Sree Krishna, the Lord of Love

by Baba Premananda Bharati

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.