Shloka 25
पिता पुत्रस्य भोक्ता च पितु: पुत्रस्तथैव च | अतिक्रान्तानि भोज्यानि भविष्यन्ति युगक्षये,कलियुगके अन्तिम भागमें पिता पुत्रकी और पुत्र पिताकी शय्या आदिका उपभोग करने लगेंगे। उस समय त्याज्य (अभक्ष्य) पदार्थ भी भोजनके योग्य समझे जायँगे
pitā putrasya bhoktā ca pituḥ putras tathaiva ca | atikrāntāni bhojyāni bhaviṣyanti yugakṣaye ||
Markandeya said: “At the end of the age-cycle, moral order will be overturned: a father will consume what belongs to his son, and a son likewise what belongs to his father. Even things that have already become improper—indeed, what ought to be rejected—will be treated as fit for enjoyment and food.”
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse warns that in the degeneration of the age (yugakṣaya), basic dharma collapses: boundaries of rightful ownership and familial propriety are violated, and even what should be rejected comes to be accepted as permissible.
Mārkaṇḍeya is describing omens of the end of the yuga—especially Kali-like decline—highlighting social and household disorder where father and son appropriate each other’s enjoyments and norms about what is fit to consume are inverted.