Incarnation 10 Kalki – The Slayer
According to the Vedic, or Hindu, scriptures, time moves in cycles. If we study our clocks we can observe this. One full circle of the second hand takes one minute; one complete rotation of the minute hand takes an hour; one full sweep of the hour hand represents daytime, another sweep represents night. The solar system itself is like a gigantic clock where time is measured according to the positions of the planets. By the movements of the earth, moon and sun, we can understand days, months and years. The Vedas also say that one planet controls each day of the week. They also mention very long periods of time. For example, there is a cycle lasting over four million years! In each of these cycles, all of the ten incarnations appear on schedule. Each of these periods consists of four ages. Sanskrit, the language of ancient India, calls these yugas. There are four yugas, which rotate endlessly, just like the four seasons of the year. The first Yuga is the golden age, the second is the silver age, the next the copper age and finally the iron age. They are called Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga, Dwarapa-yuga and Kali-yuga respectively.
At the moment we live in Kali-Yuga, also called the Age of Quarrel. It began five thousand years ago. At that time, a great sage called Vyas wrote down the Vedas. He was a very wise man, able to see into the future, and he predicted what would happen in this Kali-Yuga. Here are some examples of what he wrote:
– Oh King, religion, truthfulness, cleanliness, tolerance, mercifulness, bodily strength, memory and the duration of life will diminish day-by-day
– To be successful in business, one will be forced to cheat.
– Men and women will marry simply by verbal agreement.
– Just by being rich a person will be considered respectable (even if his habits are beastly).
– People will think that simply by wearing the clothes of a priest one becomes religious.
– If a speaker is expert in juggling words, people will consider them very intelligent (even if no one understands what they are saying).
– The leaders of the country will be little better than thieves.
– The main goal of life will be to fill the belly.
– People will think that beauty depends on one’s hairstyle.
– People will often go to a church, temple or mosque merely for the sake of their reputation.
The Vedas also predict natural disasters such as drought, famine, earthquakes and epidemics.
Despite all this, the Vedas mention one distinct advantage to living in Kali-Yuga. It is this: if people simply meet together and glorify God they can become freed from all miseries. It is very easy, and it is for everyone – the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the black and the white. We are all equal in the eyes of God.
There are 427,000 years left in Kali-Yuga. By the end of the age people will be three foot tall and grey in complexion. Twenty years will be considered a ripe old age, and human flesh a delicacy. Religion will be as good as dead.
At that time, the Vedas predict, the Lord will appear in India as Kalki. His skin will be bluish-black, like rain clouds and he will dress in yellow garments. Riding a white horse and wielding a sword, he will kill all the atheists. Then he will usher in the Golden Age, as the cycle begins once more.