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When the daughter-in-law will set
the aged mother-in-law to work

From The Mahabharata
Santi Parva, section CCXXVII

Time that is strong, assailing the universe, cooks it within itself and sweeps away everything without consideration of seniority of years or the reverse.

For all that, one that is being dragged by Time is unconscious of the noose thrown round one's neck;. when the daughter-in-law will set the aged mother-in-law to work, when the son, through delusion, will command the father to work for him, when Sudras will have their feet washed by Brahmanas and have sexual congress fearlessly with women of regenerate families, when men will discharge the vital seed into forbidden wombs, when the refuse of houses will begin to be carried upon plates and vessels made of white brass, and when sacrificial offerings intended for the deities will begin to be borne upon forbidden vessels, when all the four orders will transgress all restraints.
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From The Mahabharata
Santi Parva, Section CCXXXVIII
Translated by Sri Kisari Mohan Ganguli

Vyasa said:

In the Kali Yuga, the duties of the respective order
disappear and men become afflicted by inequity.
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Daughters-in-law, lecture and rebuke their husbands
The Mahabharata
Santi Parva, Section CCXXVIII

Addressing Sakra, Sree, the Goddess of Wealth said:

In consequence of the Danavas (demons) having been distinguished for good qualities, I dwelt with them from the beginning of creation for many Yugas together. Times were altered and that alteration brought about an alteration in the character of the Danavas. I saw that virtue and morality deserted them and they began to own the sway of lust and wrath. Persons, though themselves inferior in attainments, began to cherish animosities towards seniors in age possessed of superior qualifications, and the while the latter, possessed of virtue and merit, used to speak upon proper topics in the midst of assemblies, the former began to ridicule or laugh at them. When reverend seniors in age came, the younger individuals, seated at their ease, refused to adore the former by rising up and saluting them with respect.

In the presence of sires, sons began to exercise power (in matters that concerned sires alone). They that were not in receipt of wages accepted service and shamelessly proclaimed the fact. Those amongst them that succeeded in amassing great wealth by doing unrighteous and censurable deeds came to be held in esteem. During the night they began to indulge in loud screams and shrieks. Their homa fires (sacred fires) ceased to send bright and upward flames. Sons began to lord it over sires, and wives dominated over husbands. Mothers, fathers and seniors, preceptors, guests and guides ceased to command respect for their superior status. People ceased to bring up with affection their own offspring but began to desert them. Without giving away the defined portion in alms and reserving the fixed portion for offering it unto the gods, every one ate what he had. Indeed, without offering their goods to the deities in sacrifices and without sharing them with the Pitris (ancestors), the gods, guests, and reverend seniors, they appropriated them to their own use shamelessly.

Their cooks no longer professed any consideration for purity of mind, deed and word. They ate what had been left uncovered. Their corn lay scattered in yards, exposed to devastation by crows and rats. Their milk remained exposed and they began to touch ghee (clarified butter) with hands unwashed after eating. Their spades, domestic knives, baskets and dishes and cups of white brass, and other utensils began to lie scattered in their houses. Their housewives abstained from looking after these. They no longer attained to the repairs of their houses and walls. Tethering their animals they abstained from giving them food and drink

Disregarding children that only looked on, and without having fed their dependants, the Danavas ate what they had. They began to prepare Payasa (pudding prepared of rice boiled in sugared milk), and Krisara (milk, sesamum and rice), and dishes of meat and cakes and Sashkuli (pie made of rice or barley boiled in sugared water), not for gods and guests, but for their own selves, and commenced to eat the flesh of animals not killed in sacrifices.

They used to sleep even after the sun had risen. They made night of their morns. Day and night, disputes and quarrels waxed in every house of theirs. They that were not respectable amongst them no longer showed any respect for those that deserve respect while the latter were seated in any place. Fallen off from their defined duties, they ceased to reverend those that had betaken themselves to the woods for leading a life of peace and divine contemplation. Intermixture of castes freely commenced among them. They ceased to attend to purity of person or mind. Brahmanas learned in the Vedas ceased to command respect among them. Those again that were ignorant of Richs (Ved Mantras) were not condemned or punished. Both were treated on a footing of equality, those, that is, that deserved respect and those that deserved no respect.

Their servant girls became wicked in behaviour, and began to wear necklaces of gold and other ornaments and fine robes, and used to remain in their houses or go away before their very eyes. They began to derive great pleasure from sports and diversions in which their women were dressed as men and their men as women.

When difficulties threatened the accomplishment of any purpose and friend sought the counsel of friend, that purpose was frustrated by the latter even if he had any interest of the slightest value to subserve by frustrating it. Amongst even their better classes have appeared traders and dealers in goods, intent upon taking the wealth of others. The Sudras amongst them have taken to the practice of penances. Some amongst them have begun to study, without making any rules for regulating their hours and food. Others have begun to study, making rules that are useless. Disciples have abstained from rendering obedience and service to preceptors. Preceptors again have come to treat disciples as friendly companions. Fathers and mothers are worn out with work, and have abstained from indulging in festivities. Parents in old age, divested of power over sons, have been forced to beg their food of the latter. Amongst them, even persons of wisdom, conversant with the Vedas and resembling the ocean itself in gravity of deportment, have begun to betake themselves to agriculture and such other pursuits.

Persons who are illiterate and ignorant have begun to be fed at Sraddhas. [Note: No merit attaches to the act of feeding an illiterate person ; illiterate meaning not proficient in the Vedas]. Every morning, disciples, instead of approaching preceptors for making dutiful enquiries for ascertaining what acts awaited accomplishment and for seeking commissions which they are to discharge, are themselves waited upon by preceptors who discharge those functions.

Daughters-in-law, in the presence of their husbands’ mothers and fathers, rebuke and chastise servants and maids, and summoning their husbands lecture and rebuke them. Sires, with great care, seek to keep sons in good humour, or dividing through fear their wealth among children, live in woe and affliction. Even persons enjoying the friendship of the victims, beholding the latter deprived of wealth in conflagrations or by robbers, or by the king, have begun to indulge in laughter from feelings of mockery. They have become ungrateful and unbelieving and sinful and addicted to adulterous congress with even the spouses of their preceptors. They have betaken themselves to eating forbidden food. They have transgressed all bounds and restraints. They have become divested of that splendour which had distinguished them before.

In consequence of these and other indications of wicked conduct and the reversal of their former nature, I shall not, O chief of the gods, dwell among them (Danavas) any longer. There, where I reside, the seven other goddesses with Jaya for their eighth, who love me, who are inseparably associated with me, and who depend upon me, desire to live. They are Hope, Faith, Intelligence, Contentment, Victory, Advancement, and Forgiveness. She who forms the eighth, viz., Jaya, occupies the foremost place amongst them. All of them and myself, having deserted the Asuras (demons) have come to thy domains. We shall henceforth reside among the deities who are devoted to righteousness and faith.

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