Duṣama, the period in which we are now living, is entirely evil. No one can hope to live longer than one hundred and twenty-five years, to have more than sixteen ribs or a greater stature than seven cubits. The era began three years after Mahāvīra reached mokṣa, and will last for twenty-one thousand years. No Tirthaṅkara can be born during Duṣama; nor can any one, lay or ascetic, however good, reach mokṣa without undergoing at least one rebirth (so that there would not seem to be much use in becoming an ascetic nowadays!). Bad as things are now, they must become yet worse, and Jainism itself is doomed to disappear during our present era; the last Jaina monk will be called Duppasahasūri, the last nun Phalguśrī, the last layman Nāgila, and the last laywoman Satyaśrī.
It is this belief that Jainism must disappear that is paralysing so much effort at the present time; for the younger Jaina feel that anything they may do to spread their faith, for instance, is only building castles in the sand that must be swept away by the incoming tide of destruction. It seems, in fact, impossible for any religion which is not illuminated and irradiated by Hope to become a really missionary faith.
Our present era, will be followed by a still more evil one, Duṣama Duṣama, which will also endure for twenty-one thousand years. A man's life will then only last sixteen or, according to some sects, twenty years at most, his height will only be one cubit, and he will never possess more than eight ribs. The days will be hot and the nights cold, disease will be rampant, and chastity, even between brothers and sisters, will be non-existent. At the end of the period terrific tempests will sweep over the earth, and but for the fact that the Jaina know their uncreated world can never be destroyed, they would fear that the earth itself would perish in the storms. Men and birds, beasts and seeds, will seek everywhere for refuge, and find it in the river Ganges, in caves and in the ocean.
