Kali's Darkness Devours Dharma and Hypocrites Raise Their Own Paths
Uttara Kanda, Doha 98
Doha 98 · Movement 2 of 2
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The impurity of Kali consumes dharma. Sacred books disappear from living memory and practice, leaving communities without the texts that once corrected appetite and pride.
Into the absence step hypocrites who invent doctrines according to their own minds and establish many paths. Delusion governs the people, while greed devours the good actions that might have restored clarity.
Bhushundi asks Garuda, devotee of Hari and treasury of wisdom, to listen as he describes something of the age. The account will not be abstract condemnation. Bhushundi himself lived within this atmosphere and embodied its contradictions: outward devotion, inward pride; sacred geography, unrecognized holiness; religious identity, contempt for others. Kali's dharma is shown not only in public collapse, but in the subtle corruption by which ego dresses itself in the clothing of worship.
When scripture falls silent, pride begins writing its own revelation and greed names the road it builds as dharma.
Read the passage from the Manas
कलिमल ग्रसे धर्म सब लुप्त भए सदग्रंथ। दंभिन्ह निज मति कल्पि करि प्रगट किए बहु पंथ।।97(क)।। भए लोग सब मोहबस लोभ ग्रसे सुभ कर्म। सुनु हरिजान ग्यान निधि कहउँ कछुक कलिधर्म।।97(ख)।।
All dharma was consumed by Kali's impurity, and the sacred texts vanished. Hypocrites, inventing doctrines of their own, manifested many false paths. All people fell under the sway of delusion, and good deeds were devoured by greed. Listen, O devotee of Hari, treasure of wisdom; I shall describe some of Kali's ways.