It is said in the Hindu religion that the ‘Kaliyuga’ is the worst of all Yugas. This Yuga is often described as ‘ghor Kaliyuga’ or the worst Kaliyuga. In this Yuga man eats man; People loot and cheat; No respect for tradition and Religion; no austerity; man became too materialistic – he loves money alone; man, wages too many wars; abundance of hunger & poverty… etc. The humanity will be destroyed completely, at the end of this Yuga; Hindu God Vishnu will again incarnate as the ‘Kalki Bhagwan’.
In the Krta Yuga or Satya Yuga… there was less of truth (Satya) & more of untruth (asatya). More of dishonesty and cheating than honesty. The first four avatars appear in this Yuga. The God had to change his appearance every time to establish Satya. He was too busy killing… Mastya, Kurma, Varaha and Narasimha avatars belong to this Yuga. There was abundance of bad, man looted, killed, raped man. Human life is of little importance… in fact no value!
Let me come to the Yuga of Lord Ram – we have ambitious women who wanted their children to become the king. The great story of Ramayana only talks of the characters in it. It does not talk of the people in general either directly or indirectly; it does not talk of the penal system they followed. Women had the freedom to co-habit with anyone; men can suspect the fidelity of their wives. Stealing others property, wives & husbands is common. Waging wars and killing the innocents is so common that the said wars were called the ‘Dharma Yudh’. People lived in property, often sold themselves, wives and daughters as slaves for money. I am wondering if there could be a Yuga which is worse.
The Yuga of Lord Ram is called the ‘Treta’ (three) Yuga. There were the three incarnations of Lord Vishnu – 5th, 6th and 7th – Vamana, Parashurama and Rama. Pray tell me, why the God came three times? The repeated arrival of the God only proves that the Treta Yuga is the worst Yuga ever. There was plenty worse and no good. This is the Yuga where the God was busy killing. And look how He did it. He did not kill the bad …He killed the bad man – the doer of bad. Thus, there was no scope for the bad man to reform.
During the Yuga Lord Krishna, the people remained poor, died of diseases; hunger and illiteracy were common during that time. Nobody was rich except the king. Rapes, adultery, kidnapping and cheating were the norm. When the king of Dwaraka wants a woman, she would be his. You may call the 16000 girlfriends either as the ‘Gopikas’ or with any other name. It makes no difference. When you are the king with power and army; when you have money in coffers and support of the temple priests – it is not difficult to make any woman – be it a girl, married lady, widow or an old woman to fall in deep love with you! Yet that Yuga and those times seem to be the best for us today! This very notion and conclusion are simply too great to digest!
Allow me to discuss about the Kali Yuga. KAL in Sanskrit means time! According to the Dashavatar there is one more Avatar to come. Dashavatar – the 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu – accounts for 9 avatars in the earlier Yugas. Man is not fighting one another these days… excepting a few instances. No famines. No diseases. We found a medicine in ‘globalization’ for famines and cure for almost every illness / disease. People no more die of hunger & thirst. They live in the comfort of modern science. No illiteracy. All people know how to read & write. Anyone can read the Vedas & interpret. The people debate about the existence of God. In Kali Yuga, the Gods have no work. Lord Vishnu is confused. He expected worst in Kali Yuga. He is confused about when to incarnate as the Kalki Bhagwan. He began to realize that the people of Kali Yuga are in no need of the 10th incarnation. The people with their hard work and intelligence became gods! Thus, Kali Yuga is not the Yuga of doom. It is not the miserable Yuga as is usually projected. It is the Yuga of bliss and happiness. This is the only Yuga in Hindu human history where man is at peace with himself. Unlike the earlier Yugas this Yuga is the Yuga of Happiness & Plenty.
Every Hindu wonders today about his God! Across the Yugas, the nine incarnations of Lord Vishnu did not kill the bad… they killed a Hiranayakashyap… a Ravan and a Kansa… they killed the bad man … not the bad! This perpetuated the bad men / the bad doers. Bad flourished, undiminished. The man of Kali Yuga, the Golden Yuga of human age, believes in annihilating the bad not the doer… they prefer to reform him. Thus, the people of Kali Yuga are more human than the earlier human gods.
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
