Once, understanding that the age of Kali was approaching, a group of great sages approached Srila Vyasadeva, wishing to hear from him some solutions for the sinful age.

However, when the sages arrived, Vyasadeva was taking a bath in the Ganges, loudly shouting:

“Jaya Kali Yuga!”
“Jaya Kali Yuga!”
“Jaya Kali Yuga!”

The sages where amazed. How could Vyasa be happy about the beginning of such an inauspicious age? After being inquired by the sages, Vyasa answered:

“Sages, listen closely! Though the coming Age of Kali is said to be the worst, there are three blessings in this age:
The first blessing of Kali Yuga belongs to women. Those who are devoted wives in this age are truly fortunate. Their duty is to love and honor their husbands, and they will be fully protected. Even without performing austerities or rituals, they can achieve the same spiritual level as their husbands.
The second blessing is for loyal servants. A servant’s duty is to faithfully serve their master. The master, in the pursuit of business or political success, may sometimes resort to dishonesty. These actions burden the master with sin, but the servant remains blameless. By simply serving, the servant enjoys the master’s protection and avoids the consequences of the master’s actions. In this way, the servant’s position is even more fortunate.
The third and greatest blessing of Kali Yuga is the power of chanting holy names. In this difficult age, most of our efforts yield little fruit. The world is full of challenges and imperfections. But through sincere chanting of the holy names, we can swiftly cross the ocean of material existence and reach Vaikuntha, the Lord’s supreme abode.”

In the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, is described how the Pandavas renounced the world after the disappearance of Krsna.

After installing Pariksit Maharaja on the throne, Yudhisthira Maharaja started towards the north, treading the path accepted by his forefathers and great men, to devote himself completely to the thought of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

The younger brothers of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira observed that the Age of Kali had already arrived throughout the world and that the citizens of the kingdom were already affected by irreligious practice. Therefore they decided to follow in the footsteps of their elder brother.

In this way, the five Pandavas went to the Himalayas to practice devotional service, and thus they went back home, back to Godhead. It’s mentioned that “This abode of the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, known as Goloka Vṛndāvana, cannot be attained by persons who are absorbed in the material conception of life. But the Pāṇḍavas, being completely washed of all material contamination, attained that abode in their very same bodies.”

In the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, a mysterious pastime is described: Arjuna was defeated on the way by a group of cowherd men armed with sticks, while he was guarding the wives of Krsna, bringing them to Hastinapura after the disappearance of Krsna.

We can understand that Arjuna could lose his powers after the disappearance of Krsna since the Lord was the source of his powers, and had empowered him to perform a certain mission, fighting in the battle of Kuruksetra and so on. At that point, the mission was already complete, so there was no need for Arjuna to have such power. However, how could this group of infidel cowherds take the wives of Krsna, who were devotees surrendered to Him? Naturally, this was all part of a pastime.

Most of Krsna’s associates in Dvaraka are eternally liberated souls who came with Krsna from the spiritual world. These Yadhus never left the city and just went back to the spiritual world when the city disappeared. They never take birth in the material world, and just become manifest here when the city itself appears. When Dvaraka submerges in the ocean following the disappearance of Krsna, it just means the city and all the associates who live there stopped being visible in this particular universe and manifested somewhere else.

In the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, it is described that Arjuna went to visit Krsna in Dvaraka, to see Krsna and learn about the next activities of the Lord. Chronologically, this happened a few months before the visit of Vidhura and the liberation of Drtarastra. However, as several months passed without Arjuna returning, Maharaja Yudhisthira became increasingly concerned. He started observing many inauspicious signs, as described in chapter 14.

He noticed irregularities in the climate and observed that people became greedy, angry, and deceitful, adopting dishonest means of livelihood. There was cheating even in dealings between friends, and quarreling even between husbands and wives.

There were symptoms of the age of Kali that started becoming manifest. There was no question of such symptoms appearing while Krsna was still on the planet, therefore he started fearing that the Lord may have already left.

Building on the previous article, one could question about the human beings from past Kali-yugas. According to the chronology given in the Vedas, the last Kali-Yuga started about 4.32 million years ago. In the book “The Big Bang and the Sages”, Siddharth Prabhu makes the point that time on our planet goes at a rate of two per one compared to the time in Bhu-Mandala, therefore the 4.32 million years should be multiplied by two to get the geological dates in our planet. Therefore, taking this factor of two into account, we can calculate that the last Kali-yuga started about 8.65 ago, according to our local time.

This implies that there should be no artifacts from advanced human civilizations during this period since the advanced human beings from Satya-yuga up to Dwapara-yuga were living in more refined dimensions and would probably not leave any artifacts that could be found in our reality. Human beings who would be living in the same dimension as us during this period would be aborigines or other less evolved humans. This is consistent with the stone and metal artifacts modern archeologists find.

However, what about past Kali-Yugas? Post-industrial civilizations from these periods would be living in the same dimension as us, and they should have left a lot of artifacts we could recognize, such as plastics, concrete, advanced metal alloys, and so on. Why do archeologists not find artifacts from technologically advanced civilizations dated from 8.65 million years ago, as well as artifacts from other past Kali-Yugas, that started 17.29 million years ago, 25.93 million years ago, and so on? We are at about the middle of the day of Brahma, therefore there are already around 500 Kali-Yugas before us.