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A Curious Christian -- Prophesies of Krishna?


> Hi, I have a few questions that I hope you can help me out with.

> First of all I'm not a Hare Krishna, I'm a curious Christian I

> suppose you could say.  I was wanting to know if there are any

> prophesies of Krishna, and if there are, which I'm sure there is,

> then have any come true?  Another question I have is that do the

> Krishnas believe in the end of the world?  Please write me back

> soon!  And may peace be upon you.  

> 





Hello. Hare Krishna!!



Thanks for writing. It is good you are a curious Christian. This

curiosity, the inquiring mind, is the sign of intelligence. It should

be used to answer the important questions: "Who am I?", "What is the

Purpose of life?", "What happens after death?", etc. We should not

waste all our energy just trying to be comfortable in this material

world. That is a great misues of energy because this world is not a

comfortable place and no matter what we do it will remain

uncomfortable. You can see it practically. Over the last 50 years

there has been so much advancement in science and medicine. But are

the people any happier today than 50 years ago? Has the "quality of

life" really improved? If you consider this thoughtfully I think you

will agree it has not. There are still so many people getting sick,

medicine has made many advancements, but nature has also sent many new

diseases and the net result is still just as many people are sick...

All material so-called advancement is like this... We are really not

advancing at all. 



So instead of spending all one's energy in material pursuits, we

should use our energy to serve God, to reestablish our lost

relationship with God, that is something which is of eternal benefit

to us. Any material advancement we may make is temporary -- it is

finished at death -- buat spiritual advancement is permanent...



You have asked if there are predictions in the Vedic scriptures and

yes, there are many. For example the Srimad-Bhagavatam was written

down 5,000 years ago and it predicted the appearance of Lord Buddha,

giving the names of his mother and father and the name of the village

he was born in along with the purpose for his appearance and a

description of the philosophy he would preach. So there are many, many

such predictions. Some have already come true and others are still to

come. There is also a prediction of Kali-yuga [the age we are now

living in] It goes into great detail and mentions things like in this

age people will consider long hair very beautiful, there will be

practically no marriage -- boys and girls will just live together

without being married, most of the so-called religious men will be

actually great sinners, there will be great irregualities in weather

patterns causing many problems with food production. And the future

for Kali-yuga is not nice at all. The food shortages will get much

worse -- to the stage when there is no longer grains, fruit will have

no flesh anymore -- instead of a nice mango you will just get a mango

seed.. There will be no more milk, sugar, etc. Only meat, and

gradually people will become man-eaters also. Killing each other for

food. In the end of Kali-yuga people will be less than three feet

tall, they will smell incredibly bad because of eating so many

obnoxious things and they won't live past 20. A 20 year old will be

considered very old...



So the future is bleak indeed. But there is hope still. The Kali-yuga

lasts for 432,000 years and we have already passed through 5,000 years

only. Five hundred years ago Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared, He

is an incarnation of God, Krishna, and He started the sankirtana

movement, the movement of the chanting of the holy names of God. He

said that a golden age could be created during the next 10,000 years

even though it is Kali-yuga [the Iron Age].. So it is a special time

at the moment actually. Everything can be purified and all the

problems can be resolved simply by chanting the holy names of God. It

is not that just Hare Krishna has potency, but all the bonafide names

of God are invested with transcendental potence. So you can also chant

the names of God found in the Bible. But Lord Caitanya did recommend

one special mantra, the maha-mantra, the great mantra:



            Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare

                  Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare



This mantra has so much potency that chanting it can turn this dark,

miserable Kali-yuga into a beautiful spiritual Satya-yuga [Golden Age]

The same things are recommended and predicted in most of the worlds

scriptures. Glorifying the name of God and a golden age of spiritual

reawakening.



As for the end of the world, the Vedic scriptures inform us the 

creation of the universe is a cyclic affair. It is created, it exists

for some time, and then it is destroyed. So there is the "end of the

world" but then everything is created again... So it's an eternal

cycle of creation and destruction. We have all the details and times

as well. I have mentioned two ages [Kali and Satya-yugas], there are

actually four, Satya-yuga [1,728,000 years], Tretya-yuga[1,296,000

years], Dvarpa-yuga[864,000 years] and Kali-yuga[432,000 years], so 

the total, a "Divya-yuga" is  4,320,000 years. So there are 1,000

Divya-yugas in one day of Lord Brahma [the topmost person in this

universe] everything [except some of the higher planets including the

one on which Lord Brahma lives] is destroyed at the end of Lord

Brahma's day by a great fire and a great flood. Then for the period of

Lord Brahma's night [another 1,000 DIvya-yugas or 4,320,000,000 years]

there is no creation. When Lord Brahma's night is over he initiates

the creation again and the cycle starts again. So this devastation at

ten end of Lrod Brahma's day is called pralaya. It means partial

devastation. There is also a maha-pralaya or a complete devastation at

the end of Lord Brahma's life. He also lives for about 100 years like

us but instead of having 24 hour days his days are 4,320,000,000 years

long... So at the end of his life everything in the universe is

destroyed. But it is cyclical as well. It is described that Maha-Visnu

[God] is lying on the causal ocean and when He breathes out all the

universes are created and when he breathes in all the universes are

destroyed... So one breath of God equals 4,320,000,000 * 2 * 365 * 100

earth years. This number is the total duration of the universe... 



So I don't know what you think, but this information is given in the

Vedic scriptures along with all knowledge about ever field of study.

Veda means knowledge and the Vedas is the storehouse of all knowledge

both material and spiritual.



So I'm looking forward to hearing from you again. Chant Hare Krishna

and be happy!



Madhudvisa dasa
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Chant Hare Krishna and be happy! All glories to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada!