And they also make their
very mouths serve the purposes of the organ of procreation. And famine
ravages the habitations of men, and the highways are infested by women
of ill fame, while females in general, O king, become at such periods
hostile to their lords and destitute of modesty! And, O king, the very
kine at such periods yield little milk, while the trees, sat over with
swarms of crows, do not produce many flowers and fruits. And, O lord of
the earth, regenerate classes, tainted with the sin of slaying
Brahmanas, accept gifts from monarchs that are addicted to falsehood in
speech. And filled with covetousness and ignorance, and bearing on their
persons the outward symbols of religion, they set out on eleemosynary
rounds, afflicting the people of the Earth. And people leading domestic
lives, afraid of the burden of taxes, become deceivers, while Brahmanas,
falsely assuming the garb of ascetics, earn wealth by trade, with nails
and hair unpared and uncut. And, O tiger among men, many of the
twice-born classes become, from avarice of wealth, religious mendicants
of the _Brahmacharin_ order. And, O monarch, men at such periods behave
contrary to the _modes_ of life to which they betake themselves, and
addicted to intoxicating drinks and capable of violating the beds of
their preceptors, their desires are all of this world, pursuing matters
ministering to the flesh and the blood. And O tiger among men, at such
period the asylums of ascetics become full of sinful and audacious
wretches ever applauding lives of dependence.
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