Hindu Prophecies
From the Hindu Puranas:
Apocalypse for the Hindu is the natural ending of the world in the fourth
age, the Kali Age.
It is one of a series of apocalypses, each of which marks the end of
one cycle and the beginning of another creation. The central figure
in the story is Vishnu, the preserver God, into whose self the world
is absorbed before being born again.
Vishnu has already saved humanity on a number of occasions, symbolically
appearing as a savior in many different forms. It is said that He will
appear again soon, as Kalki, a white horse, destined to destroy the
present world and to take humanity to a different, higher plane.
All kings occupying the earth in the Kali Age will be wanting in tranquillity,
strong in anger, taking pleasure at all times in lying and dishonesty,
inflicting death on women, children, and cows, prone to take the paltry
possessions of others, with character that is mostly vial, rising to
power and soon falling.
They will be short-lived, ambitious, of little virtue, and greedy. People
will follow the customs of others and be adulterated with them; peculiar,
undisciplined barbarians will be vigorously supported by rulers. Because
they go on living with perversion, they will be ruined.
Dharma becomes very weak in the Kali Age. People commit sin in mind,
speech, and actions.
Quarrels, plague, fatal diseases, famines, drought, and calamities appear.
Testimonies and proofs have no certainty. There is no criterion left
when the Kali Age settles down.
People become poorer in vigor and luster.
They are wicked, full of anger, sinful, false, and avaricious.
Bad ambitions, bad education, bad dealings, and bad earnings excite
fear.
The whole batch becomes greedy and untruthful.
Many sudras will become kings, and many heretics will be seen.
There will arise various sects; sannyasins (one who has relinquished
the worldly life in order to seek spiritual truth) wearing clothes colored
red.
Many profess to have supreme knowledge because, thereby, they will easily
earn their livelihood.
In the Kali Age, there will be many false religionists.
India will become desolate by repeated calamities, short lives, and
various diseases.
Everyone will be miserable owing to the dominance of vice and Tamoguna.
People will freely commit abortion.
Earth will be valued only for her mineral treasures.
Money alone will confer nobility.
Power will be the sole definition of virtue.
Pleasure will be the only reason for marriage.
Lust will be the only reason for womanhood.
Falsehood will win out in disputes.
Being dry of water will be the only definition of land.
Praise worthiness will be measured by accumulated wealth. I
Propriety will be considered good conduct, and only feebleness will
be the reason for unemployment.
Boldness and arrogance will be equivalent to scholarship.
Only those without wealth will show honesty.
Just a bath will amount to purification, and charity will be the only
virtue.
Abduction will be marriage.
Simply to be well dressed will signify propriety.
Any hard-to-reach water will be deemed a pilgrimage site.
The pretense of greatness will be the proof of it, and powerful men
with many severe faults will rule over all the classes on earth.
Oppressed by their excessively greedy rulers, people will hide in valleys
between mountains, where they will gather honey, vegetables, roots,
fruits, birds, flowers and so forth.
Suffering from cold, wind, heat and rain, they will put on clothes made
of tree bark and leaves.
And no one will live as long as twenty-three years.
Thus in the Kali Age humankind will be utterly destroyed.