By Manav Singla
“Beasts wild with hunger will cross the rivers, the greater part of the battle will be against Hitler. He will cause great men to be dragged in a cage of iron, when the son of Germany observes no law”. Sounds familiar? Now, will you be surprised to know that this account was written almost 400 years before Hitler’s birth?
Their mingled verses with their polyglot vocabulary barely ever make sense. However, these prophecies or predictions have been around since as early as the fifth century BC when a Greek man, Leucippus, came up with the idea that the entire visible universe comprised of tiny particles, these particles, later on, came to be known as atoms.
Anyone can verify political events and natural disasters. Interestingly enough, the inspired prediction does not necessarily imply precognition by the human mind of a specific event. A prophet may feel no more than good or bad vibes or favourable feelings about a particular situation. Predictions may be based on elaborate procedures like the Chinese method of Divination or even taken as a code to be followed as with the Greek Oracles.
The fact remains that there is a growing accumulation of natural phenomena that lack explanations because no law has yet been formulated, even theoretically, for us to explain them. Hence, this is required that there exist some force of nature, whether in our brains or in the stars which are orchestrating this entire show. Telepathy, déjà vu and hypnosis are all such examples. Can a Prophet not just be that person who has a better understanding of this than the majority of us all? Someone who can interpret, predict or profess their abstract minds, enabling them to think of things that we could never think of, dream with such tenet that a dream becomes a premonition? Moreover, prophets are not necessarily the inspired men of popular vision. They can be cool, rational, calculating and even lacking in religious beliefs. H.G. Wells’ work, ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ is just as much of a work of prophecy as the many predictions of Jeane Dixon, a devout Catholic.
Is prophecy desirable? Reliable prophecies of natural and man-made disasters would certainly be. Inspired prophets such as Nostradamus have made several prophecies concerning earthquakes. The aim is desirable, but the effectiveness is far from proven. Even accurate predictions related to dangers to eminent men and women are of much importance; Julius Caesar did not act upon the prediction by a soothsayer to beware of the ‘Ides of March’, the day of his assassination. The Aztecs ignored prophecies and welcomed Spaniards believing it to be the return of their God from the east, resulting in their annihilation.
At their best, prophecies provide an inspired guide to intellectualism, but they must always be interpreted cautiously. Most of us might not be able to predict what our species might be doing after a hundred years, but I’ll suspect that they’ll still think and fear and pray and communicate with other people. And make predictions!
In conclusion, I quote Winston Churchill - “Always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is much better to prophesy after the incident has already taken place!”
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