Many senior devotees believe a powerful acarya is about to appear in this world. I don’t know from where this idea comes if there is some prophecy or reference, but I heard the same idea from quite a number of different sources.

We can see that after the disappearance of Srila Prabhupada there was a lot of darkness and confusion in our society, similar to what happened after the disappearance of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. Past acaryas alert that after the disappearance of a powerful acarya, a period of confusion ensues. Srila Prabhupada created a worldwide movement practically from scratch, with the help of disciples who were quite young and inexperienced by the time he left the planet. He left all the philosophy of Krsna Consciousness in his books, but at the time he left devotees were still struggling to understand them. Even nowadays we are still struggling, what to say about the first days.
What is impressive in this story is not the problems that happened, but how our movement was capable of remaining a unified mission despite all the chaos. The disciples left by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura were more advanced in many aspects, but still, they could not preserve the unity of the mission after the disappearance of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta. Somehow, by Krsna’s mercy, the disciples of Srila Prabhupada were able to accomplish this difficult mission, and this simple fact is more significant than any shortcoming that may have existed.

We can see that a wave of change is slowly appearing. Just like in the 1960s, people are becoming deluded by the materialistic civilization. We are living in a dangerous time, with wars, famine, economic crisis, climate change, pandemics, etc. There are going to be some serious bumps in the road ahead. There will be a lot of delusional people looking for answers.

However, it doesn’t seem that our movement is currently in good shape to rise to the challenge. The chaos and confusion after the disappearance of Srila Prabhupada are still very much present. Devotees are divided, many of the most experienced disciples of Srila Prabhupada already left the planet. We have many devotees, but many lack faith and determination in spiritual life. Sahajiya and personalistic contamination are rampant. Many devotees minimize Srila Prabhupada’s works, preferring to study commentaries of questionable sources. Gurus and senior devotees are under constant attack by diverse sources.

In this desperate situation, it would not be surprising if a powerful acarya would appear to again put the mission back on track, to rally the forces of the movement of Mahaprabhu and coordinate the push that will lead to the golden age. If this is really going to happen it remains to be seen.

We can’t know what Krsna has in store for us. But as long as a self-effulgent acarya doesn’t appear, each one of us has the responsibility of taking things into our own hands and work to improve the situation in our homes, communities, countries, and in the world at large. The acarya may come or not, but our responsibility as part of the parampara and representatives of the previous acaryas does not change.