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When will Lord Kalki Ji appear?

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Under normal circumstances, the length of the Kaliyuga is 432,000 years. Out of these 432,000 years, only 5500 years have passed approximately. So, there are still 426,500 years of Kaliyuga left. So, does this mean that we have to just helplessly wait for the remaining 426,000 years to pass and just bear the torments of Kaliyuga? Not necessarily…

In Srimad Bhagavatam (7.1.11) Srila Sukadeva Goswami says:

 

kālaṁ carantaṁ sṛjatīśa āśrayaṁ
pradhāna-pumbhyāṁ nara-deva satya-kṛt

 

“O great King, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the controller of the material and spiritual energies, who is certainly the creator of the entire cosmos, creates the time factor to allow the material energy and the living entity to act within the limits of time. Thus the Supreme Personality is never under the time factor nor under the material energy.”

This above verse clearly indicates that time is a creation of the Lord in the material world and hence it is under the control of the Supreme Lord. So, the Lord is not under the control of time or bound by the time factor. Instead, time is under the control of The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna (Kalki).

There is no effect of the time factor (namely birth, old age, disease and death) in the transcendental world like we have in the material world. The conditioned souls are under the influence of time and are also affected by the astronomical influence of the various planets as per time but the Lord is not. Even the devotees of the Lord are not affected by the astronomical influence of the various planets. It has been seen in many cases that those who are pure, surrendered devotees of the Lord, their birth chart (janma patri) predictions completely fail because the Lord burns the reactions of their past karma and personally takes charge of their lives. So, if the Lord can change the destiny of the devotees then what to talk of the Lord Himself. The Lord does not have any destiny. He is free to do anything at any time. So, Lord Kalki controls the time (and not vice versa) and hence The Lord is free to appear and disappear at any time that the Lord desires.

Another verse which confirms this fact (The Lord being independent of time factor) is as follows. In Kalki Purana (3.43), Lord Kalki speaks as follows to king Vishakhayupa:

 

Ahameva paroloko  dharmascaham sanatanah

kala svabhava samskarah karmanu gatayo mama

“I am the supreme destination for everyone. I am the objective of eternal religious principles. Religion, sin, destiny, the time factor, nature, deeds, and samskaras are My followers.”

So, now the answer to the question when the Lord will appear depends on three factors:

1. The pace of activities of Kali (the personality of Kaliyuga): Kali has been granted the permission to live on this Earth planet and conduct its activities for 432,000 earthly years at a certain pace. However, if Kali tries to take the advantage of the time allotted to him and tries to increase its sinful activities and influence at a faster than allotted pace then the pot of his sins will be filled before the allotted time and hence Kali’s life span will be reduced. This phenomenon of reduction of life span due to sinful activities is confirmed in Srimad Bhagvatam in the following verses:

 

āyuḥ śriyaṁ yaśo dharmaṁ lokān āśiṣa eva ca
hanti śreyāṁsi sarvāṇi puṁso mahad-atikramaḥ  (SB 10.4.46)

Translation: “My dear King, when a man persecutes great souls, all his benedictions of longevity (long life span), beauty, fame, religion, blessings and promotion to higher planets will be destroyed.”

 

evaṁ bhinna-matis tābhyāṁ satrājitam asattamaḥ
śayānam avadhīl lobhāt sa pāpaḥ kṣīṇa jīvitaḥ      (SB 10.57.5)

Translation: His mind thus influenced by their advice, wicked Śatadhanvā murdered Satrājit in his sleep simply out of greed. In this way the sinful Śatadhanvā shortened his own life span.

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (founder Acharya of ISKCON) also corroborates and confirms this phenomenon (reduction of life span due to sins such as torture of great devotees of The Lord) in His purport to SB 7.8.3-4.

Looking at the pace at which Kaliyuga is progressing, spreading its influence and persecuting Gau Mata (Mother Cow) and the devotees, it seems likely that Kaliyuga has itself eaten up its own life and thus will have to be ended sooner than later. So, The Lord may appear before the allotted time. We can see that almost all the symptoms of Kaliyuga described in Srimad Bhagvatam have either already manifested or are in the process of manifesting. Bharat, the pious land where Dharma (Religion) was born has now become the largest exporter of beef. Most of the political leaders are demoniac and worse than shudras. They do not have the Kshatriya qualities to protect Cows and prevent cow slaughter. Most of the so-called Brahmins also do not possess brahminical qualities and they are also worse than shudras. The varnashrama system has collapsed and the society has gone to the dogs. In such a scenario, it is highly probable that The Lord may appear earlier than normal to protect mother cow and His devotees.

The same Srimad Bhagvatam which predicts the life of Kaliyuga to be 432,000 years also asserts that the life span gets reduced due to sinful activities (as described in the above verses) which is what is happening in the case of Kali. Thus, if Lord Kalki appears sooner and ends Kaliyuga, it will not be contradictory to Srimad Bhagvatam and the impeccability of the great Srimad Bhagvatam will still be upheld.

2. Prayers by the devotees of Lord Kalki: The Supreme Lord is ‘bhakta vatsala’. The lord is very affectionate towards His devotees. The Lord can even break His vows to protect the devotees (just like He did when he lifted weapon in Mahabharat war despite taking the vow that He will not). So, similarly appearing before the 432,000 years for the sake of the devotees is not an impossible or very big task for The Lord. So, if the devotees will really be troubled by Kali and they pray to The Lord sincerely and beg Him to appear, then The Lord may appear soon for the protection of His devotees. This fact that Lord Kalki appears primarily for the pleasure of His devotees and to fulfil the desires of the saintly persons is clearly mentioned in the following verse from Kalki Purana (14.52):

subala milana harsah satrumasaika harsah

samara varavilasah sadhu satkara kasah

svajana dunta hartta jivajdtasya bhartta

racayatu kusalam vah kama puravatdrah

Translation: “Lord Kalki, who incarnates for the pleasure of His devotees, removes the distress of the pious, is the maintainer of all living entities, and appears in this world to fulfill the desires of all saintly persons, was determined to eliminate His enemies by utilizing the prowess of His vast army.”

So, we can clearly see from this verse that one (sort of) pre-requisite for the appearance of Lord Kalki is the presence of devotees whose desire is for Lord Kalki to appear. Actually, even one bonafide, pure, surrendered devotee like bhakta Prahlad Maharaj to make that happen. So if all the devotees of Lord Kalki all over the world want Lord Kalki to appear soon then they should all unite and get together to pray to The Lord to appear soon. The Lord appears when He is invited and it is the devotees’ right and duty to pray and invite Him to appear. No one can stop the devotees from having the desire in their heart for Lord Kalki’s appearance and to pray to Lord Kalki for the same. If the prayers are done with full surrender and sincerity, then The Lord will hear and reciprocate as per His supreme will.

3. The supreme will of Lord Kalki: Ultimately, it is the supreme free will and desire of The Lord when He wants to appear. No devotee can force the Lord to come early and similarly no demon can force the Lord to delay His appearance time. The Lord is completely free to decide His time of appearance (and also disappearance) keeping (or not keeping) in mind the above two factors (the pace of progress of Kaliyuga and devotees’ prayers) described above in points 1 & 2. As stated in Srimad Bhagvatam (1.1.1), the Lord is completely independent and there is no other cause beyond Him.

 

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

janmādy asya yato ’nvayād itarataś cārtheṣv abhijñaḥ svarāṭ

tene brahma hṛdā ya ādi-kavaye muhyanti yat sūrayaḥ
tejo-vāri-mṛdāṁ yathā vinimayo yatra tri-sargo ’mṛṣā

dhāmnā svena sadā nirasta-kuhakaṁ satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi

Translation: O my Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. I meditate upon Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa because He is the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him. It is He only who first imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmājī, the original living being. By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion, as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in fire, or land seen on water. Only because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal. I therefore meditate upon Him, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is eternally existent in the transcendental abode, which is forever free from the illusory representations of the material world. I meditate upon Him, for He is the Absolute Truth.

Thus, the very first verse of Srimad Bhagvatam makes it clear that The supreme personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna (non different from Lord Kalki) is the supreme independent person and is not dependent on anything as He is the supreme cause of everything. Thus, His will is the supreme will.

Another verse which corroborates that Lord Kalki’s will is the supreme will and that He is the cause of all the material manifestation and thus is not bound by time (or any other material reason) is very clearly stated in the following verse from Kalki Purana (15.32):

kalasvabhdva sarhskdra

ndmddyd prakrtihpara

yasyecchaya srjatyandarh

mahd hankdra kadikdn

Translation: According to His (Lord Kalki’s) supreme will, the mahat tattva, or aggregate material ingredients, acts as the original cause of the cosmic manifestation, including the time factor.

 

Conclusion:

Since time is itself is a creation of The Lord in the material world, thus The Lord is independent of time factor and is not bound by time. Further, since Kali is acting faster than it should so he (Kali) is himself eating up his lifespan and thus reducing the normal duration of Kaliyuga. Furthermore, The Lord takes into consideration the sincere prayers and desires of His devotees. So, the devotees can desire and pray for The Lord to appear soon if they are not able to bear the torments of Kaliyuga and then just leave it up to the supreme will of Lord Kalki to finally decide when The Lord actually appears.