Envy, harsh words and covetousness are rampant, while placidity of temper is absent. People are all smitten with bereavement and despair. The duties and rules of conduct prescribed for the four orders of society and stages of life are abandoned.

Self-restraint, charity, compassion and understanding disappear, stupidity and dishonest dealing multiply exceedingly. Men and women alike pamper the flesh and slanderous tongues are diffused throughout the world.

Listen, O enemy of serpents; the Kaliyuga is a storehouse of pollution and vice. But it has many virtues too; escape from the cycle of birth and death is easy (in this age).

Moreover, the goal which in the first three ages is reached by solemn worship, sacrifice and austerity men are able to attain in the Kaliyuga only by Hari’s name.

In the Satyayuga everyone is possessed of mystic powers and wisdom too; in that age men cross the ocean of birth and death by meditating on God. In the Tretayuga men perform sacrifices of various kinds and escape rebirth by dedicating their actions to the Lord.

In the Dvaparayuga men have no other expedient than the ritual worship of Raghunatha’s feet. But in the Kaliyuga men sound the depths of the ocean of mortality bymerely chanting the story of Hari’s perfections.

In the Kaliyuga austerity, sacrifice or spiritual wisdom are of no avail; one’s only hope lies in hymning Rama’s praises. Abjuring all other hopes, whosoever worships Rama and devoutly chants the praise of his perfections,