4 Bizarre Predictions From Ancient Indian Texts

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00:00According to ancient lore, our future is a dark place. According to Hindu texts,

00:06World War Three will happen and our species will suffer immensely. However, there are some

00:11cracks of light, including predictions for the advent of flying vehicles and time travel.

00:19How do you see the future unfolding?

00:23We'll start on a somewhat pessimistic note. A key concept for today's video is that in Hinduism,

00:29time is cyclical. Each cycle lasts 4,320,000 years and is comprised of four great seasons,

00:36or yugas. Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga. According to various ancient texts,

00:45we're now in the last of those, the Kali Yuga. It's generally described as being 432,000 years

00:52long and is said to have begun in the year 3,102 BC, at the climax of an epic war,

00:59the Kurukshetra War. So, while we're already some 5,000 years through this final season,

01:04there are still 426,000 years left for it to run. But the bad news is that the world of the Kali

01:11Yuga isn't a good one. And our first bizarre prediction for the future of humanity is, well,

01:17that we've only just begun an age of unrelenting darkness, misery, and vice. With each yuga,

01:24humanity's moral and physical well-being deteriorates, which means that the Kali Yuga

01:29is the summit of our deterioration, the pinnacle of all of our problems. And, unfortunately,

01:35it's been invariably highlighted how we can seemingly see signs of the Kali Yuga all around

01:40us today. In this most unfortunate of seasons, humanity's spiritual purpose is said to have

01:46diminished. Wealth becomes the key metric, but it's often guided by deceit and corruption. Law

01:51and order are then guided by wealth, while the collection of taxes hangs heavy over a busy,

01:56bustling society. These conditions are then worsened by things like war, conflict, famine,

02:02drought, harsh weather, and disease, leading to more and more suffering. As part of the Kali

02:08Yuga, it's the most corrupt who rise to political power, and they use that power to control everyone

02:13else. For those more inclined with a cynical worldview, then the most bizarre aspect to these

02:18predictions might only be how close to real life they appear to fall. And it's going to get worse

02:24before it gets better. That's because today's second bizarre prediction for the future is World

02:29War Three. Thankfully, the Kali Yuga story concludes with the eventual arrival of a messianic

02:34figure known as Kalki. At the latest, this should happen around the year 428,899, but some say it

02:42could happen before then. It's said that Kalki, the tenth and last incarnation of the god Vishnu,

02:48will one day bring the cycle of yugas to an end, refresh the seasons, and move us back to the

02:53first yuga, the Satya Yuga, which should be a golden age. It's just that between now and then,

02:59it's predicted that rampant corruption, poverty, greed, hatred, and intolerance will have utterly

03:05deprived humanity of its soul, and World War Three could be the endgame for all of those issues.

03:12While the Great Kalki's arrival does have the upside of bringing this nightmarish time to an

03:16end, it's also said that it will happen only following a great war. A war vast and devastating

03:22enough that it will leave the world in total ruin. And, today, most onlookers agree that World War

03:27Three will do exactly that. Most texts stop short of going into great detail about what the war

03:34could look like, and most don't suggest that it's coming tomorrow. But it is coming, and when it

03:39happens, humanity will have perhaps reached its lowest ebb. Of course, we know that human history

03:45is already strife with war, conflict, and suffering. But we also know that, somewhat ironically,

03:50some wars have served as a means towards technological advancement, as well. And,

03:55in Hindu mythology, wars have often been portrayed in this way, wherein they, too,

04:00feature the use of imaginative machines and contraptions. One such machine, the Vimana,

04:05particularly stands out, as it appears to be a prediction. Today's third prediction,

04:10toward modern-day spaceflight and propulsion technology. The ancient Vimanas were machines

04:16piloted by the gods. They came in all shapes and sizes and were multi-use, made for land and sea,

04:22as well as for space travel. References to them have been found in many ancient texts, including

04:26the Hindu epic Mahabharata, and another more contemporary text, the Vaimanaka Shastra.

04:32One particular passage in the Mahabharata, for example, provides a description of the Vimana

04:38that's reminiscent of jet propulsion, referring to them, quote, radiating light and carrying a,

04:43quote, deep rumbling sound. The Vaimanaka Shastra also includes similar references,

04:48indicating, for instance, that the Vimana propulsion was enabled by the use of rotating

04:53gyroscopes of electricity and mercury, in what's essentially a vortex engine. Importantly,

04:58the Vaimanaka Shastra was penned less than one hundred years ago, so it can by no means

05:03be considered an ancient text. Plus, a 1974 study of it, carried out by the Indian Institute of

05:09Science, found that the crafts detailed within it were unfeasible and were much more closer to

05:14fictional steampunk flying machines than real life. Nevertheless, this hasn't stopped theorists from

05:19listing it as the last in a long line of works that seemingly pre-empt the engines, systems,

05:24and machines developed by the likes of NASA ever since the 1950s. But, finally, Hindu scriptures

05:30touch on many more cosmological concepts, too, not just space travel. The legend of Revati,

05:35found in the Vishnupurana text, for example, provides the basis for today's fourth bizarre

05:40prediction that humanity and the world is shaped by time dilation. It's estimated that the Vishnupurana

05:47was composed between 1,100 and 2,200 years ago, and yet it includes within it a mode of thought

05:54more in tune with Albert Einstein and twentieth-century science. In the story, Revati is

05:59the daughter of King Kakudmi, a descendant of the sun god, Surya. Believing that no human is worthy

06:05enough to marry his daughter, Kakudmi takes Revati to seek counsel with the god Brahma the Creator.

06:12When they arrive at Brahma's abode, they wait a short time while the god watches a musical

06:16performance. Then, when they explain the situation to him, and when Kakudmi requests that a suitable

06:22partner be found for his daughter while presenting a shortlist of candidates, Brahma laughs. He

06:28explains that time isn't the same across different levels of existence. So, within the short time

06:35that Kakudmi and Revati had awaited his counsel, 108 yugas, that's more than 100 million years,

06:42had passed on Earth. Which means that every suitor on Kakudmi's shortlist will have died

06:47long ago, as well as all of his and Revati's friends, family, and everyone they'd ever known.

06:53Returning to Earth, Kakudmi and Revati marvelled at the incredible changes that have taken place

06:58on their home planet, during what had seemed a brief visit to Brahma. And, again, they bear

07:03witness to the shocking extent of humanity's regression, having been away from it for so long.

07:08But, regardless of how humanity may have fared, the central concept here is literally

07:13millennia ahead of its time. Time dilation is a relatively modern school of scientific thought,

07:19but the ancient scholars appear to have predicted its nature within this story. Now we see it as a

07:24basis for scientific experiment and science fiction, with various movies featuring characters

07:30who age differently to everyone else because of the physical journeys they take through space

07:35and reality… but, really, Revati was the first to take that trip. Such is the rich and huge

07:41history and tradition that the ancient texts cover. It would be impossible to summarise all of

07:46them within one video, but we can see in just these four cases that the earliest works, at times,

07:52provided a window into the future. And part of that future is what we're living in today.

07:57The nods towards space travel and flying machines certainly fit. The discussion around

08:01time and the true nature of reality still feels very modern. It remains to be seen whether World

08:07War 3 will take hold, and perhaps it's an issue of contention as to whether all the worst parts

08:12of the Kali Yuga really are taking place today… but, for now, those are four bizarre predictions

08:18from ancient Indian texts. What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the

08:23comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you subscribe and

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