In this episode of “5 Minutes,” Dr. Robert Svoboda explores Kali Yuga, clarifying its meaning and its place within the traditional cycle of the four Yugas.

The first important thing to understand about Kali Yuga is that Kali in Kali Yuga is not the goddess Kali. Though the two words are spelled the same in English, they are very different. The goddess Kali is the goddess of transformation, time, and destruction. Even though she destroys you, drinks your blood, and wears your head as part of her necklace, she is there to transform you and bring you into right relationship with reality. Kali, on the other hand, represents what happens toward the end of a relative cycle of creation, when karmas that have accumulated over a very long period begin to contribute to the breakdown of Dharma, the path by which human beings attempt to move in the right direction toward good destinies.

The word Kali is traditionally associated with the worst of four possible throws of an ancient Indian die. Unlike modern dice, these dice had four faces, marked four, three, two, and one. Four, the best possible throw, represents Satya or Krita Yuga, when Dharma is intact and people are actively attempting to align themselves with the Supreme Reality. The subsequent numbers represent progressively declining conditions, until one, the worst and losing throw, represents Kali Yuga. In this sense, Kali signifies the opposite of good fortune: a period in which good fortune has diminished and ill fortune has accumulated.

Various ancient texts also describe Kali as an actual demonic force who enters the world to create trouble and encourage things to fall apart. He is sometimes described as the son of anger and is associated with Alakshmi, the opposite of Lakshmi and therefore the absence of prosperity. Kali is also traditionally connected with the conditions that produced the Mahabharata war, whose conclusion marked the beginning of Kali Yuga.

Kali Yuga is therefore a period in which destruction and the decline of Dharma become increasingly evident, but this should not be confused with the transformative activity of the goddess Kali. Dr. Svoboda emphasizes that living in Kali Yuga means acknowledging that difficulties will arise and meeting them as they come. We have to work through our karmas, both individual and collective, acknowledge the reality in which we find ourselves, and continue moving patiently forward while waiting for conditions to begin moving in the right direction again.