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PEEPING INTO THE FUTURE
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accorded protection by some beings of the superhuman type. Thus will end the sixth kāla. The catastrophe, however, will not be universal all over the universe.
At the commencement of the new order of things in the next half-cycle of time, the Utsarpiņi, which is the reverse of the ascending ark, the course of events will be changed. It' will be the period of prosperity, and increase and rise.
The forty-nine davs' destruction will be followed by a different and opposite kind of phenomena during a similar period of time. Cold winds will blow on the earth; cooling things---curds, milk, etc.will rain down on its surface; the signs of destruction will disappear from its face! Those who have survived will emerge from their hiding places, and inhabit the earth once more. The first Tirthamkara of the Utsarpiņi kāla will appear at the end of 42,000 years from its commencement. He will re-establish Religion in the world !
The above prophecy would seem to admit of a rational explanation. Let us suppose* that two huge revolving bodies of contrary natures, but of
* Or, in the alternative, let us suppose, the earth to run amok from some such cause as the depletion of its hidden strength.petrol, coal and the like or the order and regularity of the solar system to be disturbed from
