Hello,
i would like to know did Yogananda say anything about severe crisis in future times like natural disaster or wars?
Do you know of other reliable masters speaking about this matter?
Looking forward for your answer
Alexander
—Alexander, Germany
Dear Alexander,
Paramhansa Yogananda said many things about the future, too many to write here. Swami Kriyananda, founder of Ananda and a direct disciple of Yogananda, was present on numerous occasions when Yogananda warned of future events and put these thoughts into a book called The Road Ahead. Unfortunately this little book is out of print, though perhaps it can be found online. The publisher is Crystal Clarity in Nevada City.
He predicted, for example, the appearance of “international criminals” and that no place on earth would be safe. He predicted one or two future “world wars” involving Europe and Russia (which would be annihilated). USA would be devastated economically and would not participate in the first of these two wars but would the second and would ultimately be victorious (with other nations, I assume). He advised allied nations to form an international police force to guard against rogue states.
He said, “You don’t know what a cataclysm is coming!” (Global warming? meteor? pole shift? rising seas? volcanos?)
After a long period of distress, a period of some 200 years of relative peace would follow. This is so even though our age, Dwapara Yuga, 1700 AD to 3900 AD, is a time of great insecurity and not otherwise free from conflict and strife.
“Get away from my ocean of suffering,” he cautioned devotees. “Go within” to the “portable paradise” of inner peace. “Gather together with like-minded friends; buy land in the country. Grow your own food. Develop skills. Have leisure time for meditation, prayer and chanting. Be free from debt!” (Ananda has one such community near Assisi, Italy. You should visit if you have not yet done so.)
These were just some of the things our guru revealed. He gave no timeline or dates to these things. Predictions, if and when they emerge, are often, at first, unrecognized. Sometimes good karma can mitigate them. Swami Kriyananda stated numerous times that he felt a dark cloud over Germany.
A spiritual life is the only real life. God protects his devotees, not necessarily from physical harm but with the grace to mitigate suffering, according to one’s individual karma. These things are too personal to predict generally. But “protection” of one form or another is a given to true devotees.
Fear not, however. We all must die at some point. This world is God’s world, not ours. We must seek to unmask the Doer behind all actions: the Divine Self, the Infinite Spirit. Go to God and you will find freedom. As Krishna said to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, “Even a little practice of this inward religion (meditation, especially Kriya Yoga), will free you from dire fears and colossal sufferings.”
Blessings to you,
Nayaswami Hriman
