This tremendous onslaught will be bloody. In yet another forecast Nostradamus remarks that the Hindu army will lose 2,50,000 men. But victory will be attained. It will be decisive.
Pressage 40
Rome of seven hills hit by calamities quick,
Storm, deluge, epidemic and consuming fire,
The Hindus give Europe a colossal kick,
And conquer it with revengeful ire.
The atrocities and fraudulent conversions by Christian missionaries will thus be avenged in the total destruction of Rome.
The Pope and his canting clergy will seek refuge in Paris. They will be assisted by a Scottish leader who is called Hadrian in the “Centuries”. This is a reference to Hadrian’s Wall to isolate Scotland built by the Roman emperor Hadrian, 1,800 years ago.
Hitherto there has been no mention of America in this narrative. Nostradamus mentions it by name only once. It is time to consider the implications of his incredible forecast :
Quatrain 66, Century X
The British leader by America sent,
Red Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London – “Roi Reb (Red)”?Will ruin Scotland by a clever plan,
Boss Reb’s foes will be sorely rem,
And damn him as unchristian man.
It has been already noted that the Scottish leader nick-named Hadrian will join hands with the Pope against the Hindus. Amazingly, the United States will side with India in the war! The Americans will nominate a leader in London who is intriguingly called Boss Reb. He will be a veritable fox in cunning. He will defeat to Scots thoroughly and bring down the Christian alliance around the Pope.
Judging by the “Centuries”, the climateric war of 1999 will find India, Russia and America ranged on one side as allies. Is this at all likely? For answer, let us turn to the famous American seeress Jeane Dixon, whose forecasts have been collated in a best-selling book. Its title is “The Gift of Prophecy”, authored by Ruth Montgomery.
Jeane Dixon correctly foresaw the Partition of India in 1947, and the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi shortly afterwards. She was frequently consulted by American presidents. She told President Roosevelt in 1944 that America and Russia would be in alliance in 1999 against China. At that time (1944) Communists had not yet seized power in Peking. But in 1949 they were victorious. Incidentally, Jeane Dixon forecast Sanjay Gandhi’s death in 1980.
At present, America and Russia seem set on a collision course. Can they ever make up heir differences? Recent history proves that such about-turns are not impossible. Only 15 years ago, China and America were enemies. Today, they are allies. It would be utterly unwise to pooh pooh even bizarre possibilities. Truth is often stronger than fiction.
While the America take over the government of Britain through their nominee Boss Reb, the Hindu leader will advance upon Paris, where the Pope is holed up.
Quatrain 29, Century II
The Hindu hero will march from his base,
Nuclear destruction of ParisCrossing the Apennines to enter France,
Conquering the clouds and seas ice,
All enemies will fall before his lance.
Paris will be taken after a fierce siege. Hadrian will be killed in a vain defiance. At this juncture, Nostradamus makes a curious observation. He predicts that a tree in the center of Paris will crash down. What tree? Could it be the Eiffel Tower, built more than 300 years after his death? From a distance the Eiffel Tower rather resembles a giant oak-tree.
What of the date of the beginning of the titanic fight which will send India on a holy war? Nostradamus provides a precise answer
Quatrain 72, Century X
Bearing upon him the Mongol-sign,
The great king of terror jumps from heaven,
In July nineteen ninenty-nine,
Mars to a just war will be driven.
The classical name for the Chinese emperor was “Son of Heaven”. A Chinese leader will therefore, launch a terrible war in July (Nostradamus says seventh month) of 1999 in imitation of Genghis Khan, the great Mongol conqueror. Mars is the seer’s nick-name for a French statesman who will resist China in 1999. He will be exiled from Paris till the Hindu army rescues him and restores him.
What is one to make of the predictions of Nostradamus? Will they come true? The seer himself admits that the “Centuries” were written in a mystical trance. The conscious mind did not produce them. When it is remembered that more than 800 of the forecasts have already been fulfilled in the last 400 years, skepticism seems unwarranted and inept. In quatrain 42, Century X, the seer predicted that the British empire would collapse in 1942. In that year, the Quit India movement gave the death-blow to British imperialism. What makes the forecast truly breathtaking is the fact that there was no Britain and no empire when Nostradamus published his predictions in 1555. England joined up with Scotland to form Britain only in 1603. The battle of Plassey was fought in 1757, heralding British rule in India.
Nostradamus saw far beyond both these events to forecast the end of British hegemony in 1942. This alone should make clear that the French-Jewish seer possessed divine provision.
When Nostradamus published the “Centuries” in 1555, the title referred only to the arrangement of quatrains in groups of 100 years. It was not an allusion to the hundreds of years that the predictions actually span. There are 10 centuries in all, making a total of about 1000 quatrains. But Century (7) is incomplete with only 44 verses. The short-fall is adequately made up by additional quatrains include later. Ever since their first (1555) appearance, the Centuries have been a perennial best-seller.
The first English translation of Nostradamus’s great work was made in 1672 by Theodore Garencieres. The second translation came in 1715 from the pen of a priest who called himself only by the initials D.D. The next translation was in 1891 when Charles Ward made a scholarly attempt to interpret the often-obscure quatrains. Ward’s translation was reissued in America in 1940 by the Modern Library. At that time, the Second World War had been started by Hitler.
Hitler and his Nazi Germany made a clever attempt to misuse Nostradamus for propaganda purposes. A New edition of Centuries was printed in Germany giving a totally false interpretation of his prophecies. But Nostradamus himself had not the slightest doubt about Hitler’s ultimate fate. He predicted that the Nazis would be annihilated (Quatrain 77, Century VIII) after murdering countless Jews.
In 1982, President Mitterand of France let it be known that he was an avid reader of the Centuries. In 1983, the well-known actor Orson Welles produced an immensely popular American television show on the forecasts of Nostradamus. There have ben so many English translations of the Centuries in the recent past, that the British journalist Taya Zinkin wryly remarked that Nostradamus would top any popularity poll. Mrs. Zinkin is no stranger to India. She spent many years in Delhi as a correspondent. Nostradamus predicts a glorious future for India.