Civilization, Corruption, Justice, Life, Power

WEALTH AND POWER IN KALI-YUGA

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by JAYRAM DAYA

[Editorial note: Consider this ‘eternal mathematical truth’: (a+b)×c = a×c + b×c. A mathematician, centuries ago, must have divined and articulated this truth. Surely however, in commerce, this truth held even in earlier epochs. Suppose you had two bags of fruit, with a given unit price. Then you got the same total price (a) by adding the two weights and pricing the total, or (b) by weighing and pricing the bags separately and then adding the two prices. Surely that bit of commercial truth is also eternal, regardless of what mathematicians say!

Eternal truths are timeless. They held in ages past, hold today and will continue to hold in whatever future we may be heading into. Today Jayram Daya has selected for discussion one such eternal truth; not a mathematical truth, but a societal one, from Srimad Bhagwatam.

Read, reflect and enjoy!]

वित्तमेव कलौ नृणां जन्माचारगुणोदय: ।
धर्मन्यायव्यवस्थायां कारणं बलमेव हि ॥ २ ॥

In Kali-Yuga, wealth alone is considered the sign of a man’s good birth, proper behaviour and fine qualities. Law and justice are applied only on the basis of power.

Shrimad Bhagwatam (verse 12.2.2).

The wisdom of this ancient verse reads less like scripture and more like a headline in 2026. The verse says that in Kali-Yuga,  merit is replaced by the sheer weight of a wallet, and justice becomes a commodity rather than a right.

When we examine the current global landscape, especially through figures like Donald Trump, these truths are not remote or subtle; they are glaring and unmistakable; they have become the defining characteristics of our era.

Wealth as the new definition of virtue

The verse states that wealth alone will be considered the sign of a man’s good birth, proper behaviour, and fine qualities.

Modern society views net worth as a sign of competence.

Consider Trump. His entire political identity has been built on his branding as a ‘billionaire dealmaker’. For millions, his wealth served not merely as an asset but as a moral credential, pre-authorizing his leadership irrespective of his dubious ethical record. The Bhagavatam states clearly that external wealth is mistaken for personal qualities.

Global ‘success’ culture

We see this everywhere, from the glorifying of ‘grind culture’, to influencers who hawk luxury and excess dressed up as insight and wisdom. The elevation of wealth as the sole criterion of ‘good fortune’ results in devaluation of character, and redirection of societal ambition almost exclusively towards  wealth acquisition and ostentation.

Power as the arbiter of law

The second half of the verse is even more striking: Law and justice is applied only based on one’s power.

In 2025 and 2026, we have watched as the legal systems of the world’s most powerful nations struggle to hold the elite accountable. Whether it is through endless litigation, the ‘transactional’ appointment of judges, or the use of political office to bypass indictments, the message is clear: Justice is no longer blind; it now measures worth by the size of one’s balance sheet.

A ‘might-makes-right’ world

International relations have returned to a pure transactional approach. The use of power, financial and military, is now used to unilaterally reshape borders and trade agreements, to the exclusion of any international dharma. When a figure uses his position to ‘rule the world’ through sheer force of personality and purse, the rest of the world often feels silenced, unable to challenge the brute strength, बलम, on display.

Reclaiming the servant

Srimad Bhagwatam does not just diagnose the disease; it reminds us of the cure. The danger isn’t money itself, but its elevation to the status of god. The more money becomes the ‘ruthless master’, the more humans become ‘asses’, in working tirelessly for superficial and meagre rewards.

One way to challenge the Kali-Yuga mindset is to restore the integrity of money. It requires a return to substance over status and dignity over dominance.

Heed the warning

The verse in question does not condemn modernity; rather, it explains modernity. In 2026, the verse reads like a prescient, sober diagnosis of a world of inverted values. Donald Trump’s position of power illustrates how easily wealth can be covered up as virtue and power as righteousness. That is the true meaning of Kali-yoga.

The challenge, then, is not political but civil. Restoring justice depends on reaffirming that money is a means, not a badge of legitimacy, and that power must operate within the law rather than stand above it. Without this correction, the eternal truth continues to unfold, not as prophecy, but as lived reality.

[Image: Bust of Emperor Caligula of Rome; photograph by Sergey Sosnovskiy; courtesy: wikimedia]

Civilization, Economy, Exploitation, Money, Well-being

Money in Times of Speed and Excess

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by Jayram Daya

Today money has moved from being a means of sustenance to a measure of success, power and self-worth. Never before had humanity been so intensely focused on increasing wealth, and that with such almost obscene haste. It is no secret that speed has become a defining obsession in the world of speculative markets and digital assets, from side-hustles to instant-profit scams. Inevitably, because of such self-defeating haste, money’s true value has been distorted and destroyed.

Continue reading Money in Times of Speed and Excess →
Exploitation, Corruption, Greed

PS: INNER WORKINGS (2)

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How low can traitors go? It seems there is no lower limit.

In our previous post, we had wondered whether even serving ministers in this or that country may in reality be no more than ‘financial vultures‘. Examples of that fell into our laps almost as if someone had divined our thoughts!😀

Example #1: During the Great Financial Crisis (2007-2010), Peter Mandelson was a senior minister and senior Labour Party functionary in the UK. While millions of people were losing their homes and savings, Mandelson sent to his pal Jeffrey Epstein cabinet level inside information, such as:

  • A confidential UK government document outlining £20bn in asset sales.
  • Claims that he was ‘trying hard’ to change government policy on bankers’ bonuses.
  • Plans for an imminent bailout package for the Euro the day before it was announced in 2010.
  • A suggestion that the JPMorgan boss ‘mildly threaten’ the chancellor, his cabinet colleague.
  • An apparent early tip about Gordon Brown’s resignation.

Epstein also asked Mandelson to confirm a €500bn bailout, which was to be announced later that day. Trading on such early inside tips would be enormously profitable.

At the wrong end of these ‘ultra-clever’, sophisticated financial scams are always ordinary savers and taxpayers.

Example #2: A taped conversation between Ehud Barak, Ex-PM of Iarael, and Epstein. ‘Tony’ in this conversation is Tony Blair.

Barak: Also something that I’ve heard from you … Tony, I believe that, Tony Blair, for example, is doing some probably 11 million per year from the Kazakhstan government just to give them advice to help them with some lobbying in some NGOs and UN organization.

Epstein: Tony has turned funny. So I don’t know what Tony is doing for money and I don’t know if the money Tony is getting is actually going to Tony or to somebody else.

Barak: Who, who … who could it be?

Epstein: It goes to Tony because … they need help. So Tony gets to pay some of the money to somebody else.

Barak: Cuz I hear gigantic numbers given to Tony … 5 million. He had 10 million.

Epstein: He had 5 million there. Tony’s not making 30 million a year.

Barak: Yeah. But he’s become quite … I can judge from the style of his watches. Yes. But he’s making 10 million a year.

Epstein: Yeah. Yeah. Probably. Yeah or probably he gets the money and he leaves some of it with the others. Yeah, probably some of the providers.

[The words ‘leaves some of it with … providers’ refer to returning some of the money in the form of kickbacks.]

Wolves in sheeps’ clothing? Vultures in Saville Row suits?

Should we believe that the two Europeans who humbly requested Emperor Jahangir for trading rights in India were any different?

Conflict, Debt, Economy, Exploitation, Geopolitics

PS: INNER WORKINGS (1)

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Presented below is a tiny example of the cynical workings of global big finance. One assumes that the scheming seen here usually happens in tight secrecy, behind closed doors, but today these two quoted paragraphs provide us ‘plebs’ some insight.

What follows is an extract from one of the many emails recently released by DOJ in the US. The email was sent by a Greg Brown to Jeffrey Epstein, a notorious operative of global finance, later convicted of sex trafficking. The email outlines a scheme to take a slice from the western loot of Libya.

[A reminder to readers: The destruction and looting of Libya were publicly justified in the name democracy, women’s rights, freedom … and other such glorious virtues of the so-called ‘western civiization’.]

Remember there are already $80 billion in frozen funds/assets internationally, of which $32.4 billion is in the US. And it is estimated that the real number is somewhere between three to four times this number in sovereign, stolen and misappropriated assets, so if we can identify/recover 5% to 10% of these monies and receive 10% to 20% as compensation we are talking about billions of dollars… But the real carrot is if we can become their go to guys because they plan to spend at least $100 billion next year to rebuild their country and jump start the economy. Also, remember Libya is a rich country, as its population is two million less than the city of New York and it has the ninth largest crude oil & natural gas reserves on the planet and a literacy rate of almost 80%.

I have been speaking to the law firm of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker … to go after the money on a contingency basis and they are considering this … But it would be to our advantage to pay them on a hourly basis and initially go after the low hanging fruit, which would enable us to keep more of the money… I also have friends, formally with MI-6 and Mossad willing to help identify stolen assets and get them recovered.

Some conclusions which may be drawn from this email extract, using only basic common sense and general knowledge:

Greg Brown has good knowledge of the Libyan economy, its official reserves, stolen assets … et cetera. Brown, Epstein and possibly other accomplices are scheming to profit hugely from the destruction and looting of Libya. The phrase ‘financial vultures‘ seems to describe them accurately. But recall that such people, including Blair and Sarkozy, actually killed Libya before feeding on it. In nature, vultures feed on carrion.

Such ‘vultures’ seem to look for several financial bonanzas: one from the looting of Libya, one from its reconstruction, and one from its resumed oil and natural gas production.

The use of international lawfare is clearly mentioned, because of course the loot must be legally whitewashed.

Words ‘formally with MI-6 and Mossad‘ are used to describe friends who may be able to assist with the loot. ‘Formally‘ here implies clearly that, even while holding an office, such people are free agents, with no loyalty. Presumably, for a decent ‘cut’, they are available for any lucrative side gigs. Off-shore accounts ensure that the scams remain safely hidden from governments and the public. Only a little imagination is needed to see that some other friends of such ‘vultures’ may ‘formally‘ be ministers in this or that country’s government.

Conflict, Debt, Economy, Exploitation, Geopolitics

GAMES OF GLOBAL FINANCE (Part 1)

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by Naresh Jotwani

Editorial note: Colonial exploitation, in its modern form, goes back about five centuries; but the history of exploitation is much older. The concept of money originated with money-lenders; later, greedy local warlords and religious leaders began to collaborate with money-lenders.

By way of illustration, we present this brief glimpse of the conditions which prevailed in Imperial Rome [courtesy: Alex Krainer]: Rome’s oligarchic system of governance favoured a steady and inexorable upward transfer of wealth from the disenfranchised multitudes and colonial subjects to the parasitic oligarchy. As a consequence, Roman internal politics were marked by almost perpetual social and political unrest, exacerbated by an overhang of unpayable debts, rolling civil wars, frequent colonial uprisings and periodic slave revolts.

We hope to bring out a series of ‘vignettes’ on the theme of the title of this post. Readers are cordially invited to contribute their personal views – even in the form of ‘mini-posts’ of about a hundred words. The first post in the series, by Naresh Jotwani, is presented below. We hope to see more!

[There have been several earlier posts on this blog on the broad theme of the present one; some of these can be found here, here, here and here.]

Continue reading GAMES OF GLOBAL FINANCE (Part 1) →
Absolute non-duality, Philosophy, Spinoza, Universe, Vedant

East meets west

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by Naresh Jotwani

Foreword:

Based on an earlier post on this blog (here), Keshav Vaze raised a very interesting question. His question prompted me to look for a rational answer, in the sense defined below. Some prior knowledge of Spinoza and of Vedant helped in formulating the answer, which I hope the reader will find to be of interest.

Keshav:

As an exercise in logic, can we arrive at Santana Dharma – that is, eternal law – through a point of view which is not anthropocentric?

Consider this excerpt from an earlier post:

A broadly accepted list of virtues in our tradition is this: generosity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, perseverance, forbearance, truthfulness, determination, love and equanimity.

According to Spinoza, these concepts of ethics are human-centric, but there is no basis for believing that God — or Nature or some law of Physics — created the universe with humans in mind. In Spinoza’s philosophy, humans are not considered inherently more important than any other part of nature.

Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)

According to Spinoza, true ethical behaviour arises from understanding our place within this unified system and aligning our actions with the natural order. In this way, we can talk rationally about ecology, environmental protection, bio-diversity … et cetera.

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Absolute non-duality, Advait, Search for truth, Spiritual journey, Truth

Mind the three T’s!

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by Naresh Jotwani and K. M. Chandrashekharan

Naresh Jotwani:

(1) In the age of the ancient Rishis, spiritual knowledge was imparted by Rishis to small groups of disciples. Few means of transportation and communication were available, and therefore the education must have proceeded without distraction.

(2) Today, educational institutes, run by highly business- oriented managements, impart education to millions, all of whom have the primary objective of learning how to earn. At the same time, means of transportation, communication and entertainment are all-persavive, resulting in all kinds of distractions during student life.

If truth and the search for truth are essential in any healthy society, what do the above two observations imply?

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Dharma, Harmony, Search for truth, Spiritual journey, Truth

Honest exchange #1

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between Naresh Jotwani and Jayram Daya

Naresh Jotwani:

Namaste, Jayrambhai!

I summarise my views on Advaita very briefly, as follows:

(1) I believe firmly in the truth of Advaita, and like to conduct my life — to the extent that is possible! — in consonance with Advaita. 

(2) For that reason, I am extremely sceptical about anyone claiming ‘God-given’ rights or ‘God-given’ identity. Very often, ‘God-given’ rights exclude totally any matching ‘God-given’ duties and responsibilities! In other words, ‘God’ is defined by people merely to suit their needs and instincts. 

(3) A broadly accepted list of virtues in our tradition is this:  generosity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, perseverance, forbearance, truthfulness, determination, love and equanimity.

I take these virtues as being universal, and respect greatly any tradition which regards these virtues as primary — whether or not the tradition claims to be blessed by a ‘God’. 

(4) In ‘materialistic pursuit’, many wrong actions are justified in the name of ‘God’, ‘manifest destiny’ … or some other BS. 

I would appreciate very much your views on this broad topic.

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Dharma, Harmony, Search for truth, Spiritual journey, Universe

WHY NOW?

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by R. Srinivasan and Jayram Daya

R. Srinivasan:

My question is: Why do our thoughts on life, death and other spiritual issues crop up only when we grow old, and usually face a health crisis? Then we start wondering about the futility of life’s material pursuits. Why are we born, only to die eventually? What is the reason for the life-death cycle in this universe in the first place? What is its purpose? 

I share my thoughts and questions here as a seeker of truth. I have been exposed to many views on this subject, starting from my childhood, and through reading and listening to our traditional philosophy. But I am still asking this basic question again and again, without attaining clarity in my mind.

Continue reading WHY NOW? →

Insights into modern life