"But in the kali, the age of wrath and darkness, the earth becomes a realm of night, and the sattva guna is all but lost in dominating sinfulness. It is in the spiritual apostasies of the brahmanas that the evil of kali yuga is rooted; for, the holy ones are corrupted in that age, and forgetting dharma, they turn to unthinkable sins. Why, in the kali yuga, the twice-born themselves are ignorant of the Veda."
Markandeya sighed as if he could hardly bear the thought. The Pandavas shuddered at the mention of the kali, the fell yuga that lay in wait around the corner of time. Krishna, alone, was as serene as ever. He said with a laugh, "But the kali is the age into which every spirit of all the other ages prays to be born. For it is the easiest age in which to have moksha." Softly he said, "They say that in the kali yuga a man need not perform any great deed or sacrifice; he need not even be pure. Let him but take the name of God, and he shall be liberated. Is this true, O Markandeya?"
There were fathomless mysteries beneath the surface of his words. Did his tone gently mock the rishi? Was there so much the sage had left out of what he said, which, indeed, he did not begin to suspect? Great truths that dark Krishna knew. Other worlds stirred in the heart of the earth: unknown, unknowable, legendary dimensions, all of them uncannily part of Krishna's mystery. The Pandavas saw their cousin transformed. It was not a physical change; but for that instant, he seemed to encompass the very universe within himself.
The moment passed. Krishna smiled at them. He looked at Markandeya, who seemed to have turned to stone in the Avatara's mystic moment. The Blue One said, "Muni, you have not answered my question about the kali yuga. Is it true, what they say, that it is the simplest age for a man to attain moksha in? Is it enough for a man to chant the name of God in the evil yuga, for him to find nirvana?"
And now, here was another mystery: Krishna was full of earnest inquiry; he was an anxious seeker. Truly, as if he sought liberation for himself, or as if he could liberate all mankind, if he only found moksha first; as if all Time was just Krishna's quest for his own freedom. Markandeya and the Pandavas sat absorbed in the Dark One's mystery. Somehow, they had never thought of him as a seeker. They realized now, especially the Pandavas, that they had never thought of him as having any needs of his own.
Krishna flashed his smile again, breaking the trance. He urged Markandeya, once more, "Tell us, Muni, about the kali yuga. Forgive my foolish interruptions; I only wondered about moksha, and how it was to be had most easily."
Markandeya said in a low voice, "Krishna, there is nothing on heaven or earth that you do not know. But it is, indeed, as you say: the kali is the simplest age in which a man may find moksha, and he can find it by just saying the name of God. Yet, the reason for this is not simple. For a man suffers horribly merely by being born into the age of wrath.
"He suffers undreamt-of terror, constantly, from within himself and from the world, as well. He lives shrouded in evil; every breath he draws is in fear. In the kali yuga, the kings who sit upon the thrones of the earth will have neither tranquillity nor dharma. They will be men mainly of tamas, full of rage, vanity and lust, full of lies. They will find their pleasure in inflicting torment and death on their subjects, even women and children. And they rise to power just briefly, and then fall away. The kings of the kali will be short-lived, greedy and rapacious.
"The people will be contaminated by the customs of others. Kings will employ wild barbarians and murderers, and these will have their say in the violent affairs of state. And with the people living in perversion, far from dharma, ruin will come to all the land.
"Wealth alone will confer nobility, regardless of a man's birth or his character; power alone will define virtue. Pleasure will be the only reason for marriage, seductiveness the quintessence of womanhood. In disputes of justice, the ability to distort the truth will determine who prevails. Just wearing a thread will determine who is a brahmana; for the twice-born will lose their dharma and be steeped in sin themselves. They will not have dhyana, gyana, yagna or bhakti, in the age of night.
"All the world will be plunged in a turbid darkness of the spirit, and the earth will be full of deceit and passion, greed and wrath. The precious waters of the soil will dry up at the fearsome ways of men. A man's worth will be decided not by his truthfulness, by his wisdom or goodness, but only by the wealth he has amassed, by even the vilest means.
"Arrogance and sin will pass for wisdom and righteousness, brashness and a loud voice for scholarship. Only the poor will have any honesty or virtue left, and the powerful will make life so miserable for them, that they, too, will become corrupt. Feebleness will be the only reason for not being employed. Just a bath in water will come to signify purification, and charity will be the only surviving virtue.
"Unimaginable evil will engulf the sons of men. Abduction will be equal to marriage, and wearing costly clothes and ornaments to dharma. The very affectation of being great will pass for greatness, and boastfulness for heroism.
"Men of power, men of great faults within themselves, and kings with the hearts of monsters, will rule the earth. Oppressed beyond endurance by their rulers, the good people of the world will flee the macabre cities of kings to hide in secret valleys between mountains, where they will turn to nature for succour, living off wild honey, roots and fruit, birds and flowers. Violence and perversions will rot the cities, and all the land. Terrible wars and demonic diseases will decimate the human race, and savage cold and scathing heat, scorching droughts and sweeping floods will terrorize the people of the kali yuga. Until, the earth will be a hell in creation, where souls are born for no pleasure at all, but only searing expiation."
Yudhishtira said quietly, "Already, there are omens of what is to come."
"It is not far from us," said Markandeya. "Why, it is prophesied that with your war against the sons of Dhritarashtra, the kali yuga will begin." He paused, and said in a low voice, "And it will truly set in when Krishna leaves the world."
Krishna murmured thoughtfully, "Yes, it will be rare for men to even say the name of God in the age of evil."
"And so they will indeed find moksha, if they do, with a devout heart," put in the rishi.
