By Nrsimhananda Das
Everyone loves predictions. Astrology, Palmistry, Tarot, Crystal Balls, etc. Some are dire forecasts of imminent collapses of the socio/political/economic systems exploiting the planet and its resources. Often, the soothsayers are charismatic leaders who lead their flock with doomsday scenarios. In modern slang, the blind followers of “the end is nigh” prophecies are referred to having “drunk the kool-aid,” referring to the mass cyanide poisoning by members of Jim Jone’s People’s Temple.
Srila Prabhupada’s predictions are, of course, not speculation. We’ve seen some of them manifest. Iskcon adherents quote (sometimes correctly, other times, not) Srila Prabhupada’s statements about the future. In some cases, devotees believe that the current economic system is on the edge of imminent collapse; they have migrated to more sattvic locations – even islands. Certainly, Srila Prabhupada recommended that his disciples develop their own self-sufficient communities. (How are we doing?) According to Srila Prabhupada’s BTG article in 1956, “Everything is in oblivion and this teaches us the lesson that the materialistic plans of the present age will also meet with the same fate after a lapse of 50 years.” (http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz/encyclopedia/worldwar.htm ) We’re in the red zone now, nearly seven years more than the 50. Some devotees thought that the economic implosion of 2008 was the bubble bursting; others held on to the 2012 Mayan predictions. (There are still nearly four months left to get that right.)
However, the most recent, “Wired,” a hip tech magazine, featured a cover article, “Apocalypse Not” which offers not quite a contrary perspective, but one which considers the ability of humankind, demonic as it may be, to promote and predict more disaster consciousness than actually happens. In other words, it could be only a matter of degree, not catastrophe. From a Prabhupadanuga’s perspective, that might indicate that the demise of civilization as we know it might be later rather than sooner (i.e. don’t hold your breath) or incremental rather than explosive. Certainly, my own experience is the latter.
Srinandanandana prabhu (aka Stephen Knapp) has written “The Vedic Prophecies: A New Look into the Future.” It is a more cosmic, scholarly, scriptural approach to the subject. I found it very well researched and referenced. However, I noted that HH Bhaktitirtha’s 1998 introduction presages numerous global predictions that were on the radar screen at that time – from Nostradamus’s proclamation that in July 1999 a King of Terror would come from the sky to Jean Dixon’s prediction of a world holocaust via a Polar shift in 1999 amongst them. Of course, they might have gotten their dates wrong; Armageddon may still be around the corner. What role do any of these speculations play in the life of a devotee?
I live in earthquake country – California. In my community of Topanga, a very popular vegetarian restaurant was owned and managed by the followers of Elizabeth Clare Prophet. She espoused a Christianized form of karma yoga through her Lighthouse Church. In 1986, she instructed all of her disciples to leave California and re-locate to a communal ranch adjacent to Yellowstone National Park. She had heard from the “Ascended Masters” that California would be submerged by a devastating earthquake (and that a nuclear war would soon occur). I bid goodbye to numerous friends as they quickly divested themselves of their homes and left. The restaurant changed ownership and no longer was vegetarian. During that time, numerous devotees who lived here have left – their bodies, that is. They were not followers of Ms. Prophet and didn’t ever have to experience her predictions. We’re still waiting for the “big one.”
Please check out the article and contribute your thoughts. I’d like to see a healthy discussion on this subject of “predictions” which has remained somewhat of a mystery – at least to me. Of course, the future is, by nature, unknown. There is always the “Krishna factor.”