From The Sanskrit Puranas by Cornelia Dimmitt

[Apocalypse for the Hindu is the natural ending of the world in the fourth age, the Kali Age. It is one of a series of apocalypses, each of which marks the end of one cycle and the beginning of another creation. The central figure in the story is Vishnu, the preserver God, into whose self the world is absorbed before being born again. Vishnu has already saved humanity on a number of occasions, symbolically appearing as a savior in many different forms. It is said that He will appear again soon, as Kalki, a white horse, destined to destroy the present world and to take humanity to a different, higher plane.]

"All kings occupying the earth in the Kali Age will be wanting in tranquility, strong in anger, taking pleasure at all times in lying and dishonesty, inflicting death on women, children, and cows, prone to take the paltry possessions of others, with character that is mostly tamas, rising to power and soon falling. They will be short-lived, ambitious, of little virtue, and greedy. People will follow the customs of others and be adulterated with them; peculiar, undisciplined barbarians will be vigorously supported by rulers. Because they go on living with perversion, they will be ruined.

"And Dharma becomes very weak in the Kali age, and people commit sin in mind, speech, and actions... Quarrels, plague, fatal diseases, famines, drought, and calamities appear. Testimonies and proofs have no certainty. There is no criterion left when the Kali age settles down. People become poorer in vigor and luster. They are wicked, full of anger, sinful, false, and avaricious. Bad ambitions, bad education, bad dealings, and bad earnings excite fear. The whole batch becomes greedy and untruthful. Many sudras will become kings, and many heretics will be seen.

"There will arise various sects; sannyasins wearing clothes colored red. Many profess to have supreme knowledge because, thereby, they will easily earn their livelihood. In the Kali age, there will be many false religionists. India will become desolate by repeated calamities, short lives, and various diseases. Everyone will be miserable owing to the dominance of vice and Tamoguna; people will freely commit abortion.

"Earth will be valued only for her mineral treasures. Money alone will confer nobility. Power will be the sole definition of virtue. Pleasure will be the only reason for marriage. Lust will be the only reason for womanhood. Falsehood will win out in disputes. Being dry of water will be the only definition of land. Praise worthiness will be measured by accumulated wealth. Impropriety will be considered good conduct, and only feebleness will be the reason for unemployment. Boldness and arrogance will be equivalent to scholarship. Only those without wealth will show honesty. Just a bath will amount to purification, and charity will be the only virtue. Abduction will be marriage. Simply to be well dressed will signify propriety. And any hard-to-reach water will be deemed a pilgrimage site. The pretense of greatness will be the proof of it, and powerful men with many severe faults will rule over all the classes on earth. Oppressed by their excessively greedy rulers, people will hide in valleys between mountains, where they will gather honey, vegetables, roots, fruits, birds, flowers and so forth. Suffering from cold, wind, heat and rain, they will put on clothes made of tree bark and leaves. And no one will live as long as twenty-three years. Thus in the Kali Age humankind will be utterly destroyed."

The Prophecy Concerning Maitreya, The Future Buddha

From: Buddhist Scriptures by Edward Conze

"At present Maitreya is believed to reside in the Tutshita, heaven, awaiting his last rebirth when the time is ripe. Sariputra, the great general of the doctrine, with compassion for the world asked the Lord, 'Some time ago you have spoken to us of the future Buddha, who will lead the world at a future period, and who will bear the name of Maitreya. I would now wish to hear more about his powers and miraculous gifts.'

"The Lord replied, 'Maitreya, the best of men, will then leave the Tushita heavens, and go for his last rebirth. As soon as he is born he will walk seven steps forward, and where he puts down his feet a jewel or a lotus will spring up. He will raise his eyes to the ten directions, and will speak these words, 'This is my last birth. There will be no rebirth after this one. Never will I come back here, but, all pure, I shall win Nirvana!'

"And when his father sees that his son has the thirty-two marks of a superman, and considers their implications in the light of the holy mantras, he will be filled with joy, for he will know that, as the mantras show, two ways are open to his son: he will either be a universal monarch, or a supreme Buddha. But as Maitreya grows up, the Dharma will increasingly take possession of him, and he will reflect that all that lives is bound to suffer. He will have a heavenly voice which reaches far; his skin will have a golden hue; a great splendor will radiate from his body; his chest will be broad, limbs well developed, and his eyes will be like lotus petals. His body is eighty cubits high, and twenty cubits broad. He will have a retinue of 84,000 persons, whom he will instruct in the mantras. With this retinue he will one day go forth into the homeless life. A Dragon tree will then be the tree under which he will win enlightenment; its branches rise up to fifty leagues, and its foliage spreads far and wide over six Kos. Underneath it Maitreya, the best of men, will attain enlightenment; there can be no doubt on that. And he will win his enlightenment the very same day that he has gone forth into the homeless life.

"And then, a supreme sage, he will... explain the four Truths, because he has seen that generation, in faith, ready for them, and those who have listened to his Dharma will thereupon make progress. They will be assembled in a park full of beautiful flowers, and his assembly will extend over a hundred leagues. Under Maitreya's guidance, hundreds of thousands of living beings shall enter upon a religious life.

"For 60,000 years Maitreya, the best of men, will preach the true Dharma, which is compassionate toward all living beings. And when he has disciplined in his true Dharma hundreds and hundreds of millions of living beings, then that leader will at last enter Nirvana. And after the great sage has entered Nirvana, his true Dharma still endures for another ten thousand years."

Zoroastrian Prophecies

"Zoroaster was thus the first to teach the doctrines of an individual judgment, Heaven and Hell, the future resurrection of the body, the general Last Judgment, and life everlasting for the reunited soul and body. These doctrines were to become familiar articles of faith to much of mankind, through borrowings by Judaism, Christianity and Islam; yet it is in Zoroastrianism itself that they have their fullest logical coherence ..." (Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians, pg. 29)

According to Zoroastrian scripture, the end of the world will come about when a comet, called Gochihr, strikes the earth. Its "fire and halo" will melt all metals and minerals and will burn up the world in a general conflagration. The resulting boiling flood of metal will flow over the earth like a river. The righteous, as well as the wicked souls (released from hell) will pass through it. The wicked will be purified of their sins, but the pious will feel like they're passing through warm milk. The most detailed description of this is found in the 30th chapter of the Bundahishn.

Frashegird (Av. "Frasho-kereti" literally making wonderful) refers to the renovation of the universe, the last judgment. The exact date of Zarathushtra is uncertain, but was probably around 1000-1200 BCE.

Righteousness is so worthy and great and valuable, that in one place it is revealed that Zarathushtra asked Ohrmazd: "How much time remains until the time of Frashegird, that is the making of Frashegird and the Future Body?" Ohrmazd said: "3,000 years." Zarathushtra was afraid and said: "A long time remains!" Ohrmazd said: "Then do not let this time seem long to you, for so long as the souls of the righteous are in Garothman, then this much time of 3,000 years will seem in their sight as long a period and as easy as when a comely maiden of 15 years and a young man of 20 years come with one another to their house and sleep upon their soft quilts, and the young man loves the girl with all his soul, and for them that (alone) is required: 'May night never become day!'

"So for those also who are righteous, for them on account of the pleasure and peace which is theirs in Garothman, then for them that (alone) is required: 'May that time never come!'" (From Pahlavi Rivayat, ch. 25. based on tr. of A.V. Williams, 1990.)

In his Gathas (Hymns), Zarathushtra tells us of The World Savior, Saoshyant (Pahl. Soshyant), who is to come and stop the cruelty of bloodthirsty and wicked people, and renew the world, and end death. See Yasna 48.11-12, Yasna 43.3, The victorious Saoshyant and his helpers make the world wonderful: Yt19.9+, Yt19.88+, Astvat-ereta rises out of lake Kansaoya, and Asha will conquer the Druj: Yt19.92+, Dk3.102, Dk3.407.

Three saviors will be born of virgins miraculously impregnated with Zarathushtra's seed while bathing in Lake Kansaoya: Aushedar, Aushedar-mah, and the Saoshyant (named Astvat-ereta).

After that time when Zarathushtra came to a consultation with Ohrmazd, and 1,500 years after the time of Zarathushtra, when it is the millennium of Religion, Aushedar will come into consultation with Ohrmazd for 50 years.

On the same day Mihr Yazad, that is, the sun, will stand at mid-day, for ten days and nights it will stand at the zenith of Heavens.

The (members of the) wolf species will all go to one place, and in one place they will be merged, and there will be one wolf whose breadth (will be) 415 paces and length 433 paces.

And on the authority of Aushedar they [i.e. the Mazda-worshippers] will muster an army, and they will go to battle with that wolf.

After 400 years there will be the Malkosan rain. When it is the time for that rain, (in) the first year the upholders of Religion will say to people: "Store provisions, for there will be rain"; people will store provisions.

Those provisions which they have stored previously will not be required for ten winters, and they will not store provisions any more, and (in) that year there will be rain.

And then Ashawahist will cry out (from) above, and will speak thus: "Do not kill those beneficent animals any more as you have killed them (up to) now! For the beneficent animals will come to maturity so (slowly) that henceforth they will dwindle away. Do not kill (them)!"

At the end of the millennium, Aushedar-mah will come in to consultation with Ohrmazd for 30 years. The sun will stand at the zenith from that day for 20 days and nights.