SECTION X. THE IRON AGE.
But even these attempts and safeguards for keeping up the higher individuality of the human race fail to retard the course of the degeneration which Nature herself undergoes in the process of time. The fruit of Divine Cycle, spoken of in the beginning of the last Section, reaches an advanced stage of rottenness which marks the commencement of the Twilight Period of the Kali, called also Tamas or the Dark Age. The characteristics of Kali are symptoms of Nature filled with denser gloom than heretofore.
The usual Kali, the last section of every Divine Cycle, is much more dense with Tama (darkness) than the one in which we are living now. The reason is that at the junction of the last Dwāpar and the present Kali, the fullest incarnation of the Supreme Deity, Sri Krishna himself, came on earth to dwell among men for a period of a hundred years. This Avatār and source of all Avatārs, this central Form-Point of All-Pervading Brahm, this Embodiment of Para-Brahm, is gracious enough to come and dwell among men on earth only once in 71 Divine cycles. We, the degenerated mortals of this Dark Age, are more fortunate than even humanity of many a Golden or Silver Age. The Supreme Lord sanctifies the soil of the earth-plane of every universe with the all-purifying touch of His Lotus-Feet by turns. The countless universes that spring out of Him and return in germ-form again into Him have the grace of His personal touch and supervision at appointed times. When Krishna comes to live in any of the universes, Nature therein is turned inside out, so that the inmost essence of it may flow over its surface and wash off all the causes of pollution. It has been recorded by the contemporary sages of Krishna-Leelā, the all-knowing sages who came down to earth from higher planes to act as scribes of the Lord's deeds, that by the coming of Krishna not only the 36,000 years, forming the junction period of Kali, was destroyed, but also almost half of the age of Kali proper, while the Lord's Rash-Dance with the Gopis absorbed a whole Kalpa covering 36,000 Divine cycles out of the age of Brahmā.
The age of Brahmā is the age of the universe, that is to say, the age of Brahmā is equal to the duration of creation. Brahmā lives for 100 Brāhmic years and one Brāhmic year is made up of 360 Brāhmic days. One day of Brahmā is equal to one Kalpa, so is his night. A Kalpa is equal to 12,000,000 divine years. One night of Brahmā covers the same period of time so that one day and one night of Brahmā covers 24,000,000 divine years. Multiplying these figures by 360 we get 8,640,000,000 divine years, which is the span of one year of Brahmā. Multiplying these figures by 100 we get the span of Brahmā's age, 864,000,000,000 divine years, which being multiplied by 360 we get 311,040,000,000,000 human (lunar) years, the age of Brahmā, the duration of creation.
Thus the night of the Rash-Dance not only absorbed one Kalpa equal to 4,320,000,000 lunar years out of the duration of creation, but also 36,000 years which form the junction of Dwāpar and Kali, as also about half the span of the Kali proper. About this last there is no authoritative statement in the Shāstras, but it has been stated therein that when Krishna left the earth and went up to His Abode, the forces of "advanced Kali" overtook humanity. Now, according to the Hindoo almanacs, about 5,000 years only have passed since Krishna's departure, which would mean that it is now but the beginning of Kali proper, the span of which is 360,000 years. But the signs and symptoms of the times already visible are unmistakably of the middle Kali, detailed descriptive features of which are to be found in the Mahābhārata as also in all the Purānas. This being so, it is not a wrong supposition that we are already in the middle Kali and that Krishna-Leelā has also taken away half the age of Kali proper.
Nor is it necessary that the Kali has to pass through the conventional figures of its duration given in the Shāstras. What is true of individual humanity is true also of the whole mass of humanity which represents Kali. Kali is nothing else but the forms of Nature's changes of the latter end of a Divine cycle. We, men and beasts and trees and grass, productions of Nature, represent the phases and features of Kali. Dense Tama working within Nature brings out the characteristics of this dark age to the surface of the earth. Man being the most highly organized product and the most powerful medium of her attributes, the thoughts and actions of men are most affected by it. The dark thoughts and actions, called sin in common parlance of humanity, form the sins of Kali which represents the spirit of human conduct and characteristics in the Dark Age. We see that people, who are naturally healthy and robust, shorten their longevity by over-indulging in vice. Thus a life of vice or sin, that is, life lived in violation of Nature's laws, begets diseases of the body which bring about early destruction. A man for instance, who, according to his natural state of health, ought to live for one hundred years, is often found to die at the age of thirty, a victim of dissipated life. This rule applies to Kali. All our accumulated sins form Kali's sins. And these accumulated sins are begetting diseases in the body and mind of humanity from which Kali must die an early death.
This Kali, therefore, with its rapidly increasing accumulation of sin, may come to an end in less than 10,000 years, its conventional period of existence, 360,000 years, being condensed into that short space of time. Judging from the signs of an advanced state of rottenness, already developed, it would seem as if the worst features which hasten its end may manifest themselves in less than a few hundred years. But, like wheels within wheels, the Satya, Tretā and Dwāpar cycles have their sway through its duration by turns. By this I mean that during the course of Kali (Iron Age) features and characteristics of the Golden, Silver and Copper Ages manifest themselves by turns all through it. Indeed, the spirit and attributes of these four cycles weigh the moral and physical atmosphere of each day and night. Supposing the average day begin at 6 A.M., the influence and the attributes of the Golden Age prevail from 6 A.M. to 3:36 P.M.; those of the Silver Age prevail from 3:36 P.M. to 10:48 P.M.; those of the Copper Age from 10:48 P.M. to 3:36 A.M., and those of the Iron Age from 3:36 A.M. to 6 A.M. Illumination and comparative calmness dwell within and without us from morning tip to high noon owing to the predominance of Sattwa, the predominant attribute of the Golden Age. From noon activity (Rāja) asserts itself, and by about 3 o'clock in the afternoon it gains full force when light (inside and out of us) is on the decline and calmness is disturbed, introducing the influence of the Silver Age, which lasts until about 11 at night, when Tama (Darkness) begins its reign and, combined with Rāja, holds the rule of the Copper Age. The signs of Tama are laziness, inaction, sleep, etc. We begin to experience these from it o'clock at night and until three in the morning slumber and gloom envelop us and Nature. But sleep and darkness are deepest from three to five in the morning, these hours are ruled by Kali, the Dark Age.
Thus cycles revolve within cycles as they revolve even within the smallest cycle, called Throughout the Iron Age, the conditions of the first three cycles prevail one after the other, and when this influence of the Copper Age conditions in the Kali Age spends itself, conditions of darker Kali prevail for a time: Then again signs are visible of Golden Age influence and after a time degenerate into Silver Age phases, then into Copper Age mixed light, then again into the deep gloom of Kali within Kali, and so on. As Kali advances more and more the successive, rotatory influences of the other three cycles become feebler and feebler, and at last under the deepest gloom of Kali gaining fullest power, their influences are kept down absolutely. Here begins the end of the Kali period. Soon after the signs of the coming Golden Age are visible. These ever recurring conditions of the Golden and Silver Ages, though feeble in their influence, counteract the destructive influences of vice and sin and thus help to save the life of Kali from coming to an end all too soon.
The Kali Yuga is called the Iron Age, because gold, silver and copper becoming scarcer, people use all sorts of mixed metals, but chiefly iron, in making household utensils, iron being found in great abundance. The average stature of mankind is three and a half cubits or 5 feet 9 inches. Virtue is reduced to one-quarter, the other three-quarters being made up by vice. With the decrease of spirituality ill every succeeding age, the root of vitality has been transferred from marrow to bone, from bone to blood. Now, in the Kali that root of life is destroyed. Life in this age is generally sustained by food alone. The effect of constant concentration upon changeful, external objects rebounds upon the body, causing loss of tissue greater than that in the former ages, which men still have their minds turned inwards, between whiles, to have a dip in the source of All-Life—the soul.
The Vedas in the Iron Age are no more understandable to the people in their original sound-embodiments except to a small portion of spiritual Brāhmans. They are therefore presented to the people in general in the form of Shāstras and Purānas. These embody the Vedic truths, principles and ideas in easy constructions and simple language, illustrated by examples and stories drawn from facts in life of the past ages. The Shāstras are, therefore, nothing but the Vedas, simplified, explained and illustrated, with the object of enabling the deteriorated intellect of the Iron Age man to grasp the light and the spirit of the Storehouse of Revealed Wisdom. The ceremonial parts of the Vedas are likewise modified and rendered easier for practice in the form of Smritis (forms of spiritual duties and sacrifices) the daily performance of which is enjoined upon the four-caste people.
Yet for all that, despite all these strenuous efforts of the small spiritual portion of the people to save the souls of their brethren from succumbing to the dark forces of the age and the allurements of a material life of undisciplined liberty and license, human society falls into a mental and material state of chaos, typical of the stage of complete rottenness of a fruit. As many grains of wheat when ground in a mill look like one substance, called flour, which means so many separate grains of wheat have been divided into such minute parts that they appear as one substance; so, in this most advanced stage of decomposition of human society, its various and separate composing parts and phases—religious, racial and material—will be divided into one whole-looking mass of separate minute units. People's minds, at this latter end of the age, will be so far removed from the idea and notion of God and the soul that the Vedas, the Bible and all other religious books and philosophies that are now extant will disappear, and even the fact that they had at any time existed will be completely forgotten. Churches and temples, mosques and synagogues will no more be seen on the face of the earth, humanity will live for life itself—the grossest material life. Each individual will differ from the other on all imaginable points of view on all subjects. Every man and woman will be his or her own God or ideal. There will be no sympathy between them, each one asserting his or her independence over all of his or her fellow creatures. They will think, act, move, eat, sleep as their own wild, wilful dispositions will prompt causing quarrels and fighting between another. Selfishness and aggression will the keynote of their character, the number of Mlechhas and Yavans and outcasted people increases out of all proportion to the number of the four-caste people who may now be called the Root Race of the earth. In the process of time this Root Race of people will cling round the centre of the earth to save their spiritual instincts, pure ways of living, customs and habits from being contaminated by association with the strayed portion of humanity who now form the greatest majority. As, when in the throes of death, through disease, the only visible action of life is centered in the heart, while all other parts are numb and comparatively lifeless, so with the advance of Kali, the spiritual life becomes centered in the heart of the earth. This heart of the earth is called in the ancient Scriptures the Sea-Girt Isle or peninsula, the Belt of the Earth's Body—now called India. In this heart only of the earth live the original four-caste people, while the rest, broken away and divorced from the parent stock and religion, are scattered all over the rest of her body.
The signs of advanced Kali are already visible all over the earth at the present moment, nay, even of its most degenerated stage, especially in the West—signs and symptoms which are manifesting themselves here and there even in men of the Root Race. What a horrid state of affairs the closing period of Kali will bring about may be judged from the prophesies made five thousand years ago by the illuminated sages of this Root Race, prophesies which are correct in startling exactitude and some of which are on all fours with the signs and characteristics of our present period, as will be seen from a few extracts from them given below.
The conditions of the different stages of Kali have been described in all the eighteen Purānas, and the Mahābhārata which embody the history of the human race from creation to destruction—the past, present and future phases of human society of all times and of all climes. The following few details translated from a minute description of the early, middle and final stages of the Kali, given by the Mārkandeya, in reply to questions put in to Kali by King Yudhisthira in an assemblage of saints, kings and nobles, inspired by incarnated Krishna, who was present in person, will be of interest to most of my readers:
Raja Yudhisthira, Emperorer of Bhārat-varsha, the central of the seven continents of the ancient world (now known as all the world), during his sojourn among the Rishis (saints) of Kāmyak Forest, with a view to ascertain the future state of the world, asked the immortal saint (Brahmarshi) Mārkandeya, "Holy one! After having beard your wonderful accounts of the creation and the destruction of the universe, we have become anxious to hear about Kali Yuga, and we beg you to describe this age in detail to us. What results will be produced by the destruction of the Root Religion? What will the valor, strength, food, behavior, costume and longevity of the human race he like? And how long after will commence the Satya Yuga (Golden Age) again?"
Saint Mārkandeya answered: "O King! In the Satya Yuga, virtue being void of the least touch of greed, deception and other evil qualities of the mind, was like a full four-footed bull. In the Tretā, it lost one and in the Dwāpar two feet. In the Dark Age it will be only one-footed, the other three feet being destroyed by vice.
"The longevity, heroism, intelligence, strength and mind-force of mankind are gradually decreasing age by age; they will decrease still more in the Kali. The Kings, Brāhmans, Vaishyas and Sudras will practice false piety, and this false piety will be turned into a means for cheating others. Love of truth will decline in men; decline in love of truth will cause shortness of life; shortness of life will prevent the proper cultivation of wisdom, Little wisdom will beget ignorance, ignorance will beget greed, greed anger, anger delusion. And swayed by greed, anger, delusion and sensuality, they will be envious of and antagonistic to each other.
"The twice-born castes will become void of truth and holy meditation. The mean Chandals (pariahs) will behave like Kshatriyas and Kshatriyas will imitate the ways of the Chandals. Husbands will become extremely henpecked; feed upon fish, flesh and milk of goat and sheep. Man will aggress upon and develop an irreligious, atheistic and thievish nature.
"People will not discriminate about the eatableness or uneatableness of any food. Brāhmans will cease performing spiritual practices, will denounce the Vedas, and being deluded by false discussion give up holy ceremonials and engage themselves in mean actions. Father and son will feel no compunction in killing each other, but will rather feel delighted at the deed and call it an act of God.
"The whole world will become Mlechha (unclean and barbarous) void of religious performances and ceremonials, gladness and festivities. Almost all people will be miserly, defame their friends and defraud and steal the money of poor unprotected widows. They will possess little strength and no energy, yet be greedy and filled with material, sensual attachments; will gladly listen to the advices of well-known bad persons and accept charity by false pretences.
"Conceited yet illiterate kings will challenge one another to fight, will try to kill one another, and will be like thorns in the sides of their subjects. Setting at naught their duties of protecting the people, they will, swayed by greed and pride, be ever anxious to rob and punish them, and, prompted by their cruel heart, they will snatch away the property and wives of honest and pious men.
"None will ask a father for his daughter to marry, and no father will offer his daughter in marriage. The daughters will choose and marry their own choice without consulting anybody or going through any ceremonials.
"Brother will cheat brother. Even learned persons will lose love of truth and be addicted to telling lies; the old will act like boys, boys like old people. Cowards will brag of their bravery and brave men will act like cowards. All will eat the same kinds of food and be tilled with selfishness and delusion. No one will trust another.
"Brāhmans, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas will cease to restrain and rule the Sudras or even each other. All castes will be levelled and become one—unclean and barbarous. Fathers will not pardon sons, nor sons pardon their fathers. Wives will cease from attending upon their husbands; men and women will all be self-willed and envious of each other. People will not perform any good works or ceremonies to satisfy the gods. They will not listen to each other; there will be no gooroo (teacher) or chelā (pupil), all will be filled with the darkness of ignorance. At Kali-end. their longevity will be sixteen years; most will die immediately after that age is reached. Women will give birth to children at the age of seven or eight, and, in some cases, even at five or six; men will beget children at the age of ten or twelve; in some cases, even at the age of seven or eight. No husband will be satisfied with his wife, no wife satisfied with her husband. They will have very little wealth, and even those who will have no wealth whatever will wear the false marks of wealth. Envy will be predominant in every mind, hunger ever burning in every stomach. Cross-road and streets will be thronged by wantons and libertines. Women, forsaking shame, will bear spite and grudge for their husbands. Men will be all of unclean habits, manners and customs, cat anything and everything and will be terrible in every way and action. They will cheat all in buying and selling of goods, out of sheer greed.
"None will care to acquire spiritual wisdom, yet all will be busied in performing spiritual ceremonies for form's sake and be naturally addicted to crooked acts. They will show the faults of each other. People will live in constant fear of losing their lives as victims of their own greed and envy. The Sudras will kill Brāhmans and rob them of their property, and the Brāhmans being thus oppressed will cry out in agony and out of fear will roam unprotected on the surface of the earth. Some of them will take refuge in lonely spots on river banks, in mountains and in dangerous places to save their lives; others being oppressed by the grinding taxes of unjust kings, will lose all patience, and taking to the services of Sudras, will perform forbidden acts.
"The generality of people will become fierce and of murderous propensities. The Sudras will become spiritual preceptors and Brāhmans will listen to them, believing their wrong precepts to be demonstrated facts. The low will be high and the high low: all conditions will be reversed. All, all people will forsake God and worship Mammon. The Sudras will cease from serving Brāhmans. The Earth will no longer be adorned by the temples of God. All mankind will be impious and develop frightful characters. Meat will be their food, liquor their drink. The one object of life will be to increase flesh and blood. The rain-clouds towards the close of Kali will pour down rains out of season so that, overwhelmed by incessant and untimely rain, people will subsist on fruit and roots. Pupils will not care for the lessons of their teachers, temporal or other, and will act against their wishes. The poverty-stricken Gooroos (spiritual teachers) will curse their disciples. There will not be the least trace of respect left in the world. The relations of friends and kiths and kins will depend upon obligations of money.
"At the close of the cycle flowers will grow upon flowers, fruits upon fruits, and, owing to the rains not falling in season, there will grow but scanty crops, so that famine-stricken populations of the earth will cry out in hunger and roam upon her surface. Fragrant things will lose their odor, sweet juices will lose their sweetness, seeds will not germinate properly.
"Women will transfer their love from husbands to servants. All women, including wives of heroes, will prefer somebody else to their husbands for lovers. Pious men will be in mean stations, short-lived and poor; vicious men will occupy high positions, have long life and prosperity. There will be constant breaking out of fires all over the land. Tired and hungry wayfarers will ask for food and refuge from householders in vain, and out of despair rest and sleep upon the road. Crows and other birds, snakes and beasts will make unearthly noises."
When Nature and human society will be thus revolutionized, reaction will naturally set ill. When the fruit of Divine Cycle will thus reach its extreme stage of rottenness, out of its seed will spring forth a shoot which will grow into a fresh tree. That tree, in turn, will bear fresh fruit—a fresh Divine Cycle. In this state of the darkest gloom, faint streaks of russet light will be visible which will grow bright anon and give birth to the dawn of the Golden Age again.
Reaction is the law of Nature, reaction is the result of every phase of action. When vice has its full run on the face of the globe, when it has reached its lowest depth and wildest reign, it spends its force, becomes weakened, allowing virtue to lift its head once more and build its palace of light upon its ruins. Vice is born of Tama, and virtue of Sattwa and the active force of both is Rāja. Time is the self-manifesting kaleidoscopic revolution of color-pictures on the transparent canvas of ether. After the deepest shades of dark colors are exhausted, there is a reaction of lighter colors. When Tama has exhausted its force, Sattwa asserts itself by natural law.
This healthy reaction growing stronger will gradually evolve some order out of the chaos of the closing Kali. A portion of the people will get disgusted with the reign of utmost licence and inharmony, and, endowed with strong mental force to resist the influence of the age, will pierce the veil of darkness enveloping everything and see the light that dwells within. These will stimulate this reaction, and spread the discovered light among others groping in the darkness for that light.
The four castes will be gradually established once more in some fashion.
At this stage will be born in the village of Sambhalpur in India a Brāhman of great spiritual force, named Vishnujashā, and in time will become the father of the coming Incarnation of Vishnoo, one of the most powerful incarnations—Kalki. The Lord Kalki will rapidly grow into youth and spiritual power. At his mere mental call will come to him countless vehicles, armours, all kinds of weapons of war and soldiers. He will then lead them to battle against all the Mlechhas, robbers and tyrants, all over the world, who will fall shouting in agony before his mammoth sword. After extirpating them all, the hold will establish once again perfect order and harmony on the surface of the earth. After ruling the world as Emperor and infusing into humanity the spirit of highest spirituality, Kalki will make over the charge of the earth to the Brāhmans and disappear after entering a most beautiful forest.
Here will commence the Junction period of coming Golden Age. During this period, covering 144,000 lunar years, all germs of vice, crime and sin will be destroyed and men will become engaged in spiritual practices and ceremonials. The earth will be adorned with beautiful forests and gardens, buildings, lakes, reservoirs, and temples of God and many are the sacred ceremonies that will be constantly performed on her surface. Everywhere will be visible holy Brāhmans, saints and anchorites. The four stages of life which before were filled with rogues will now be filled by pious, honest and truthful men. The deep-rooted bad instincts and associations will then be driven out of the minds of all people. All the crops will grow plentifully in their proper seasons. All people will be employed in charitable acts, religious sacrifices, and in performing spiritual duties. The Brāhmans will again be absorbed in holy meditations, satisfied and serene; the Kshatriyas will exhibit their valor; the kings rule the world with justice and mercy; the Vaishyas carry on trade and agriculture; the Sudras serve the three upper castes with loving service.
This purifying process of humanity will be carried on all through the 144,000 years bringing about the highest spiritual, mental and physical development. From the shortest stature to which the human body will be decreased, it will gradually, through this long process of time and culture, be increased once again to the height of 21 cubits or 31 1/2 feet. With the height of the body will be reached the height of spiritual perfection. All, all men and women will once again enjoy the blessings of predominant Sattwa within Nature and roam upon the earth in the Garden of Eden with their vision turned inwards into the soul of things, their body clad with the sky, their hearts filled with ecstasy, their thoughts centered upon God. We all who are now walking the earth, had walked in the last Golden Ago and formed members of that godly fraternity of Adams and Eves and shall do so in the coming Golden Age, unless we develop higher soul-consciousness and, before the end of the present Kali, transfer ourselves to any the upper four spheres or to the highest beyond the universe—Golaka—the abode of Absolute Love, to dwell with our only Lover and Beloved—Krishna.