From the Sky Will Come a
Great King of Terror

Dear friends,

In light of the recent tragic terrorist attacks (9/11) speculation about the future has been rampant. And as usual it has been rather inflammatory, sensational and prone to create hysteria. One of the most trotted out prophesies is that of Michel de Nostradame, more commonly known by the Latinized form of his name, Nostradamus. I am not here to criticize him but rather to inform you that everything claimed to be said by him was not.

The following is the relevant portions of a letter that I just wrote to a senior sannyasi god-brother of mine in regard to the following quote supposedly written by Nostradamus.

Your humble servant

Shyamasundara Dasa

"'In the year of the new century and nine months,

From the sky will come a great King of Terror...

The sky will burn at forty-five degrees.

Fire approaches the great new city..."

In the city of York there will be a great collapse,

2 twin brothers torn apart by chaos while the

fortress falls the great leader will succumb,

the third big war will begin when the big city is

burning

- NOSTRADAMUS

2001 is the first year of the new century and this is the 9th month. New York is located at the 41st degree Latitude."

Dear Maharaja,

PAMHO AGSTP

I have the works of Nostradamus and have not found this quatrain. Where is it found? There is a similar one about the new city and 45 degrees but no twin brothers.

"The sky will burn at 45 degrees,

fire approaches the great New City.

Immediately a huge, scattered flame leap up when they want to have proof of the Normans." 6.97

From: The Prophecies of Nostradamus, by Erika Cheetham, published 1973.

The only brothers Nostradamus talks about are three brothers. They are supposedly the Kennedy brothers. My sister-in-law Joanne also asked me about this prediction and while on the phone with her I went through my Nostradamus book century by century (century means 100 quatrains each, not chronological) I could not find it. Then I got this email from her sister:

----- Original Message -----

From: "H

To: <Jyotisa at shyamasundaraDasa.com

Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2001 11:38 PM

Subject: What is what anyway?

Hi how are you? Joanne told me that she was talking to you about Nostradamus and his current predictions. Well I found the answer about the "2 twin brother..." under Nostradamus: skeptic's dictionary. An alleged hoaxed. These quatrains are misinterpreted. Take care.

H

<end quote>

There are many such hoax predictions. In a book called Astrology and the Third Reich by Ellic Howe it tells how both the Nazis and the Allies used such hoax predictions as weapons of psychological warfare against the other party. It has been going on for some time. One has to see the original texts in context not just single quatrains floating around.

Regarding the 3 brothers prediction. When I was first in India I read something about Nostradamus in a biography of him by Manly P. Hall and these predictions were mentioned. Then in 1978 I went to the USA with the Bhaktivedanta Institute (BI). In the USA at the first BI meeting in Atlanta I met a devotee name Haladhara Dasa, a PhD in economics who worked with the government. I told him in passing about the predictions. The next year,1979, when I was in NYC Haladhara called me and told me that he just had lunch with Ted Kennedy's campaign manager and he told him about the predictions of Nostradamus about the three brothers; how they all get killed, or neutralized, etc. Naturally this man was very interested and wanted all the info I could get on the predictions. So I went out and bought the best book on Nostradamus that I could find at the time (quoted above) and looked through it in detail for relevant quotes about the three brothers which seemed to fit the Kennedy's. I also looked for any other future predictions. It is all very murky stuff believe me. Anyway, I sent what I had on the Kennedy brothers to DC and shortly after that Ted pulled out of the US presidential campaign. Was it because of the predictions? I don't know but it certainly looks that way.

Later that year when I was back in Philadelphia, Hare Krsna Dasa (Surabhi's brother) from Holland, came over and we were looking through the book. It was then that we spotted the prediction--after the fact--about the fall of the Shah of Iran.

Rain, famine and war will not cease in Persia; too great a faith will betray the monarch. Those (actions) started in France will end there, a secret sign for one to be sparing. 1.70

At the time of the publishing of the book in 1973 no one could figure out what it meant but after having just witnessed the fall of the Shah of Iran it was very clear. The Ayatollah had been in exile in Iraq for 17 years but it was only after going to France for 1 year that he caused the fall of the Shah. Then all of the Shah's men themselves went to France in exile. Many of them were hunted down and assassinated. The thing is it only made sense after the fact not before. Such "predictions" are not very useful.

I would be very hesitant to accept any so-called prediction made by Nostradamus unless it came from an authenticated original manuscript. Even then the predictions are couched in such phraseology as to be almost impenetrable before the fact. The reason he did it in this way was to avoid being burned at the stake for witch-craft. He came perilously close to such an end when it was seen by all how accurately he had predicted the death of the King of France. From then on he camouflaged his predictions. He did such a good job as to make them almost useless, except maybe for spreading hysteria.

Now I am going to chant some japa.

Your humble servant

Shyamasundara Dasa