Did Srila Prabhupada Prophesy a Polar Shift?
BY: KSHAMABUDDHI DAS
Mar 08, HIGH SPRINGS, FLORIDA, USA (SUN) —
The 2012 Mayan calendar topic has got a lot of people talking about the end of time, planetary ascension, cataclysm, holocaust and new beginnings for human civilization in the Golden Age of Lord Gaura. Whether or not there is anything to these foreboding omens that seem to haunt the minds of modern people, we cannot know at this time.
However, did Srila Prabhupada ever prophecy a global cataclysm that would collapse the foundation of modern civilization? We know for certain that he was very pessimistic about our wonderful, modern capitalist system of excess, waste and baby killing.
There is a lot of buzz on the worldwide web these days about the 2012 Mayan prophecy, the Galactic Equator, Gamma Rays bursts, Solar Bursts, Polar Shifts, Earth Changes and Cataclysm on a massive scale. Should we be afraid? Is there any concern that these doomsday scenarios might actually be waiting in the near future resulting in the reshaping of human society into something totally different than we ever imagined could happen so fast for the few who survive?
As food for thought, I just thought it would be good to remind the devotees of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness what Srila Prabhupada warned in a prophetic omen that he entered into Srimad Bhagavatam:
"Only under certain conditions do the planets float as weightless balls in the air, and as soon as these conditions are disturbed, the planets may fall down in the Garbhodaka Ocean, which covers half the universe. The other half is the spherical dome within which the innumerable planetary systems exist. The floating of the planets in the weightless air is due to the inner constitution of the globes, and the modernized drilling of the earth to exploit oil from within is a sort of disturbance by the modern demons and can result in a greatly harmful reaction to the floating condition of the earth. A similar disturbance was created formerly by the demons headed by Hiranyaksa (the great exploiter of the gold rush), and the earth was detached from its weightless condition and fell down into the Garbhodaka Ocean".
(Srimad Bhagavatam 2.7.1 (purport excerpt))
Does the 2012 alignment with the Galactic Equator make the dangerous situation Srila Prabhupada referred to here even more dangerous? What about the Solar burst they think might happen soon, taking out all our satellite communications, banking and world economy in a few moments of time, changing the Earth forever?
We can't know for certain, but it certainly should give us pause to reflect upon these ominous words of Srila Prabhupada and wonder if we should not start making better plans than expecting our condemned modern capitalism to be sustainable in any form of sustainable society and culture on Earth in the future.
Is the Hare Krishna movement leading the world out of this capitalist ignorance and condemned society of cow killing – or are they just going to keep riding the Capitalist Bullet train into darkness and extinction as a species of human being unfit for survival?
What happened to self-sufficient communes and farm villages? Sustainability?
Somewhere along the line something went terribly wrong, and Srila Prabhupada's vision of agrarian Vaishnava communities went down in flames as all the senior members of ISKCON positioned themselves for adoration, distinction and positions of power and influence in an ecclesiastical institution that fosters a policy of exclusion that keeps out the majority of the disciples of Srila Prabhupada, creating the elite who set themselves above all the other Vaishnavas in the movement.
Should ISKCON be planning a Krishna Disneyland in Orlando for turning Radha-Krishna into a tourist attraction, or should they be putting that effort into building sustainable agrarian communities as an example of how human society should live in harmony with the environment?
I don't know. Somehow, in these times of uncertainty and global tension it just seems to me that building a Krishna Disneyland in Orlando, Florida is just not what the world needs right now. Should Radha-Krishna be a tourist attraction like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck? I would like to see some discussion on the matter. I have my doubts, but I am open for argument.
It just seems like we need to move on from the old Ritvik debate and origins controversy and address the issue of the time, which is the question of survival as a movement and as a species. This petty bickering will all stop instantly when a true global catastrophe reduces us all down to a hard struggle for existence in a world unprepared to survive the coming cataclysms, where silk garments for the Swamis on the big cushions will be the last thing on our minds. It might sound cliché, but this bickering over origins and who can be guru is the classic example of fighting over deck chairs on the Titanic, even as it is sinking from a collision with a giant iceberg.
Been there – done that. Can we move on?
