Shloka 14
कलिस्वरूप-वर्णनम् एवं कालमान-प्रस्तावना
सर्वम् एव कलौ शास्त्रं यस्य यद् वचनं द्विज देवताश् च कलौ सर्वाः सर्वः सर्वस्य चाश्रमः
sarvam eva kalau śāstraṃ yasya yad vacanaṃ dvija devatāś ca kalau sarvāḥ sarvaḥ sarvasya cāśramaḥ
हे द्विज! कलियुगात ज्याचे जे वचन, तेच जणू शास्त्र ठरते; आणि कलौ सर्व देवता समान मानल्या जातात. तेव्हा प्रत्येकजण सर्वकाही होऊ पाहतो—प्रत्येक मनुष्य स्वतःसाठी सर्व आश्रम व वर्णांचा अधिकार मानतो.
Sage Parāśara (teaching Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: Kali-yuga confusion: relativizing śāstra, leveling devas, and collapse of varṇāśrama boundaries
Teaching: Ethical
Quality: revealing
Concept: Kali-yuga fosters epistemic and social disorder: personal opinion masquerades as śāstra, distinctions among devas blur, and varṇāśrama roles are self-assigned without discipline.
Vedantic Theme: Dharma
Application: Anchor practice in tested śāstra and living sampradāya guidance; cultivate humility and role-appropriate duties rather than self-authorized spirituality.
Vishishtadvaita: Affirms the necessity of śāstra-pramāṇa and ordered dharma as the Lord’s governance of the real world, not mere convention.
FAQs
This verse marks Kali-yuga as an age where personal assertion replaces śāstric authority, leading to instability in dharma and loss of reliable spiritual standards.
Parāśara describes a confusion of boundaries—people treat any statement as authoritative and assume every āśrama indiscriminately—showing the erosion of disciplined life and inherited duties.
By portraying the failure of human-made authority in Kali, the text implicitly points back to Vishnu as the stable supreme ground of dharma—beyond shifting opinions and social disorder.