Shloka 50
कलिस्वरूप-वर्णनम् एवं कालमान-प्रस्तावना
किं देवैः किं द्विजैर् वेदैः किं शौचेनाम्बुजन्मना इत्य् एवं विप्र वक्ष्यन्ति पाषण्डोपहता नराः
kiṃ devaiḥ kiṃ dvijair vedaiḥ kiṃ śaucenāmbujanmanā ity evaṃ vipra vakṣyanti pāṣaṇḍopahatā narāḥ
“What need have we of the gods? What use are the twice-born or the Vedas? What profit lies in purity and sacred observance?”—thus, O brāhmaṇa, will men struck by heresy speak.
Sage Parāśara (addressing Maitreya; vocative ‘vipra’ used within the narration)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: Speech-patterns and attitudes of Kali-yuga people corrupted by pāṣaṇḍa views.
Teaching: Ethical
Quality: authoritative
Concept: Kali manifests as a rhetoric that dismisses divine order, Vedic authority, and inner-outer purity, thereby eroding dharma.
Vedantic Theme: Dharma
Application: Cultivate śauca (ethical cleanliness, truthful speech, disciplined habits) and reverence for sacred learning instead of cynicism toward tradition.
Vishishtadvaita: Śauca and dharma are meaningful as service to the Lord’s body—the world and its beings—rather than mere social convention.
FAQs
This verse portrays such rejection as a symptom of pāṣaṇḍa—an adharma-driven distortion that undermines Vedic order and religious discipline.
He frames decline as a shift in speech and values: people begin to dismiss sacred authority (Vedas, dvijas) and practices like śauca, indicating society’s movement away from dharma.
Even when Vishnu is not named, the Purana’s Vaishnava stance treats Vedic dharma and reverence for the divine order as supports for devotion to the Supreme Reality, Vishnu; rejecting them signals turning away from that higher sovereignty.