Kali Yuga


In Hinduism, Kali Yuga is the last of the four stages the world goes through as part of a 'cycle of yugas' described in the Sanskrit scriptures. The other ages are called Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, and Dvapara Yuga. The "Kali" of Kali Yuga means "strife", "discord", "quarrel" or "contention" and Kali Yuga is associated with the demon Kali.
According to Puranic sources, Krishna's departure marks the end of Dvapara Yuga and the start of Kali Yuga, which is dated to 17/18 February 3102 BCE.
Based on a starting year of 3102 BCE and a duration of 432,000 years, Kali Yuga began roughly years ago and has years remaining as of CE. Kali Yuga will end in the year 428,899 CE.

Possible starting and ending dates

According to the Surya Siddhanta, Kali Yuga began at midnight on 18 February 3102 BCE. This is also considered the date on which Krishna left the earth to return to Vaikuntha. This information is placed at the temple of Bhalka, the place of this incident.
According to the astronomer and mathematician Aryabhata the Kali Yuga started in 3102 BCE. He finished his book Aryabhattiyam in 499 CE, in which he gives the exact year of the beginning of Kali Yuga. He writes that he wrote the book in the "year 3600 of the Kali Age" at the age of 23. As it was the 3600th year of the Kali Age when he was 23 years old, and given that Aryabhata was born in 476 CE, the beginning of the Kali Yuga would come to + 1 ) = 3102 BCE.
According to K. D. Abhyankar, the starting point of Kali Yuga is an extremely rare planetary alignment, which is depicted in the Mohenjo-daro seals. Going by this alignment the year 3102 BCE is slightly off. The actual date for this alignment is 7 February 3104 BCE. There is also sufficient proof to believe that Vrdhha Garga knew of precession at least by 500 BCE. Garga had calculated the rate of precession to within 30% of what the modern scholars estimate.
Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri believed that Kali Yuga ended and that we are presently in ascending Dvapara Yuga. According to Joscelyn Godwin, Yukteswar believed the traditional chronology of the yugas wrong and rigged for political reasons, but that Yukteswar was influenced by the Jain time cycle and the "European myth of progress" and may have had political reasons of his own.

Attributes

Hindus believe that human civilization degenerates spiritually during the Kali Yuga. Common attributes and consequences are spiritual bankruptcy, mindless hedonism, breakdown of all social structure, greed and materialism, unrestricted egotism, afflictions and maladies of mind and body.
Hinduism often symbolically represents morality as an Indian bull. In Satya Yuga, the first stage of development, the bull has four legs, but in each age morality is reduced by one quarter. By the age of Kali, morality is reduced to only a quarter of that of the golden age, so that the bull of Dharma has only one leg.

Prophesied events

A discourse by Markandeya in the Mahabharata identifies some of the attributes of Kali Yuga.
In relation to rulers, it lists:
With regard to human relationships, Markandeya's discourse says:
It is also scheduled that the Bhagavata Purana will be composed.

10,000 year "Golden Age"

The Brahma Vaivarta Purana mentions a ten thousand-year period, starting from the traditional dating of the Kali Yuga epoch, during which bhakti yogis will be present. Krishna foretold that Kali Yuga will be full of extreme hardships for people with ideals and values.
The Brahma-vaivarta Purana has words spoken by Krishna to Mother Ganga just before the beginning of the Kali Yuga. The Kali Yuga began approximately five thousand years ago, that golden age is being described below by Krishna. Predicted in Brahma-vaivarta Purana 4.129. The fourth part of the Brahma-vaivarta is called Kṛṣṇa-janma-khanda. Chapter 129 is called Golokarohanam, because it describes how Krishna returns to His abode. This specific dialogue is between Krishna and Mother Ganga. Verse 49 is a question by Ganga, verses 50–60 are Krishna's answer.
This text is taken from the Brahma-vaivarta Purana Text 59:
The above is supported in 4.90.32–33:

Personification

Kali is the reigning lord of Kali Yuga and his nemesis is Kalki, the tenth and final Avatar of Vishnu. According to the Vishnu Purana, Kali is a negative manifestation working towards the cause of 'the end' or rather towards eventual rejuvenation of the universe.

In Shaivism

Some Shaivites maintain that the ill effects of Kali Yuga can only be moderated by the manifestation of Shiva himself. Shastriji, one of the followers of Haidakhan Babaji, gave the following narration:
"Once Parvati asked Lord Shiva, her husband: 'You have done good work for the people in all ages, but I am afraid for the people in the Kali Yuga; how will they safeguard themselves?'
Then Lord Shiva told Parvati: 'I will appear in the Kali Yuga and I will create a new state, a new centre of religion - a most important place, where I will live and establish all the Gods there.'"
Shastriji went further to suggest that this promise manifested through the person of Haidakhan Babaji. One of the central tenets of Haidakhan Babaji's teachings is the message of Karma Yoga or hard work. In the context of Kali Yuga Haidakhan Babaji explained:
"As I have told you before, the thing needed in this Age is work. In every Age people have reached salvation through different types of action and sadhana, but in this Age one can reach liberation only through hard work. I want real, practical human beings and only he is a true human being who lives in accordance with this Age. We need not consider religion or caste, but look only to hard work."

In Sikhism

In Sikhism, Kali Yuga is metaphorically used to describe the state of the world as was commonly understood in the 16th century. It is stressed that one should meditate as much as possible to reach the state of mukti and be liberated or be one with God.
Guru Granth Sahib on Ang:1185 says:

Other usage

The Kali Yuga is an important concept in both Theosophy and Anthroposophy, and in the writings of Helena Blavatsky, W.Q. Judge, Rudolf Steiner, and Traditionalist philosophers such as René Guénon and Julius Evola, among others. Rudolf Steiner believed that the Kali Yuga ended in 1900.