Canto 12: Chapters 1-6

There is a Supreme Godhead, and there are saintly, powerful men who have taken the role of government leaders and represented that Godhead on earth. With the advent of the age of Kali, however, this transcendental system of government collapsed, and unauthorized, uncivilized men gradually took the reins of power.
SB 12.1.6-8

As the age of Kali progresses, all good qualities of men diminish and all impure qualities increase. Atheistic systems of so-called religion become predominant, replacing the codes of Vedic law. The kings become just like highway bandits, the people in general become dedicated to low occupations, and all the social classes become just like sudras. All cows become like goats, all spiritual hermitages become like materialistic homes, and family ties extend no further than the immediate relationship of marriage.
SB 12.2.Intro

When the age of Kali has almost ended, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will incarnate. He will appear in the village Sambhala, in the home of the exalted brahmana Visnuyasa, and will take the name Kalki. He will mount His horse Devadatta and, taking His sword in hand, will roam about the earth killing millions of bandits in the guise of kings. Then the signs of the next Satya-yuga will begin to appear. When the moon, sun and the planet Brhaspati enter simultaneously into one constellation and conjoin in the lunar mansion Pusya, Satya-yuga will begin.
SB 12.2.Intro

Bereft of systematic Vedic theology, material science has moved into the destructive realm of gross materialism, while speculative Western philosophy has drifted into the superficiality of relativistic ethics and inconclusive linguistic analysis. With so many of the best Western minds dedicated to materialistic analysis, naturally much of Western religious life, separated from the intellectual mainstream, is dominated by irrational fanaticism and unauthorized mystic and mystery cults. People have become so ignorant of the science of God that they often lump the Krsna consciousness movement in with this odd assortment of fanciful attempts at theology and religion. Thus dharma, or true religion, which is strict and conscious obedience to God’s law, is diminishing.
SB 12.2.1

Truthfulness is diminishing, simply because people do not know what the truth is. Without knowing the Absolute Truth, one cannot clearly understand the real significance or purpose of life merely by amassing huge quantities of relative or hypothetical truths.
SB 12.2.1

Unless one is purified by chanting the holy names of the Lord in an authorized program of spiritual improvement, the mind will be overwhelmed by anger, envy and all sorts of small-mindedness. Thus daya, mercy, is also decreasing. All living beings are eternally connected by their common participation in the divine existence of God. When this existential oneness is obscured through atheism and agnosticism, people are not inclined to be merciful to one another; they cannot recognize their self-interest in promoting the welfare of other living beings. In fact, people are no longer even merciful to themselves: they systematically destroy themselves through liquor, drugs, tobacco, meat-eating, sexual promiscuity and whatever other cheap gratificatory processes are available to them.

According to Vedic criteria, a man is considered high class if his behavior is enlightened, and his behavior is considered enlightened if his activities are dedicated to promoting the happiness of all creatures.
SB 12.2.2

The great Western philosopher Socrates stated that if a man is enlightened he will automatically act virtuously, and Srila Prabhupada confirmed this fact. But in the Kali-yuga this obvious truth is disregarded, and the search for knowledge and virtue has been replaced by a vicious, animalistic competition for money. Those who prevail become the “top dogs” of modern society, and their consumer power grants them a reputation as most respectable, aristocratic and well educated.
SB 12.2.2

In the age of Kali brute strength will determine law and “justice.”
SB 12.2.2

As the Western world achieved political, economic and technological hegemony over Asian lands, bogus propaganda was disseminated to the effect that Indian, and in general all non-Western, religion, theology and philosophy are somehow primitive and unscientific - mere mythology and superstition. Fortunately this arrogant, irrational view is now dissipating, and people all over the world are beginning to appreciate the staggering wealth of spiritual philosophy and science available in the Sanskrit literature of India.
SB 12.2.2

Just as human life as a whole has a great and serious purpose - namely spiritual liberation - fundamental human institutions such as marriage and child-rearing should also be dedicated to that great objective. Unfortunately, in the present age the satisfaction of the sex impulse has become the overriding, if not the exclusive, reason for marriage.
SB 12.2.3

In fact, pursuing sexual experiences with various types of bodies is similar to drinking old wine from new bottles. But few people in the Kali-yuga can understand this.
SB 12.2.3

Modern sociologists have demonstrated that in those societies chiefly governed by the Protestant ethic, poverty is considered a sign of indolence, dirtiness, stupidity, immorality and worthlessness. In a God-conscious society, however, many persons voluntarily decide to dedicate their lives not to material acquisition but rather to the pursuit of knowledge and spirituality. Thus a preference for the simple and the austere may indicate intelligence, self-control and sensitivity to the higher purpose of life. Of course, in itself poverty does not establish these virtues, but it may sometimes be the result of them. In the Kali-yuga, however, this possibility is often forgotten.
SB 12.2.4

Intellectuality is another casualty of the bewildering age of Kali. Modern so-called philosophers and scientists have created a technical, esoteric terminology for each branch of learning, and when they give lectures people consider them learned simply because of their ability to speak that which no one else can understand. In Western culture, the Greek Sophists were among the first to systematically argue for rhetoric and “efficiency” above wisdom and purity, and sophistry certainly flourishes in the twentieth century. Modern universities have very little wisdom, though they do possess a virtual infinity of technical data. Although many modern thinkers are fundamentally ignorant of the higher, spiritual reality, they are, so to speak, “good talkers,” and most people simply don’t notice their ignorance.
SB 12.2.4

In this age, the institution of marriage will degenerate. Indeed, already a marriage certificate is sometimes cynically rejected as “a mere piece of paper.” Forgetting the spiritual purpose of marriage and misunderstanding sex to be the goal of family life, lusty men and women directly engage in sexual affairs without the troublesome formalities and responsibilities of a legal relationship. Such foolish people argue that “sex is natural.” But if sex is natural, pregnancy and childbirth are equally natural. And for the child it is certainly natural to be raised by a loving father and mother and in fact to have the same father and mother throughout his life. Psychological studies confirm that a child needs to be cared for by both his father and his mother, and thus it is obviously natural for sex to be accompanied by a permanent marriage arrangement. Hypocritical people justify unrestricted sex by saying “it is natural” but to avoid the natural consequence of sex-pregnancy - they use contraceptives, which certainly do not grow on trees. Indeed, contraceptives are not at all natural. Thus hypocrisy and foolishness abound in the age of Kali.
SB 12.2.5

We need water, but that does not mean man creates water. We also need food, oxygen and many other things that we do not create. Since our general experience is that our needs correspond to available objects existing in the external world, that we appear to need a Supreme Lord would tend to indicate that in fact there is a Supreme Lord. In other words, nature endows us with a sense of need for things that actually exist and that are in fact necessary for our well-being. Similarly, we experience a need for God because we are in fact part of God and cannot live without Him.
SB 12.2.19-20

The spiritual master teaches one to relax one’s strong grip on material illusion and leave the kingdom of maya behind.
SB 12.2.44

The mode of goodness is predominant during Satya-yuga, and the mode of passion is predominant during the Treta-yuga. The mixed modes of passion and ignorance are predominant during Dvapara-yuga, and in the age of Kali the mode of ignorance is predominant.
SB 12.3.Intro

Atheism, the smallness and inferiority of all things, and devotion to the genitals and belly are very much evident in the age of Kali.
SB 12.3.Intro

Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, but it possesses one great quality: simply by the chanting of the name of Krsna, one can be delivered from material association and attain the Absolute Truth. All that was accomplished in the age of Satya by meditation, in the age of Treta by sacrificial performances and in the age of Dvapara by temple worship is easily gained during the Kali-yuga by the simple process of hari-kirtana.
SB 12.3.Intro

Any material “charitable” arrangement will inevitably be crushed by the onward march of time. Thus only realization of one’s eternal existence beyond the reach of time can make one fearless, and only freedom from material desire constitutes real freedom, for it enables one to escape the bondage of the laws of nature. Therefore real charity is to help people revive their eternal, spiritual consciousness.
SB 12.3.18

In this age, we can already observe that most people are laborers, clerks, fishermen, artisans or other kinds of workers within the sudra category. Enlightened devotees of God and noble political leaders are extremely scarce, and even independent businessmen and farmers are a vanishing breed as huge business conglomerates increasingly convert them into subservient employees. Vast regions of the earth are already populated by barbarians and semibarbarous peoples, making the entire situation dangerous and bleak. The Krsna consciousness movement is empowered to rectify the current dismal state of affairs. It is the only hope for the ghastly age called Kali-yuga.
SB 12.3.25

According to Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, within each age the other three ages occasionally manifest as sub-ages. Thus even within Satya-yuga a demon in the mode of ignorance may appear, and within the age of Kali the highest religious principles may flourish for some time.
SB 12.3.26

In fact, identification of the self with the body and the pursuit of “individual freedom” in the body rather than in the soul are signs of the most dismal ignorance and slavery to lust.
SB 12.3.31

Many large cities are unsafe at night. For example, it is understood that no sane person will walk in New York’s Central Park at night because he knows he will almost certainly be mugged. Apart from ordinary thieves, who abound in this age, large cities are filled with cutthroat businessmen, who enthusiastically convince people to purchase and consume useless or even harmful products. It has been well documented that beef, tobacco, liquor and many other modern products destroy one’s physical health, what to speak of mental health, and yet modern capitalists do not hesitate to use every psychological trick in the book to convince people to consume these things. Modern cities are full of mental and atmospheric pollution, and even ordinary citizens are finding them unbearable.
SB 12.3.32

In Vedic culture, at the age of fifty, couples retire to sacred places for austere life and spiritual perfection. In countries like America, however, retirement cities have been constructed wherein elderly people can make fools of themselves by wasting the last years of their lives playing golf, ping-pong and shuffleboard and by engaging in pathetic attempts at love affairs even while their bodies are horribly rotting and their minds are growing senile. This shameless abuse of the venerable last years of life denotes a stubborn unwillingness to acknowledge the actual purpose of human life and is certainly an offense against God.
SB 12.3.33

In India, the cow is considered sacred not because Indian people are primitive worshipers of mythological totems but because Hindus intelligently understand that the cow is a mother.
SB 12.3.36

Generally ignorant of spiritual science, parents cannot lead their children on the path of liberation and thus fail to fulfill their primary responsibility in family life.
SB 12.3.42

Soberly analyzing the ever-increasing plurality of so-called philosophies, religions, paths, ways of life and so on, we find that in almost all cases the ultimate objective is something impersonal or formless. But this idea of an impersonal or formless Absolute Truth has serious logical flaws. According to ordinary rules of logic, a particular effect should directly or indirectly embody the attributes, or nature, of its own cause. Thus that which has no personality or activity could hardly be the source of all personality and all activity.
SB 12.3.43

This material world, which is a seemingly limitless network of interactive causes and effects, is certainly not the Absolute Truth, since scientific observation of material elements indicates that the stuff of this world, material energy, is endlessly transformed into different states and shapes. Therefore, one particular instance of material reality cannot be the ultimate source of all other things.
SB 12.3.43

Although modern empirical fanatics state that nothing is real except matter, everyone commonly experiences that consciousness is not the same kind of substance as a stone, a pencil or water. Awareness itself, in contradistinction to the objects of awareness, is not a physical entity but rather a process of perception and understanding. While there is ample evidence of a systematic interdependent relationship between matter and consciousness, there is no rigid empirical evidence whatsoever that matter is the cause of consciousness.
SB 12.3.43

Not only do the material laws of nature fail to account for the existence of consciousness, but they cannot explain even the interaction of material elements at complex organic levels.
SB 12.3.43

The heat and luminosity of the sun’s rays demonstrate to the satisfaction of any rational man that the sun, the source of the rays, is certainly not a dark, cold globe but rather a reservoir of almost unlimited heat and light. Similarly, the innumerable instances of personality and personal consciousness within creation are more than adequate to demonstrate the existence, somewhere, of an unlimited reservoir of consciousness and personal behavior.
SB 12.3.43

Clearly, to be truly infinite God must be not only quantitatively but also qualitatively infinite.
SB 12.3.43

Just as one powerful king can kill innumerable thieves, one brilliant spiritual quality can destroy all the contamination of this age. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of chanting Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, especially in this fallen age.
SB 12.3.51

One thousand cycles of four ages constitute one day of Brahma, and each day of Brahma, called a kalpa, contains within it the lifetimes of fourteen Manus. The duration of Brahma’s night is the same as that of his day. During his night Brahma sleeps, and the three planetary systems meet destruction; this is the naimittika, or occasional, annihilation. When Brahma’s life span of one hundred years is finished, there occurs the prakrtika, or total material, annihilation. At that time the seven elements of material nature, beginning with the mahat, and the entire universal egg composed of them are destroyed.
SB 12.4.Intro

All those who are not pure devotees of the Supreme Lord are basically trying to exploit the Lord and His energies.
SB 12.4.31

Time, the potency of the Lord, is very subtle and powerful and is an insurmountable barrier to fools who are trying to exploit the material creation.
SB 12.4.37

Although it is not possible to completely describe the pastimes of the Lord, even a partial appreciation can save one from the unbearable miseries of material existence. The fever of material existence can be removed only by the medicine of the holy name and pastimes of the Supreme Lord, which are perfectly narrated in Srimad-Bhagavatam.
SB 12.4.40

The illusory energy of the Lord, Maya, can freely exert her influence over those who are hypocritical, deceitful and disobedient to the laws of God.
SB 12.6.30-31

Throughout the world people have gradually rejected the ultimate validity of political, social and even religious truths, but because they lack Krsna consciousness they remain bewildered and cynical. However, as clearly stated here, those who actually desire perfect knowledge must not only reject the nonessential but must also ultimately understand the essential spiritual reality called param padam vaisnavam: the supreme destination, the abode of Lord Visnu.
SB 12.6.32

Just as a father is disturbed when one son mistreats the father’s other children, the spiritual master is very displeased if a proud disciple insults or mistreats the guru’s other disciples.
SB 12.6.63

According to Vedic culture, the three higher classes of society (the intellectual, political and mercantile sections) are formally connected with the spiritual master by initiation and receive the Gayatri mantra. This purifying mantra is chanted three times daily - at sunrise, noon and sunset. Auspicious moments for the performance of spiritual duties are calculated according to the sun’s path in the sky, and this systematic scheduling of spiritual duties is here attributed to the sun as the representative of God.
SB 12.6.70