Daily Times

The dread in some circles that the world would vanish on December 21 at last did not materialise and the world went as usual musing over the bizarre antics of the souls struck by it. Some yearned for the alien saucers hurtling them to safer skies, some rushed to the perceived sanctuaries in the scenic Serbian spots. Some hid in the special bunkers in Russia, some boarded the high-tech Chinese boats, while others just stashed ample emergency items. Their dread emanated from the ancient myths, religious beliefs, superstitions and prophecies that have haunted humanity almost since its inception. The present dread was driven mostly by a 5125 year-long Mayan calendar that was scheduled to end on that date. The horror was however also piqued by some Tibetan and Buddhist prophecies, somewhat broadly coinciding with it. The Tibetans presaged the end with the ouster of their 14th Lama that actually occurred in December 1950, leaving the world intact as ever.

The dread was further compounded by a core concept about the apocalypse in the Biblical religion. Islamic scriptures, despite reiterating an instant cataclysmic destruction of the earth, seas, stars and the skies characteristically eschews the actual timing of this temblor, leaving it as the Lord’s most exclusive prerogative and preferring an impending fear for its followers. A Christian sect, known as the Millennialists, however, believe that when evil and injustice would become unbearable, Christ would return to rout them and ensure peace, purity and prosperity in the world (a miracle that he somehow missed in his original span), initiating an exemplary era that would serve as a thousand years penultimate precursor preceding Doomsday. The Jews and Muslims similarly also believe in the reincarnation of their apostles, yet without assigning any definite time scale to them. The thousand-year mark maintained by the Millennialists, however, somehow got so entwined with Doomsday that an extensive dread descended at the twilight of the first millennia.

The believers overpowered with it were reportedly swept with an unprecedented spate of piety, purity and virtuosity. In Rome, the ecclesiastical epicentre, prisoners were freed, loans were waived, cattle were unleashed, grudges and rivalries were ignored, the entire assets and belongings were doled out, and even the slightest sins and omissions actual, imagined or intended, were confessed. Love, lust, lucre, luxuries and leverage were evidently irrelevant while awaiting an inevitable extinction. Piety peaked to the highest pitch preceding the dreaded hour expected at 12:00 midnight on December 31, 1000. The St Peters Bacillus was crowded with the largest congregation craving to face the Lord while lost in the deepest supplications and prayers with the Pontiff. The faithful at various other parishes evidently must have similarly poured out their last prayers. There obviously could not be a better substitute than approaching the Lord while immersed in His praise and prayers for forgiveness. Yet the stipulated moment passed without the ultimate bang. The faithful gradually melted away to resume their usual routines.

The dread, however, returned as the second millennium receded. It was reinforced with the phantoms from some other cults. Even some concerns about the flipside of various scientific and technological frontiers like the horrors of nuclear arms, Armageddon and environmental disasters were curiously added to the spectre. A devastating denouement was also built around a mysterious asteroid Eris, Nibiru, or planet X that according to the ancient Sumerian astrologers, was destined to collide against our Earth and tear it out of its orbit and existence. The hidden mountains of the unaccounted for dark matter exceeding more than thrice its known quantities and black holes similarly are also feared to shatter or swallow the earth. A sudden swing in the terrestrial magnetic field could similarly swamp the entire electric and electronic industries, installations, components and related infrastructure. Giant temblors, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis could be equally catastrophic. Scientists, in fact, have found that the Earth has already endured several severe and extensive floods and its presently rising temperatures, melting glaciers and surging sea levels could cause another disaster resembling the Noah-like deluge narrated in the Biblical as well as in some other Maya-like ancient civilisations.

All this seemed to morph into some feared scenarios like the one propagated by Harold Camping in California, preaching that the world would end at 18:00 hours on May 2011 with the descent of Jesus the Saviour. About two percent of the present world population considered to be chaste and virtuous by him were to instantly ascend to heavenly rapture and rewards while the rest were to be hurled into hell. However, as nothing evidently happened on that day, Camping came up with yet another prediction for October 21, 2011. This prediction interestingly also created a dilemma about the pets of his followers who, being ineligible for paradise, were to be stranded and starved. An advertisement by the atheists however aptly proffered them proper care and protection. Camping incidentally had similarly prophesied about September 6 in 1994 and had actually herded hundreds of his flock to a spacious hall to receive the Christ. When asked about his failure he pleaded that he had overlooked some vital verses of the Bible in his deductions. Camping curiously is no ordinary priest but rather a former civil engineer and the founder of a religious education Radio Network that has gathered assets of $ 120 billion, transmits in 48 languages and operates 66 stations in the US alone. Yet faced with his repeated flubs, he has retracted his penchant for such predictions.

Camping, however as seen by the recent ruckus about Doomsday, was not alone in such assertions. Another for December 31, ventured by Warren Jeffs, a paedophile convict, was similarly at fault. In March 1995, the Japanese Aum cult, exasperated with the failure of such predictions, actually sprayed their nerve gas stocks in the subways to spark forcefully the sojourn. The rational and secular surge in global thought, however, has gradually rendered such notions mostly as some localised archaic oddities. The recent panic in a couple of areas was routinely diffused while the traditional Maya sites actually elicited festive celebrations. NASA also campaigned to convince that the asteroids were being assiduously monitored, the effects of global warming, sea levels and magnetic flips were not sudden, fluctuations in the solar flares can now be more effectively countered, and our Earth could veritably withstand another four billion years. Yet given a mere picayune part of their projections, say a millennium, the world would certainly be vaulting to securer settlements in space, squelching the wildest Doomsday speculations.

The writer is an academic and freelance columnist.haibpbu@yahoo.com