In Hinduism it is believed that Kali Yuga is the last stage of development of all the yugas. Kali Yuga consists of twelve thousand years of the gods. One year of men is believed to be a day of the gods. These divine years may, therefore, be converted into years of mortals by multiplying them by three hundred and sixty. Thus the duration of the Kali Yuga is four lakh and thirty-two thousand years. The date of the beginning of the Kali Yuga is fixed in the thirteenth of fourteenth century B.C. when Lord Vishnu returned to heaven after his incarnation as Lord Krishna.
In the Kail age, people will not observe caste, order and institutes, or the ceremonial enjoined by the Sama, Rik and Yajur Vedas. Marriages in this age will not be celebrated according to the rituals, nor will the rulers that connect the spiritual protector and his disciple will be in force; the laws that regulate the conduct of husband and wife will be neglected and oblations, to the celestials with fire will no longer be offered. A powerful and a rich man, in whatever family he may be born, will have the right to marry maidens of every tribe. During the Kali Yuga all celestials will be considered in equal light.
Wives will desert their husbands when they will lose their wealth; and the rich only will be considered by women as their lords. He, who will distribute immense wealth, will be considered as master of men and prestige of birth will no longer be a title to supremacy. Accumulated wealth will be spent on ostentatious dwellings. The minds of men will be wholly occupied with earning money and that even will be spent on the gratification of selfish desires. Women will follow their own inclinations and will be given up to pleasure seeking. Men will endeavour to acquire riches even dishonestly. No man will part with the smallest fraction of his wealth at the sacrifice of his own interest even when requested by his friends. In the Kali age all people will consider themselves as equal with the Brahmanas; and cows will be held in reverence only because they supply milk.
At the advent of the Kali people will take their food without previous ablations and without worshipping fire, celestials or guests or offering obsequial libations to their progenitors. The women will be fickle, short of stature, gluttonous; they will all have many children and little means. They will be selfish, abject and slovenly; they will be scolds and liars; they will be indecent and immoral in their conduct and will ever attach themselves to dissolute men. And disregarding the rules of studentship, youths will study the Vedas.
In the Kali Yuga everyone, possessing cars and elephants and horses, will be a Raja; anyone who is feeble will be a slave, Vaisyas will abandon agriculture and commerce and gain a livelihood by servitude or exercise of mechanical arts; Sudras, seeking a subsistence by begging and assuming outward marks of religious mendicants, will become the impure followers of impious and heretical doctrines. During this time men will possess, little, sense, vigour virtue and will therefore; die in a short time. Even at this time men will be corrupt and as a result will not worship Lord Vishnu with ultimate dedication.
Vishnu Purana states that at the approach of the Kali Yuga the clouds will yield scanty rain, the grain will be of poor quality. The mother and father-in-law will be venerated in the place of parents: and a, man`s friend will be his brother-in-law or a man who has a People is subject to all sorts of infirmities of mind, speech and body. As a result during the Kali Yuga all sins are committed and all viciousness takes place in the society.
At the same time it has been said that the reward, which a man obtains in the Krita or Satya Yuga by abstract meditation, in the Treta by sacrifice, in the Dwapara by adoration, he receives it in the Kali Yuga by merely reciting the names of Kesava. In the Kali age, by very little exertion men attain to exalted virtue.
