Harivamsha 117
English (machine translation) 117
- Language
- English
117.1
Janamejaya said:
In a world thus tossed about, protected by whom will men live?
What will be their conduct, and what their food and pastimes?
117.2
What will be their actions, what their desires, what their size, what their lifespan?
And reaching what limit will they attain the Kṛta Yuga?
117.3
Vyāsa said:
Henceforth, when dharma has fallen, the creatures, bereft of good qualities,
having fallen into ruined conduct, will incur a reduction in lifespan.
117.4
From reduction of lifespan comes loss of strength; from loss of strength comes discoloration;
from discoloration comes torment by disease; from torment by disease comes disillusionment.
117.5
From disillusionment comes self-awakening; from awakening comes devotion to dharma;
having reached the supreme limit in this way, they will attain the Kṛta Yuga.
117.6
Some will be devoted to dharma only superficially, some reduced to indifference;
some will be of an inquiring nature, curious about rationalistic debate.
117.7
Having decided that direct perception and inference are the means of knowledge,
fancying themselves learned [they will ask], "What will authority do? No!"
and other people will reject what is said in the Veda as unauthoritative.
117.7x1577
Then other women will have their vulva in the mouth.
117.8
Devoted to atheism, some men will be destroyers of dharma,
foolish, dull-witted, fancying themselves learned.
117.9
Believing only in the present moment, senseless regarding knowledge of the treatises,
they will be hypocrites, dedicated to the practice of disputation.
117.10
Then, when dharma is shaken, people honoring the remnant
will practice only good deeds, endowed with generosity and truth.
117.11
Eating everything, unrestrained, devoid of virtue, shameless—
such will the world become; that is the mark of the corrupt age.
117.12
When a person of lower caste takes up the eternal livelihood of brahmins
for the sake of sustenance, that is the mark of the corrupt age.
117.13
In the time overwhelmed by corruption, when knowledge and learning are destroyed,
those who are unadorned will attain perfection in a short time.
117.14
A great battle, a great noise, a great rain, a great terror
will occur when the yuga is exhausted; that is the mark of the corrupt age.
117.15
Demons in the form of brahmins, kings who pierce the ear,
will wander the earth;
with the dharma of classes ruined,
they will enjoy the earth when the end of the yuga is at hand.
117.16
Devoid of personal Vedic study and the vaṣaṭ-call, sages will be arrogant,
carnivorous in the guise of brahmins, eating everything, their vows useless,
117.17
foolish, intent on self-interest, greedy, vile, possessing vile belongings,
turned to commerce, and fallen from the eternal dharma;
117.18
stealers of others' jewels, violators of others' wives,
lustful, wicked, deceitful, fond of reckless deeds.
117.19
While they, equal in character, are prevailing everywhere,
unfortunate multiform sages will come to be.
117.20
Those who arose in the Kṛta Yuga, relying on the highest Puruṣa—
men will honor them all through the connection of narrative.
117.21
There will be thieves of grain and stealers of clothes, / and indeed snatchers of solid food and liquid drinks, and stealers of vessels.
117.22
Thieves will be plunderers of a thief, and a slayer of the plunderer will arise; / and when the destruction of thieves by thieves has occurred, there will be safety.
117.23
When the world has become devoid of substance, agitated, inactive, and degraded, / men will take refuge in the forest, afflicted by the burden of taxes.
117.23x1579-1
Sons will command their fathers in all kinds of work;
117.23x1579-2
and so will daughters-in-law command mothers-in-law when the end of the yuga has arrived;
117.23x1579-3
disciples on all sides will threaten their teachers with arrows of speech.
117.24
When the rite of sacrifice has ceased, rakṣasas and wild beasts, / along with hordes of mice and snakes, will overwhelm human beings.
117.25
Safety, abundance of food, health, and harmony with kin / will occur only in particular places at the end of the yuga, O best of men.
117.26
Self-appointed protectors and self-appointed thieves, accumulated by the mass of the yuga, / will rule in territories, region by region separately.
117.27
Fallen away from their own regions, drained of essence along with their kin, / all men will then become waiters upon time.
117.28
Then, having taken the boys upon their shoulders and fled in fear, / men afflicted by hunger and fear will take refuge near the Kauśikī.
117.28x1580
They will wander about, completely tormented by famine and disease.
117.29
Men will take refuge in the lands of the Aṅgas, Vaṅgas, and Kaliṅgas, the Kāśmīras, and then the Mekalas, / and in the mountain valleys bordering the Ṛṣikas.
117.30
And on the entire slope of the Himavat, on the shore of the salty ocean, / and in the wildernesses, men will dwell alongside hordes of mlecchas.
117.31
The earth will be neither completely empty nor completely inhabited; / rulers will come forward who are both protectors and non-protectors.
117.32
On deer, fish, birds, wild beasts, and all kinds of insects, / on deer, fish, birds, insects, wild beasts, and reptiles(?), / with honey, herbs, fruits, and roots, human beings will sustain themselves.
117.33
Having fashioned varied bark-cloth, leaves, strips of tree-bark, and deerskins for themselves, / they will live like ascetics.
117.34
They will attempt to simulate the form of seeds in depressions by using wooden stakes; / they will rear goats, sheep, donkeys, and camels with great effort.
117.35
Dwelling on the bank, they will block river streams for water, / bartering with one another by trading cooked food.
117.36
Covered with their body hair as it grew, wrapped in filth inside, / with many offspring yet bereft of true progeny, cruel and lacking auspicious marks,
117.37
such will human beings then become, brought to this state by time. / The people will then pursue a dharma that is lower than the low.
117.38
And the lifespan of mortals there will be thirty years at most; / weak, ruined by sense-objects, they will be utterly overwhelmed by passion.
117.39
Then their faculties will waste away from diseases; / and through the constraint imposed by the loss of lifespan, violence will cease.
117.39x1582-1
When the world has been flooded thus, afflicted at the time of destruction,
117.39x1582-2
those whose efforts were made futile by suffering will become possessors of knowledge.
117.40
They will be eager to hear, devoted to the sight of virtuous men; / and out of fear of commercial dispute they will also resort to truth.
117.41
And through failure to obtain their desires, they will become practitioners of dharma; / and afflicted by the loss of their own faction, they will show restraint.
117.42
Eager to hear thus, devoted to giving, truth, and the protection of living beings, / human beings will then attain dharma operating on four feet.
117.43
For them, taking pride in dharma and turning towards virtues, / recognizing 'What indeed is sweet?', dharma alone will taste sweet.
117.44
Just as decline arrives in due course, so increase comes in due course. / When there is total decline of the Kali [Yuga], O king, / upon dharma being taken up, they will again enter the Kṛta [Yuga].
117.45
Virtuous conduct belongs to the Kṛta Yuga; decline is spoken of in the tainted age. / Yet that time is singular, like the moon with diminishing luster.
117.46
For just as Soma is covered by darkness, so it is in the Kali Yuga; / and just as he is full, yet bereft of ascetic heat, so it is in the Kali Yuga.
117.47
Dharma is devoted to explanatory discourse, but they know it as the meaning of the Veda; / it is preserved like an inheritance that is unpurified and uncomprehended.
117.48
Sacrifice, giving, what is known as ascetic heat, and chaste studentship are highly revered; / the accomplishment of action occurs through virtues, and virtues through true action.
117.49
A blessing, looking to the individual and conforming to place and time, / has been proclaimed by the seers yuga by yuga according to the proper time.
117.50
Here [on earth], the remedy for dharma, material gain, desires, and the Vedas, / as well as auspicious and sacred blessings and lifespan, [differ] in each yuga.
117.50x1584
O great king, men will then be long-lived.
117.51
Just as the cycles of the yugas have operated for a long time by the nature of destiny, / the world of living beings does not stand still for a moment, revolving through decline and rise.
Linked texts (1)
- Harivaṃśa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit