Shloka 32
The Earth Laughs at World-Conquering Kings; Yuga-Dharma and the Remedy for Kali
दस्यूत्कृष्टा जनपदा वेदा: पाषण्डदूषिता: । राजानश्च प्रजाभक्षा: शिश्नोदरपरा द्विजा: ॥ ३२ ॥
dasyūtkṛṣṭā janapadā vedāḥ pāṣaṇḍa-dūṣitāḥ rājānaś ca prajā-bhakṣāḥ śiśnodara-parā dvijāḥ
บ้านเมืองจะถูกครอบงำโดยโจรผู้ร้าย พระเวทจะมัวหมองด้วยการตีความของพวกนอกรีต กษัตริย์จะกัดกินราษฎร และพราหมณ์จะตกเป็นทาสของท้องและกามารมณ์
Many large cities are unsafe at night. For example, it is understood that no sane person will walk in New York’s Central Park at night because he knows he will almost certainly be mugged. Apart from ordinary thieves, who abound in this age, large cities are filled with cutthroat businessmen, who enthusiastically convince people to purchase and consume useless or even harmful products. It has been well documented that beef, tobacco, liquor and many other modern products destroy one’s physical health, what to speak of mental health, and yet modern capitalists do not hesitate to use every psychological trick in the book to convince people to consume these things. Modern cities are full of mental and atmospheric pollution, and even ordinary citizens are finding them unbearable.
FAQs
This verse says that in Kali-yuga rulers will exploit their own citizens like predators, and society will be overrun by lawless men, showing a collapse of righteous governance.
Śukadeva speaks to Parīkṣit to reveal the coming nature of Kali-yuga and to turn the listener away from reliance on degraded social systems and toward the timeless shelter of bhakti and Bhagavān’s message.
Use it as a warning to seek authentic śāstra-based guidance, choose leaders and teachers by character rather than title, restrain sense demands, and anchor life in devotional practice and truthfulness.