Category Archives: Civilization

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.

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Civilization, Dharma, Harmony, Life, Psychology

Two Powerful Words

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by Naresh Jotwani and R. Srinivasan

Should I try to be a moral person? A nice guy? A law-abiding citizen? Or would that turn me into a loser? An impractical dreamer?

How do I become a winner? A realist?

Can I become a cunning operator in a philanthropist’s garb? Is that option available to me? Or only to some billionaires? Is greed really good – as they say on Wall Street?

Questions, questions … and more questions! But – alas! – no clear answers!

In the hope that a discussion around such questions would be of interest to everyone, we attempt here an exploration of some basic issues.

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Civilization, Democracy, Dharma, Justice, Society

Democracy as Dharma

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by Ashok Jain

Foreword

Guest author Ashok Jain (brief profile here) has followed up on Jayram’s post by pointing out the crucial association between Democracy and Dharma.

While no system is perfect, democracy is better than the other forms of government which have been tried, such as autocracy, feudalism, communism, fascism, religious fanaticism et cetera. Democracy is ingrained in Indian political and religious thought from times immemorial, quite simply because it is ingrained in the concept of Dharma. Dharma provides a sense of fairness in society – as against blind adherence to rules and laws. Additional societal values infused by Dharma are equality, fraternity and justice for all.

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Civilization, Happiness, Individual, Life, Spiritual journey

WEST OR EAST?

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by Jayram Daya, R. Srinivasan and Naresh Jotwani

Several centuries after the decline of the Romans, the major European naval powers had laid the groundwork for a culture of colonization and exploitation. By that time, the Anglo-Saxons had established themselves in England. Their belief in ‘God, Gold, and Glory’ spurred British colonization in the New World, altering history forever. The other European naval powers who likewise set out to colonize and exploit were Spain, Portugal, France and the Dutch.

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Civilization, Life, Search for truth, Time, Truth

RIGHT ON TIME

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by Naresh Jotwani

A recent post on this blog, Time as a Resource, showed that time is a crucial resource in business management. Like any other valuable resource, time must be utilized in an optimal manner. As a short and sweet summary of that post, we repeat here the line from Peter Drucker with which that post started:

Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.

However, as we shall now show, there is much, much more to time than what we encounter in our busy worldly lives. When we logically explore various aspects of the lived human experience of time, we are led to conclusions which have a huge impact on the values by which we order and live our lives.

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Childhood, Civilization, Happiness, Life, Money

A boy learns about money — 2

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by JAYRAM DAYA, GUEST AUTHOR

Those who are lazy and lethargic become slaves, while those who work hard create opportunities.

This code of moral upliftment was impressed upon me by my grandmother. I understood that dedicated work is the instrument to combat poverty, and thus my anticipated future seemed attainable. Stories shape history for people of all ages, leaving a lasting legacy that inspires future generations. I became a determined follower of this code, resolved to make a positive change.

A country’s story is told by legends. Granny was born in India, and so her thoughts were shaped into a coherent entity that represented Sanatan Dharma. I was taught that we did not have a religion, but had Sanatan Dharma, which promotes peaceful coexistence of all life on Earth.

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Childhood, Civilization, Happiness, Life, Money

A boy learns about money — 1

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by JAYRAM DAYA, GUEST AUTHOR

Looking at matchbox cars in a shop window, I would be happy as a lark. I would stand in front of toy stores, claiming to want to buy one. I would think that everything there might one day be mine. As a young and growing boy, I lived in a dreamland dominated by toy cars. When the sales-lady questioned what I wanted, I would simply walk away and, while walking back home, keep thinking, ‘If only I had the money’.

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Civilization, Economy, Engineering, Society, Technology

ENGINEERING OR TECHNOLOGY?

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It comes as a slight surprise when we first learn that the word ‘technology’ has its root in the Greek word tekhne, which meant ‘art’; after all, today we understand art as being quite distinct from technology. The older Greek word harks back to the era when technology, in Greece and elsewhere, was much simpler; we may assume that practitioners of tekhne in Greece were viewed much as we view ‘artisans’ today.

It is no surprise, however, to learn that the word ‘engineering’ is rooted in the word ‘engine’; presumably, in the early days of engineering, ‘engines’ of one kind or another dominated the scene. But, to dig deeper, we enquire about the origin of the word ‘engine’. It turns out that ‘engine’ is indirectly rooted in the Latin word for ‘intellect’ or ‘inventiveness’. In fact the English word ‘ingenious’ is close in its form and meaning to the Latin near-equivalent ingenium.

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