Note: this is from the old articles written by Srila Prabhupada. Interesting particularly to note that the newspapers -WORLD headlines- of today carry the SAME features of what is happening NOW. Only the names of the people and places have changed. SAME things happening as it was then. History repeats itself. Also – the SYMPTOMS of Kali Yuga are shown – in detail.
Man is the Architect of His Own Fortune
[This has been proofread against the original handwritten manuscript with corrections made for Folio.—Ed]
Man is the architect of his own fortune.
Man is the architect of his own fortune. That is an old well known English maxim and the good fortune that the man has evolved out for him at the present moment can be amply verified as soon as we receive our morning newspapers. The sample good news that we are receiving now in every morning are as follows:
(1) Bihar Government Deny starvation death. (A.B.P. 23.45)
(2) Rice selling at 55 and salt at 80/- per (?).
(3) People living on cotton & Potato leaves.
(4) 600 Viet Minh Troops Taken Prisoner.
(5) 500 mounds of food burnt in granary.
(6) Famine conditions in such and such places.
(7) Progressive decontrol urged in Conferences.
(8) Recovery of Abducted women.
(9) (?) on woes of Refugees.
(10) High Government official Arrested.
(11) Government Crisis in Britain.
(12) Troops Patrolling Streets of Cooch Behar
(13) Mob attacks ____’s House and injures son.
(14) Congress Office Raided
(15) Rationing Official Assaulted
(16) Present Administration (?) and compared with past
(17) 30,000 Nepalese migrate to India.
(18) Persian students defy Government Ban.
(19) Mile long procession in Sympathy with Killed oil workers.
(20) Red offensive Imminent.
(21) Principal Garg Killed by examinees
(22) Daring Robbery at Lloyds Bank.
(23) Rs. 12 lakhs taken away.
(24) Baroda Ex-Rulers Submission to President.
Thoughtful men must now seriously think how we are marching towards the progressive way of human civilization. The influence of modern civilizing process, by the highests(?) of planning commissions, is gradually leading us to a destination summarised as follows:
(1) Destruction of Faith, Truthfulness, cleanliness, Forgiveness, Mercy, Longevity, Strength and Memory.
(2) Accumulation of vast wealth is the standard of recognition for one’s parentage, behavior and good qualities.
(3) Black-market in every business deal.
(4) Sexuality in conjugal love.
(5) Only a piece of thread on the body marks the sign of Brahmanism.
(6) Only a red garment as the sign of a sannyṛs.
(7) No justice in the law Court without money.
(8) Impartinance as the sign of education.
(9) Poverty means dishonesty.
(10) Pride means honesty.
(11) Acceptance by contract means marriage.
(12) Keeping long hairs means beauty.
(13) Exaggeration means truthfulness.
(14) Filling the stomach means self-realization.
(15) Providing the wife & children means ability.
(16) Religiosity means to acquire some extraordinary name & fame.
When we have produced such a glorious sample of human civilization, certainly democracy will mean nothing but accumulating a large number of votes by hook or crook and then capture the political power. As a result of such unruly(unholy?) election heads of political power, will be by nature merciless, greedy and bestowed with the qualities of the plunderers. The unfortunate voters who have not much discriminating power as victimized by the chain of modern civilizing process become subjected to the plundering process of the political heads in the matter of their hearth and home.
These unfortunate people being too much harrassed by governmental taxes and famine, are forced to accept cotton and potato or other leaves as foodstuff. They become forced to accept meat and flesh instead of grains and vegetables and they are obliged to assimilate hydrogenated injurious oil in place milk and ghee. By such eating process they are attacked with cholera, typhoid, dysentry and tuberculosis to meet an end of miserable life.
They are subjected to the pangs of winter and summer, rains and sun besides hunger, thirst, disappointment, frustration. Thus they have to make a sad end of life by over anxiety due to all round scarcity.
That is the sum and substance of the advancement of material civilization. Undoubtedly we have produced by dint of advancement of having the motors, the radios, the cinemas, the railways, the airways, the (? ), the medicines, the toilets, the big buildings, the big mills, agricultural implements, big offices, (?), hodgepodge philosophers, industrialists, poets, scientists, politicians, iron men, statesmen and what not but the net result is no food, no clothing, no shelter, no peace.
Will any thinking and sober man with any sense of human reasoning call this status of human life as civilized? We think not. This unrestricted material progress of civilization must be checked if humanity has to exist at all and the big brains who pose to lead the people in general must now try to understand and recognise that matter is not all in all but it is subordinate to the spirit.
The matter is produced of inferior nature while the spirit is born of a superior nature. The living being whatever it may be is the particle of that spirit qualitatively one & equal with the Supreme Spirit. The living entities are parts & parcels of the Supreme Spirit. The ideology of material civilization must be changed into the ideology of spiritual civilization. Material civilization is based on the ideology of unsatiable desire for sense gratification which leads to anger when such sense gratification remains unsatisfied and from anger it turns to bewilderment which again turns into loss of memory. This loss of memory is complete destruction of spiritual consciousness which is the highest type of ignorance.
Leaders of material ideology came and gone after having enjoyed this material earth for a limited period. The material bodies of such leaders of ideology under various big big names are now turned into worms, stools or ashes and such materialistic leaders who fought so much on their different ideologies did not know what should be permanent basis of civilization. Most of them have gone to the lowest status of the kingdom of hell due to their unholy action of public nuisance. Such leader falsely thinks that this material world is now enjoyed by him and afterwards it shall be enjoyed by his generations without knowing what he is and what are his (?). Such false sense of proprietorship arises out of (?) ignorance by loss of memory of spiritual consciousness.
By falsely accepting this material body as the real self the foolish people engage themselves in the gross materialistic activities resulting in the conditions mentioned above but later on he goes away under the laws of higher authority leaving both the material world and material body behind them. They leave behind only a historical narration of their transient life without any (?) tangible benefit for the human being. The mother earth when the leaders and kings wanted to exploit laughs at these leaders and kings when she sees that the leaders and kings cannot go away but the earth remains where she is.
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The symptoms of Kali-yuga are vividly described in another chapter of Bhāgavatam (Canto 12 Chapter 2) [S.B. 12.2.1]. It is said there that money will be the pivot of all activities in the Kali-yuga. It is money only which shall always and alone classify the different orders of society without any reference to the quality of birth or work and it is money only which will decide the propriety of one’s claim in the matter of justice, freedom and equality. Personal attractiveness will decide the question of conjugal life between husband and wife and the process of cheating each other will be the crux of business transactions. Sexuality will be considered as the standard of men’s or women’s superiority and a mere piece of thread on the body will mark the sign of one’s belonging in higher three orders of society. Simply by a change of garb i.e. from a white garment to the red and holding a rod as a mark of renunciation, will transfer anybody to the renounced order of life. One’s inability to pay sufficiently will deprive one of receiving justice in the court and anyone who shall have the audacity to be an egoist, shall be considered as the most learned fellow.
To become stricken with poverty will be considered as one’s being dishonest and pride and vanity will be the standard of honesty. Marriage will be validated by mere acceptance of an agreement and the simple act of washing one’s body will serve all purposes of dressing.
Holy places of sacred water situated far off from one’s home, will be considered as the place of pilgrimage; keeping long hairs on the head will be misunderstood as increasing the lustre of one’s personal beauty. Self-realization will be identified with the mere filling of one’s belly with foodstuff; truth will be realised by impartinance(?) of behavior; ability will be measured by the process of maintaining one’s family well, and religiosity will be practised for the sake of reputation.
When the whole atmosphere will be surcharged with the abovementioned symptoms of Kali-yuga—whoever amongst the brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas or śūdras will be powerful, shall capture the reins of government. Such governmental administrators will naturally be unkind, selfish, covetous and expert in exploiting poor citizens by plundering their money and women. In such conditions of life the citizens will fly from one place to another as displaced refugees and being overpowered by constant visits of famine, epidemic diseases and overburdened by state taxes, will begin to eat grass, roots, meats, seeds, honey and unknown fruits to the risk of life. Due to scarcity of rains in the field they will gradually disappear from the surface of the earth.
The population in the Kali-yuga will be overtroubled by communal strife, hunger, thirst, diseases, winter, summer, rains and unparalleled anxiety for everything. The living bodies will gradually diminish in stature, the spiritual division of social orders such as four castes or four āśramas will be overcrowded only by the faithless unbelievers and they will lose all faith in the Vedic way of spiritual advancement. The infidel ruler will turn to one to become plunderer and the people in general will be infected unnecessarily with the habit of stealing, dishonesty, violence and similar rabid acts. There will remain no other caste except the śūdras, the cow being reduced to the stature of goat, the hermitages and monasteries being coverted into ordinary house, friendship being maintained only in relation with sexuality, medicinal herbs being impotent in efficacy like grass, big trees being shortened like the saplings, monsoon being devoid of rains and full of lightning and the general population being forced to labour like the ass, Śrī Kṛṣṇa the Personality of Godhead will appear to reclaim the faithful and vanquish the faithless.
The life of Kali-yuga is estimated to the extent of four lakhs and thirty-two thousands of years beginning from the time of King Parīkṣit i.e. after the battle of Kurukṣetra. As such it will take long long years before the advent of Kalki Avatāra at the end of the Kali-yuga. But the symptoms of Kali-yuga are already in vogue and the state of affairs will gradually deteriorate from bad to worse as it is stated in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa in the most unambiguous term. The affairs will degrade to such an extent that the people in general will look like the Satan of the first magnitude being perturbed by anxieties in respect of state taxes, want of sufficient fooding, clothing, drinking, sleeping, bathing and sexuality. Addicted to unrestricted sexual pleasures only and act of filling the belly with foodstuff not fit for human consumption, low minded debauches will not scruple even to refuse maintaining old father helpless children and wife married from respectable family. The people of Kali-yuga will not worship the Almighty Godhead who is worshiped even by Brahmā and Śiva.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī the enlightened professor of Bhāgavatam said to King Parīkṣit that in spite of all the abovementioned deformities of the Kali-yuga, there is one most valuable source of transcendental realization in this age. The asset is that in the Kali-yuga one can transcend all the above troubles and reach to the supreme goal of life simply by chanting process of the transcendental holy name of Kṛṣṇa. That is a special prerogative chance for this age.
He (Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī) especially stressed on the process of chanting the holy name of God in this age because the same results obtained through regular meditation of Viṣṇu in the Satya-yuga, by worshipping in the Dvāpara-yuga and by offering sacrifices in the Tretā-yuga, can be achieved easily simply by the abovementioned transcendental chanting method.
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