Likes Received:
    5,103
    Trophy Points:
    440
    Gender:
    Female
    Dear Cheeniya...sir....

    Now whatever prompted you to write this analysis ?! Surely you are not disillusioned by our yuga?? I have always been told and believe that the sun rises and sets because of the saints amongst us who withhold righteousness and morality. So, yet, all is not lost...On the other hand, I see your point, till all is lost, God is not going to manifest Himself to us.
    Well well, with this...you have got me rambling...!!
    One thing though, I did learn about our various yugas from your concise description :)
    Hope you are hale and healthy now ?:) All the best to you...
    L, Kamla
     
  3. Malathijagan

    Malathijagan Silver IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,292
    Likes Received:
    32
    Trophy Points:
    83
    Gender:
    Female
    Hello Cheeniya sir!
    I can see, you too have started lamenting about the Kali Yuga! Hope it has nothing to with your having to miss your favourites on the TV that you have turned spiritual and philosophical! Well jokes apart, A few days back my mom and myself were just discussing this, the deterioration of morality in the present days and Kali yuga reaching its zenith. We were also discussing the Maha pralayam after the 4 yugas and the formation of a new yuga all over again. Of course we have a lot more worse things to see before the collapse of this yuga and may be we may have to take many more births before the ultimate dissolution. Hmmm...... My heart has already started to yearn for the Satyuga!
     
  4. Vidya24

    Vidya24 Gold IL'ite

    Messages:
    2,654
    Likes Received:
    181
    Trophy Points:
    155
    Gender:
    Male
    Dear C,

    What an Il Penseroso mood! Though the mood is melancholic, I still like it. You flit between topics, between modern and archaic with ease.Esp the stereotyping of the Yugas- very timely reference.

    Are there good and bad people? Maybe, but I don't belong to either category. There are no water tight qualities, they spill over. You might have read The Churning of Lakshmi that is doing rounds in IL and elsewhere. Good and bad are just two sides of the same coin, though we all wish to spin good when it is dealt for us.

    Surely with the Yugas, our interpretation of good and bad has also changed. In Satya Yuga, maybe no man lusted for his own wife leave alone his neighbour's wife. That has eroded over the yugas till in good ole Kali Yuga- it is passe for divorce, adultery and polygamy; even they fail to spur our interest.

    And evil has changed too, right? The Asuras were the good, evil ones. Gobble up a sage or two, destroy a parnasalai, do penance for a million years and seek an atrocious boon from an unwitting God. The Asuras were like our old time villains like Nambiar, Pran, Govindan Kutty, Gulshan Grover. More amusing than macbre. But compared to modern reel villains like Manish Manjerekar or evil Saif with a sneer, they look like chocolate muffins. And so where does that leave the Kali Yug real ,evil ones who pray and blow up towers,lives, nations and destinies in the name of God and religion? That is pure, unmitigated evil for mankind.

    Ah, but the darkest hour is before dawn. And we have to despair before we are fit to rejoice. And we must sink before we are redeemed. And so we act and wait, waiting for the Messaih on his white horse- be it Kalki, or Al Mahdi or a supercomputer robot.

    Thanks Cheeniya for another awesome piece. You rock and roll.

    regards
    V24
     
    1 person likes this.
  5. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    12,626
    Likes Received:
    16,903
    Trophy Points:
    538
    Gender:
    Male
    Dear Kamla
    The other day I was watching a news item on TV and my wife chided me for wasting time on such useless news. It got me thinking. I felt even a bit guilty. What worried me more was that I found the news item a bit interesting too. This aberration in my character deep within me worried me a lot. I pondered over it deeply and drew some consolation from the fact that it was all preordained and if I didnt fall in line with God's schedule, He would not manifest Himself.
    Thus arose this rambling. And I am happy that it got you too rambling!
    Sri
     
  6. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    12,626
    Likes Received:
    16,903
    Trophy Points:
    538
    Gender:
    Male
    Dear Malathi
    We are not even half way through with Kaliyuga and the atrocities that are committed around us are mindboggling. When you watch them being telecast by the various channels vying with each other in the name of 'Breaking News!', we feel like breaking our TV sets! One consolation is that we get annoyed with such things implying that we are in the 25% minority still having faith in good things. But scriptures tell us that this percentage will become zero with the advancement of the Yuga and that's scary! I dont want to be in the front page making news that way!
    Sri
     
  7. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    12,626
    Likes Received:
    16,903
    Trophy Points:
    538
    Gender:
    Male
    Dear Vidya
    If my piece was awesome, your FB is doubly so! Your take on the Asuras and the present evil ones was indeed of a quotable variety. I am happy that I could elicit such a classic response.
    In my earlier replies to the FBs on this thread, I have summed up what made me write this piece. I believe in and have the greatest admiration for the people who continue to live unaffected by the changing yugas. Such people inspire me no end. And they make me feel guilty about my own shortcomings and it is here that I am forced to quote scriptures in defence!
    When the Deluge comes, I would love to be paraded into the Ark and I consider my good deeds as a feeble attempt to make sure of my berth there!
    Sri
     
  8. Vidya24

    Vidya24 Gold IL'ite

    Messages:
    2,654
    Likes Received:
    181
    Trophy Points:
    155
    Gender:
    Male
    Dear Cheeniya sir,

    Thank you for your kind words.

    I know for sure that when cometh the Deluge, and we all wait for our berth in the Ark, there will be place in it for you, me, Gandhi, Bin Laden and everyone. For, if the Deluge is to judge and purge Mom Earth of her sinners, the Ark is to redeem all souls. And in God's eyes, all souls are the same- a miniscule hamsam of His Omnipresent self. I believe in Karma theory and pay back time as rules for the road, while living on Planet Earth. But I think in God's eyes, these accounts would not matter and we all will be saved. Maybe, you will travel Business class while BinLaden and myself would be coach, but we will all reach the ultimate destination.

    regards
    Vidya
     
    1 person likes this.
  9. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    12,626
    Likes Received:
    16,903
    Trophy Points:
    538
    Gender:
    Male
    Dear Vidya
    I am really keen to secure my berth in the Business Class to watch from close quarters the exciting spectacle of the Dove alighting on the index finger of Noah!
    At the sametime, I am aware that I'll be in the company of some very boring people(madisanjis!) there while you will all be having a whale of a time!
    Sri
     
  10. Anandchitra

    Anandchitra IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    6,617
    Likes Received:
    2,620
    Trophy Points:
    345
    Gender:
    Female
    It is generally considered that morality to be comparable to a bull known as Dharma. In Satya Yuga, the first stage of development, the bull had four legs, and in each age morality is reduced by a quarter. By the age of Kali, morality will be reduced to only a quarter of that of the golden age. Thus, the bull will only have one leg: morality will wait on men.You can see the effect your very fine thought provoking article has on us. It brought out an endearing reply/ramble from Kamla , a highly intellectual and enhanced qualityreply from Vidy24 and some form of rubbish from me.
    Blame it on Kali Yuga is I suppose the catch phrase here. When we see around
    us goings on that are not palatable to our thoughts Blame it On Kali Yuga. When we stoop to levels which leave us uncomfortable Blame it On Kali Yuga.What ever we do or what ever is done Blame it On Kali Yuga. Since its so easy to Blame it On Kali Yuga why are we all not doing everything under the sun.For the simple reason that there is Choice given to us. We do have the freedom of Choice and so we choose. And that for me sums it up. Maybe I have rambled too long too so I will stop for now.
     

Share This Page