These pictures are of a sadhu named Harinama Pracharaka Baba. He was 106 years old when I met him in 2014. Recently I heard that he had entered samadhi two or three years back in Jharkhand.

From his childhood he followed Gaudiya Vaishnavism and would get people to chant the mahamantra, so he was given the name Harinama Pracharaka Baba (“preacher of harinama”). He stayed in Jharkhand at the Vijaya Tarani Ashram, which belongs to Shankaracharya sampradaya.

Any time he would see me he would raise his hands and shout out very loudly “jaya sri krishna chaitanya prabhu nityananda sri advaita gadadhara srivasadi gaura bhakta vrinda” as my name reminded him of the pancha tattva mantra. It was quite an unusual thing to hear in a Shankara matham.

He lived inside the ashram goshala with the cows, and would take care of the goseva. He told me sometimes he would still see his guru Ram Baba (who had entered samadhi 18 years ago) in the goshala.

The day I was leaving he came up to me out of nowhere as I sat in the jeep to drive away, and without saying anything else, warned me war would be coming soon and the world would become very dark, but afterwards satya yuga would descend.

He actually gave specific details mentioning four particular years and how it would progress, beginning with the starting of war, then next year the shortage of food, then next it would be impossible for anyone to live and the world would become completely spiritually dark, and finally a hint of satya would begin to shine through leading to the new age of satya. The whole time I didn’t say a word. He just listed off these points and then walked away.

Note: It’s been six years since he said this to me, and whatever I remembered I wrote. Unfortunately my memory wasn’t good enough to recall the specific years he mentioned. I should have written it down in a journal, but I didn’t. I have a hazy remembrance of the specific years he mentioned, but I won’t say them because there is a 50% chance of me being wrong. I think we will all know soon enough when things become obvious.