90 - Description for Yugas 

Sri Krishna said- О Nanda, you listen to me delightfully. I am going to tell you an extremely charming story which has been described beautifully in the Puranas. In the Krutayuga, all the people are religious minded and the religion is fully established during that period. The people are truthful and are full of mercy and compassion. 

All the four Vedas, the post-Vedic literature, various types of historical treatises and the Samhitas predominate the society. All the charming Puranas, the five Pancharatras and all the religious scriptures which bestow welfare, remain quite popular. 

All the Brahmanas are well-versed in the Vedas, quite meritorious and tapasvis. They always remain devoted to Narayana and recite his mantras. 

All the four varnas including Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Shudras Vaishyas perform their duty religiously. Out of them Shudras serve the Brahmanas and perform their dharma.

The Kings have a religious bent of mind and maintain the people always and receive the taxes equivalent to the sixteen part of their earnings.

The Brahmanas remain free from taxes and they roam about it will, the earth always produces various types of cereals and crops remaining filled with gems. 

The pupil is devoted to the teacher, the son remains devoted to the father and the wives remain to their husbands maintaining to their chastity. All the people enjoy the conjugal pleasure of their wives at the appropriate time; no one is greedy of the women and or is wicked.  During this yuga there are no thieves or robbers and no one owns the wives of others. 

The trees remain laiden with fruit and the cows yield the maximum of milk. All the people are healthy, with long and well-built body besides being beautiful; some of the auspicious people remain alive up to a lakh of years and are never attracted by ailments. As the Brahmana are devoted to Vishnu similarly, the remaining three varnas of the people are also devoted to Vishnu.  

All the rivers and rivulets are filled with water and the mountain caves look quite charming. The people of all the four varnas purify themselves by taking bath in the holy places. The Brahmanas purify themselves by performing tapas. Thus, all the people of the earth have noble souls. One cannot hear the name of a wicked person in the three worlds during Satyayuga. All the varnas are filled with welfare. 

The ancestors arrive at the appropriate time, the gods also arrive at the appropriate time. The guests are adored in all the household; the people of all the three varnas respect the Brahmana and provide them with food regularly because the mouth of a Brahmana, as never barren and is free from the thorns. 

The people remain extremely happy by reciting the name of Narayana in the festivities.  During this yuga no one denounces the gods, the Brahmanas and the intellectuals. No one praises himself. All the people remain engaged in praising others. No Person remains inimical to others. All the people think of the welfare of others; all the men and women are quite well read and there is no one devoid of wisdom.  There is no one filled with greed and all the people reside in the palaces of gems which are studded with to sapphire and rubies beside the gold. At that point of time there are no beggars; no one suffers from ailment and all the people are free from grief and other ailments. They remain delightful all the times.

No man or woman is seen without ornaments.  There are no sinners, nor wicked. No one remains hungry or denounces. All the people are free from old age and remain always young; they are free from the ailment and other deformities.

Thus, in the Satyayuga the people are truthful, compassionate and extremely religious. Dharma in Tretayuga remains present with three feet only and in Dvapara, it has only two. 

At the beginning of the age of Kali, the same. Dharma becomes quite lean and thin and stands on earth on one leg. О lord of Vraja, at that point of time, the sprouting of the wicked people, the robbers and the thieves starts. 

Some people engage themselves in performing evil deeds throughout the day and night but some of the people feel afraid of doing anything evil.  Therefore, they start concealing their evil deeds.  The loose women feel panicky and indulge into sinful ways secretly. The men also become panicky and they enjoy secretly the company of other women. Similarly, the religious minded people are also shaken, the kings would perform only pretty religious deeds and the Brahmanas would devote themselves to the study of Vedas only nominally. 

Only a few people would get themselves devoted to their dharma and all the people would be free to move anywhere alike. Till such time the holy places, the ascetics, noble people, the village deities and the scriptures besides the method of adoration would remain on earth, the truthfulness, the amsha of dharma and the tapas would remain on earth. 

О father, though the Kaliyuga is filled with all the evils but still there are great virtues in the same. There will be a performing of mental merit but not the sin. О father, after the sanctity of the holy places is lost, the dharma, also loses it importance. The dharma would become black form like the moonless night. 

Nanda said- О son for how long the holy places, the ascetic, the village deities and the scriptures would remain on earth during Kaliyuga. 

Sri Krishna said- During Kaliyuga the lord remains on earth for ten thousand years. Till that time the images of the gods and the scriptures beside the Puranas are also adored. 

For half that period (five thousand years), tile Ganga and all other holy places would enjoy their sanctity and for half of that period, the village deities would be adored besides the intellectual and the Vedas.

О father at the end of Kaliyuga, wickedness would establish itself completely. At that point of time, the people of all the four varnas would become like Shudras. At that point of time no marriage would be performed with the reciting of the mantras. The people will be deprived of truthfulness and forgiveness. Because of the importance of the conjugal pleasures, the marriage would be performed only with the consent of the women. The Brahmanas would not wear the yajnopavitas would not apply tilakam on the forehead nor would the Brahmanas perform the Sandhya’s thrice a day 

All the people discarding all the vows would eat whatever they liked. Thus, all the people of the four varnas would consume things irrespective of those which have been prescribed as eatables and non-eatables. All would be wicked. There will be dearth of chaste women on earth and in every house-hold, the loose women would be available, who would always denounce their husbands, such a person would always feel panicky and shaky like a servant. 

О father, the loose woman would serve the best of the sweets to her lower beside the food, betel, the fragrance, sandal-paste and the costumes, but would never care for the food of her husband. The son would always denounce the father and the pupil their teacher. The king would always be terrified by the public while the king would torture by the people.

The noble people would suffer at the hands of the robbers, the thieves and the wicked people.  The yielding of crop would be destroyed on earth and the cows would stop yielding enough of milk. The milk, butter and ghee would be in short supply. All the people would be devoid of truthfulness and always speak falsehood. 

The Brahmana would be deprived of purity, performing of sandhya, study of scriptures and become the drivers of bulls, cooks in the kitchen of Shudras, resorting to the burning of the dead bodies of the Shudras, getting entangled with Shudra women. The Shudras on the other hand would be attracted towards the Brahmana ladies, consuming the food of a Brahmana the wicked Shudra would abducts the wife of the Brahmana who could be equated with his own mother and quite adorable. The servants would conspire to kill the king and occupy the throne. The women would kill the husband and would enjoy the company of the lover. The son would kill the father and himself become the king.

Thus, all the people would become independent, moving at will, lustful, gluttons, suffering from ailment, dirty, the reciter of broken mantras and would propagate false mantras. The teachers would be casteless, devoid of age would be and denounced. 

The mlecchas would become the king and the Yavana would denounce the dharma destroying the spotless glory of the ascetics. 

The adoration of ancestor’s gods and Brahmanas, the guests, the teachers and the parents would not be respected; they would remain welcoming their own wives. О father the relatives of the wife would be preferred and the influence of the ladies would go on increasing, the people of high castes would become their and would steal the riches of the gods and the Brahmanas. in Kaliyuga the people would respect the religion only playfully or with the intention of causing grief; the entire universe would be deprived of the abodes of gods and would become terrific.

Because of the evils of the age of Kali, there would be indiscipline everywhere and disturbance would increase. All the people would face hunger, wear dirty clothes and would become pauper. The one whose house is filled with pitchers of small shells would be treated as the king and the one having innumerable pitchers like the same would be known as the great king.  The people would be of the size of the thumb and the trees would be of the size of vegetables.

The fruits of tala, coconut, jack fruit would be of the size of sesamum seeds and other fruits would be of still smaller in size, there will be general shortage of the vases for waters cereals and cloth in the households the houses would be quite broken and deserted. 

They would be filled with bad smells; having no lamps and filled with bad smells, having no lamps and filled with darkness; all the humans would be sinful and would feel panicky of the wild animal. At that point of time the people would be greedy for fruits and the women would be quarrel some. The women would be deprived of deities beside the men.

All the rivers, rivulets, the caves, the lakes and pools beside the tanks would be deprived of the water. The women would be barren, passionate and would always like the company of lovers; all the people would cut the pipala tree and the land would be deprived of the trees. The trees would be without the branches fruit and trunks; the fruit would not be delicious. The water and the food would have no taste. The human beings would speak untruth, would be heartless and devoid of dharma. Thereafter the twelve Adityas would burn all the creatures of the universe with their heat. О lord of Vraja, at that point of time only the story of the earth would remain. 

As the land dries up at the end of the rainy season, similarly after the expiry of Kaliyuga, the land would be free from all the creatures.  Thereafter again the Satyayuga would start. 

О father, I have thus narrated to you everything; now you comfortably go back to Vraja; I am indeed like an infant before you and what could I speak about dharma before you.  Remaining in Vraja, I consumed butter, ghee, milk, curd, butter-milk, svastika and the sweet dishes and several other sweet dishes which were prepared for the gods and the ancestors; I consumed them forcibly because he crying of a child has his own strength. Therefore, all the short-comings committed by me at every step should be forgiven by you since you are my father and I am your son beside Yashoda is my mother. 

You narrate this joke of mine to Yashoda and Rohini and tell them that you had heard all this from an infant like me. Thereafter you can narrate the same to all the dwellers of Gokula because the meeting between the relatives is arranged by destiny. 

It is the destiny which is responsible for the separation from them, their opposition and the period of love. The destiny creates the universe and the destiny preserves the same. The destiny, provides bliss and the destiny gets responsible of the destruction of the universe. Thus, the destiny arranges for the pleasure, the pain, fear, the grief, old age, death, birth and all other things according to the deeds of a person. О father, therefore everything should be considered as having been arranged by destiny. There is no doubt about it. You are indeed the Vaishya of Gokula, known as the king Nanda and I am the  son of Vasudeva from Mathura; my father  getting terrified from Kamsa, left me in your  house, therefore, you enjoy the greater respect  from me than my own father and Yashoda enjoys  greater respect for me than my mother. Therefore, О lord of Vraja, you relieve yourself from the illusion and attachment because of my discourse and that of Parvati you go back to your abode delightfully.

Nanda said- О son, you remember the charming and auspicious place of Vrundavana. Why are you not reminded of the festivities of? Gokula, the cows, the beautiful bank of Yamuna river, the Rasamandala, your divine dance with cowherdesses in Rasamandala, the cowherdesses, the cowherds, Yashoda, Rohini and Radhika who is dearer to you than your live? О son for the sake of these people you must go to Gokula for some time. Thus speaking, Nanda took Krishna in his lap and started dropping tears over him. He embraced him and kissed his temples. Thereafter the blissful Krishna spoke to him.