Text 31
tasmāt kṣudra-dṛśo martyāḥ
kṣudra-bhāgyā mahāśanāḥ
kāmino vitta-hīnāś ca
svairiṇyaś ca striyo ’satīḥ
tasmāt — due to these qualities of the Age of Kali; kṣudra-dṛśaḥ — shortsighted; martyāḥ — human beings; kṣudra-bhāgyāḥ — unfortunate; mahā-aśanāḥ — excessive in their eating habits; kāminaḥ — full of lust; vitta-hīnāḥ — lacking wealth; ca — and; svairiṇyaḥ — independent in their social dealings; ca — and; striyaḥ — the women; asatīḥ — unchaste.
Because of the bad qualities of the Age of Kali, human beings will become shortsighted, unfortunate, gluttonous, lustful and poverty-stricken. The women, becoming unchaste, will freely wander from one man to the next.
In the Age of Kali certain pseudointellectuals, seeking individual freedom, support sexual promiscuity. In fact, identification of the self with the body and the pursuit of “individual freedom” in the body rather than in the soul are signs of the most dismal ignorance and slavery to lust. When women are unchaste, many children are born out of wedlock as products of lust. These children grow up in psychologically unfavorable circumstances, and a neurotic, ignorant society arises. Symptoms of this are already manifest throughout the world.