The End of Times is really the beginning
The End of Times
The Goddess Kali - Queen of the Demons
Prior to my awakening, like many people, I never gave any thought to the idea of an “End Times”. For one, I mistakenly believed that the End Times was a concept found only in the Bible; and since I had rejected Christianity long ago and was a skeptic to boot, I never entertained a single thought on the subject. Also, any talk of an “End Times” was (in my naively self-assured opinion) something only “religious fanatics” talked about. But I was unaware that the idea of an End Times was also common to many other cultures and religious traditions. Had I known this, I might have given it more thought than I did (though being the skeptic that I was, I probably would have dismissed it as nothing more than cultural coincidences).
Now that I know that these are the End of Days, I see this fact as quite remarkable. As I have mentioned in other posts, the Shaiva Oracles of the Hindu Purana tell us that the End Times (aka the Kali Yuga period) are not a short period of intense turmoil like many anticipate. Instead, the End Times is a fairly long period of time that began about 5,000 years ago and encompasses the Roman Empire, the Inquisition, the Civil War, the crash of ‘29, World Wars I + II, the Holocaust, etc., etc.. According to author Alain Daniélou, we entered the twilight stages of the Kali Yuga in 1939, just prior to the start of WWII.
The Purana speaks of a continous cycle of ages, each lasting approx. 58,000 years. Each of one of these cycles consists of four ages (this is similar to the Hopi and other Native American teachings of four worlds of evolution). The Purana teaches that each 58,000 year cycle starts with a Golden Age (Satya Yuga) and ends with a Dark Age (Kali Yuga), and at the very end of the Kali Yuga, a new cycle and a new mankind begins yet again.
The End Times predictions of the Old Testament and New Testament are widely known (these religions themselves are products of the Kali Yuga); lesser known are the many similar predictions of other religions and similar prophecies of the Native Americans and other indigenous tribes of the world. I have compiled a small handful that I’ve become aware of ever since my epiphany.
BUDDHISM
“Over a thousand years ago, Padmasambhava, the great teacher who brought Buddhism from India to Tibet, predicted that this particular dark age would be distinguished by our increasing cleverness. Our discursive minds would run rampant. We would create myriad ways to keep ourselves entertained, becoming experts in how to spend free time… Padmasambhava predicted that as we became more shrewd and clever, compassion would seem increasingly futile, and we would lose the knowledge of how to bring meaning to our lives… At the same time, the number of weapons, diseases, and starving people would grow. Our negative emotions would increase as our motivation to lead a meaningful life — a life of virtue - waned.”
[source: “Ruling Your World” by Sakyong Mipham, pg. 44]
HINDUISM
The following is from “While the Gods Play” by Alain Daniélou:
“According to the chronology of the Purana, the present humanity would have appeared about 58,000 years ago, a figure that corresponds to twelve and a half times what Shaiva cosmology calls the Age of the Ancestors, that is, the duration of a lineage, a particular species of men. But men or similar beings existed before the present humanity. The human species that have succeeded each other on earth have each achieved a very high level of development and knowledge, then disappeared at the time of planetary catastrophes, leaving, however, traces that served as the bases for the development and knowledge of subsequent humanities, which, when they reach the limits of the knowledge permitted man in the plan of creation, are, in turn, destined to disappear.”
“The spiritual decadence of man, according to Hindu tradition, goes hand in hand with progress in metallurgy from the Golden Age (Satya Yuga) to the Iron Age (Kali Yuga)” or the “End Times”"….
The Purana scriptures describe the signs that characterize the very end of the Kali Yuga [which began in 1939 according to Alain Daniélou].
“It is the lowest instincts that spur the men of the Kali Yuga on. They prefer to choose false ideas. They do not hesitate to persecute sages. Desire torments them. Slovenliness, illness, hunger, and fear spread. There will be severe droughts. The different regions of countries will be in conflict with each other. The sacred books are no longer respected. Men will be without morals, irritable and sectarian. In the age of Kali false doctrines and misleading writings spread… Many will perish… Most of the new leaders are of working-class origin. They will hunt down the priests and upholders of knowledge. Fetuses will be killed in the stomachs of their mothers and heroes will be assassinated. The Shudra will claim to behave like Brahmans and the priests like laborers. Thieves will become kings, and kings will be the thieves. Women who have relationships with several men will be numerous…. The earth will produce plenty in some places and too little in others. Rulers will confiscate property and use it badly. They will cease to protect the people. Base men who have gained a certain amount of learning (without having the virtues necessary for its use) will be esteemed as sages. Men who do not possess the virtues of warriors will become kings. Scholars will be in the service of mediocre, conceited, and malevolent men. Priests will degrade themselves by selling the sacraments. There will be many displaced persons, wandering from one country to another… Predatory animals will be more violent….
“Young girls will do trade in their virginity. The god of the clouds will be inconsistent in the distribution of the rains. Shopkeepers will run dishonest businesses. They will be surrounded by pretentious, false philosophers. There will be many beggars and unemployed people. Everyone will use hard and vulgar language. No one will be able to trust anyone else. People will be envious… moralizing puritans characterize the period of the end of the Kali Yuga. … Wealth and harvests will decrease… Rapes will be frequent. Many people will be treacherous, lustful, base, and foolhardy… There will be many children born whose life expectancy is no more than sixteen years… Wheat supplies will be stolen. Thieves will steal from thieves. People will become inactive, lethargic, and purposeless. Illness, rats, and noxious substances will plague them… Unqualified people will pass as experts in matters of morals and religion. People will massacre women, children, cows, and one another. [Linga Purw, chap. 401]”
[source: “While the Gods Play” by Alain Daniélou]
INDIGENOUS CULTURES
•AFRICA:
The following is from “The Prophet’s Way” by Thom Hartmann. The author visited an African refugee camp and one of the elders (a type of shaman) told him the following:
“The world is fragile. Your American companies, sugar and coffee, they have raped our land. Now the Earth will no longer give us food because it is angry with what we have allowed you to do here.
“It has gone too far…The Earth cannot be saved by man: this is stupidity. The Earth will save itself, by killing off the men. …This is the future you are seeing,” he says, waving his hand around him at the refugee camp, the bare ground, the dead trees, the big-bellied children squatting…one day it will be the white man’s future, too.”
[source: “The Prophet’s Way” by Thom Hartmann, pg. 150]
•HOPI INDIANS OF THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST:
“Mother Nature tells us which is the right way. When earthquakes, floods, hailstorms, drought, and famine will be the life of every day, the time will have then come for the return to the true path….”
[source: “Meditations with the Hopi” by Robert Boissiere]
“At this time you’re going to see that things will speed up, that people on the earth will move faster and faster. Grandchildren will not have time for grandparents. Parents will not have time for children. It will seem like time is going faster and faster. The elders advised us that, as things speed up, you yourself should slow down. The faster things go, the slower you go. Because there’s going to come a time when the earth is going to be shaken a third time. The Great Spirit has shaken the earth two times: the First and Second World Wars to remind us that we are a human family, to remind us that we should have greeted each other as brothers and sisters. We had a chance after each shaking to come together in a circle that would have brought peace on earth, but we missed that.
“When you see people living in the sky on a permanent basis, you will know the Great Spirit is about to grab the earth, this time not with one hand, but with both hands. When this house is in the sky, the Great Spirit is going to shake the Earth a third time, and whoever dropped that gourd of ashes, upon them it is going to drop.”
[source: The 1986 Continental Indigenous Council, Fairbanks, Alaska]
•ONONDAGA INDIANS OF CANADA AND THE U.S.:
“It’s prophesied in our Instructions that the end of the world will be near when the trees start dying from the tops down. That’s what the maples are doing today. Our Instructions say the time will come when there will be no corn, when nothing will grow in the garden, when water will be filthy and unfit to drink. And then a great monster will rise up from the water and destroy mankind. “
—Leon Shenandoah
[source: “Wisdomkeepers” by Steve Wall and Harvey Arden]
•SHUAR INDIANS OF SOUTH AMERICA:
From a Shuar Shaman (speaking about the future of the jungle after he experienced a shamanic journey):
“…What I see is death. Land is dead. All dead. Trees. Birds. Monkeys. People. Dead. Many, many people. Not Shuar. No. Colonists from mountains, like El Milagro people. Dead. And earth? Burned. Earth like clay after women’s fires. Earth is pottery. Earth is dead. And air? Air is smoke. Jaguar-god cannot breathe… All dead….”
[source: “Psychonavigation” by John Perkins]
•MAYAN CIVILIZATION OF MESOAMERICA:
“The Mayan Calendar’s end in 2012 means the end of time. I’m sure often you have heard that enlightenment means realization of the soul (beyond space and time) in correlation with spirit (God, or creation).
“So do not fear, 2012 does not mean cataclysm, in fact, it’s the opposite, the coming of a new Golden Age, in which we will possess the powers of the ancient ones…. You will notice that more and more people are becoming interested in crystals, enlightenment, and the etheric and astral planes. At the same time, much chaos is happening now to balance the world’s karma so we can all ascend together. This is the law, and by following it, we will ascend and be freed from karma. This is why many of you may be experiencing times of turmoil. It is there for a reason, it will never happen again.”
[source: Mayan elder, Hunbatz Men]
