The right course for every individual is any that catches his fancy; a man of erudition is he who brags the loudest. Whoever launches spurious undertakings and is given over to hypocrisy, him does everyone call a saint.

The prudent man is he who plunders his neighbour; he who keeps up appearances is an ardent follower of the established usage; he who is given to lying and is clever at joking is called accomplished in that age.

A reprobate who has abandoned the Vedic way is a man of wisdom and dispassion in that Kaliyuga, and he who has grown long nails and bound his hair in massive coils is a renowned ascetic in those evil days.

Those who clothe themselves in grisly rags and deck themselves in appalling adornments and feed indiscriminately on any kind of food, forbidden or permitted, are ascetics and adepts and objects of veneration in that age.

Those who do harm to others are held in great esteem and honour, and those who are babblers in thought and word and deed are orators in the Kaliyuga.

Dominated by women, my lord, all men dance to their tune like acrobats’ monkeys. Shudras instruct the twice-born in spiritual wisdom and, putting on the sacred thread, accept abominable alms.

Everyone is addicted to sensuality and greed and passion, and is hostile to the gods, the Brahmans, the Vedas and the saints. Unfortunate wives desert their husbands, however accomplished and handsome, and pay court instead to other women’s husbands.