Many prophets make predictions about the future. Sometimes such predictions are remarkably accurate, sometimes not so much. From the Vedas, we can understand that spiritually advanced persons are capable of connecting with the eternal time and thus they gain an understanding of the past and future. For such a person, time is just like a movie they already know the end. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them, but still, I can make some predictions based on common sense. If you are interested in the way I see how the future will unfold, you can continue reading.
It’s clear to me that our materialistic society is entering a period of decline. It went up for some time, with improvement in living standards, life expectance, economic growth, etc. but we probably already passed the peak a few years ago. Now we are going to see a decline. We can see that the average salaries are becoming lower in most countries. Prices are rising and life is becoming more difficult. The climate is changing, crops are being lost with increasing frequency. Disease is rampant and people are more anxious.
How fast this decline is going to be is still a mystery. It is probably going to take a few decades, but in some countries, it can go much faster. One can study how things became bleak quite quickly in places like Venezuela and Syria, for example. Apart from wars and bad governments, there is another factor that can cause a quick economic downturn: debt. Most governments nowadays are based on debit. This means they are dependent on continuous economic growth. As soon as the economy stops growing, the government can’t continue to refinance its debt, and things can go south very quickly. In many cases, the collapse can be sudden, just like in the case of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Another alarming sign is that moral values are in decline all over the world, and moral values are strongly connected with the ascent and descent of civilizations. As people become hedonistic and stop working for the common goal, society starts to disintegrate. This happened with the Roman Empire. It’s not a surprise that is happening again all over the world.
All these different concomitant factors will make life progressively more difficult. People will become poorer and more disturbed. Food will become more expensive. Governments will start to disintegrate, crime will be rampant, economies will start to collapse. As this will be a gradual process in most countries, most people will not notice it, but the tensions will grow and wars will become more frequent. At some point, a bigger rupture (be it caused by wars, disease, or natural disasters) will happen and we will see a more prominent collapse.
But not all will be bad. As people become poorer and more desperate, there will be more space for people who would offer solutions. Right now, our movement is still in a very embryonic state. We are still trying to figure out what to do with the teachings Prabhupada left us. We are trying to live a philosophy we don’t really understand. However, at some point in the future, someone will be able to connect the dots and present Krsna Consciousness as a practical solution for life’s problems, and this will come in a time when people, disillusioned by the empty promises of materialism, battered by wars and famine, humbled and reduced to an impoverished state will be ready to listen.
Societies based on Vaishnava principles will start to appear in different parts of the world and people will gradually develop a culture that will combine spiritual principles with practical material skills, figuring out how to produce food and other material necessities, how to live peacefully in family life, and how to led a prosperous and spiritually conductive life. Such societies will become prosperous and more and more people will want to join.
As such societies grow, conflicts will happen with the remanents of the old dominant powers. This will probably become more prominent in the 22 and 23rd centuries. This will be the time when devotees will have a japa bag in one hand and a machine gun in the other, as predicted by Srila Prabhupada. This will be difficult and uncertain times, but devotees will keep their faith strong and gradually the tide will turn. After the war is over, these Vaishnava societies will be able to flourish, combining spiritual values, Vedic culture, and remanents of the technology from the 21st century. Just like the Jews see Jerusalem as their, capital, these Vaishnava societies will see Mayapur as their spiritual capital. The ToVP will become the most important building in the world.
History books from the 25th century will describe how in the 20th-century society was being led to self-destruction by materialistic leaders, but it was saved by the Krsna Conscious movement started by Srila Prabhupada in 1966. People will study 20th century English to be able to read the books from Srila Prabhupada in their original language. What we now call grammatical mistakes in his books will be accepted by linguists as grammatical norms. People will speak English with an Indian accent because most will learn it by hearing preserved Prabhupada’s classes. The maha-mantra will be chanted in all towns and villages.
Over the course of a few centuries, this enlightened society will flourish, and people will become spiritually enlightened. It will continue for a few thousand years when it will reach a peak of prosperity. From this point, people will again gradually start to become materialistic and hedonistic, leading to a period of decline. In about 9500 years from now, this spiritually enlightened society will be in ruins, and new materialistic societies will raise from the ashes, leading to the remaining years of kali-yuga. I hope to not be here at that time.