Kali-yuga and Beyond

Back To Prabhupada, Issue 67, Vol 3, 2020, Interactive

"Hare Krsna, KK, I've been reading _BTP_ for many years and your other literary works and you are pure genius! Thank you, Krsna. I am no maven but I am a bogus hoaxer buster! The question I have is what happens to the succession if there is no appointment? Is that why Prabhupada is the current guru for the next ten thousand years? Then who makes the appointment after the millennia during the depths of the Kali-yuga? Are all initiating / _diksha_ / _acarya_ gurus appointed? Following the Kali-yuga Krsna will dispatch more _Shaktyavesh Avatars_ in perpetuity, no? Would this also mean the _parampara_ stops? Thanks heaps. Really don't know where this world would be without an endowed authority such as yourself. Thank you." \- Miles Greenberg, Hawaii, USA

Editor replies:

In regards to your questions:

1) Yes, you are correct – Srila Prabhupada is the sole Acarya, and hence diksa guru, for ISKCON's existence, and thus the issue of appointing a successor does not even arise.

2) This movement will only last for 10,000 years, and after that there will be nothing but chaos:

"It is said that the Krsna consciousness movement will be prominent within the next ten thousand years, but after that people will all become mlecchas and yavanas."
(Cc., Antya-lila, 3.50, purport)

Allen Ginsberg: "400,000 years. Will people be still chanting Hare Krsna in 400,000..."
Srila Prabhupada: "No. Hare Krsna will be finished within ten thousand years. There will be no more Hare Krsna."
Allen Ginsberg: "Ah. So what will be left?"
Srila Prabhupada: "Nothing."
(Conversation, 13/5/69)

Thus, as far as this Krsna consciousness movement is concerned, this movement will not in any case exist after the end of the golden age in approximately 9,500 years time.

3) Srila Prabhupada does not state exactly how spirituality will continue for the rest of Kali-yuga after the end of the Krsna consciousness movement, but we do know there will be devotees existing right at the end of Kali-yuga; and that when this Kali-yuga ends the cycle will once again begin with the most spiritual age, Satya-yuga, which will be completely spiritually surcharged:

"The cycle of Satya is characterized by virtue, wisdom and religion, there being practically no ignorance and vice, and the yuga lasts 1,728,000 years. [...] Kali-yuga (the yuga we have now been experiencing over the past 5,000 years) [...] at the termination of the yuga the Supreme Lord Himself appears as the Kalki avatara, vanquishes the demons, saves His devotees, and commences another Satya-yuga. Then the process is set rolling again."
(Bg., 8.17, purport)

And thus, things will continue...

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