What Will Happen on 21/12/2012

I watch History Channel frequently. Recently a series of programs were shown on Mayan civilization. Mayan long calendar and Mayan prophecies were discussed at length. I was intrigued by the calendar which ends on 21/12/2012. The program has several renowned scientists, astronomers, historians giving their opinions on the Mayan calendar. What is Mayan calendar and what is the significance of 21/12/2012. One of the Ancient civilizations, the native Americans called Mayans, who had developed a celestial calendar ( similar to Indian Panchangam) to calculate precisely the planetary movements for thousands of years ahead ends at a certain point of time. The calendar was decoded about 50 years back and when the end date was correlated to the Gregorian calendar it corresponded to December, 21st, 2012. This gave rise to speculation that the World will end on 21/12/2012. The fact that Astronomy agencies like NASA confirmed that the once in a 26,000 years celestial event of the Sun aligning with the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way will take place on 21/12/2012 at 11.11 am GMT further fuelled the speculation of doomsday. December 21st is also the day of Winter Solstice ( shortest day of the year) when the Sun crosses the sky at its lowest point all year. According to astronomers, the year 2012 also corresponds to the 11-year Sunspot cycle maximum. So the day is certainly special. We have the Earth’s North pole aligning with the Sun, and the Sun aligning with the center of the Galaxy after 26,500 years makes it certainly special.

The Mayans prophesized that our Sun, every 25,600 years synchronized with the enormous central galaxy. And from this central galaxy receives a beam of light which causes the Sun to shine more intensely producing what our scientists call 'solar flares' as well as changes in the Sun's magnetic field. Mayans called it the pulse of the Universe. This causes a displacement in the Earth’s rotation, and because of this displacement great catastrophes would be produced.

Doomsdayers believe that Mayans have predicted the end of the World. They base their belief on Mayan’s prophecy and the fact that earth’s pole reversal is already overdue by more than 300,000 years. They say that when Sun aligns with the center of the Milky Way, it receives intense cosmic energy causing sun storms so huge that the Earth which on that day has its North Pole aligned to the Sun, will be doused by the energy resulting in pole reversal, the magnetic North becoming the magnetic South. This sudden reversal, they say will bring cataclysm of events wiping out life on Earth. NASA agrees that Pole reversals do happen in cycles of 300,000 to 500,00 years and the last Pole reversal has happened 800,000 yeasr ago. However, NASA pooh-poohs the idea of sudden reversal.
The naysayers say that the end of Mayan calendar denotes the end of this age and the beginning of a new golden age, ( Kali Yug to Satya Yug) where humanity will experience a new dimension and all the misery in the World will end. They base their arguments that when the previous alignment has happened 26,000 years ago humanity was not lost. In fact it progressed rapidly from Stone Age to Bronze Age.

The net is peppered with contrasting literature on the subject with apocalyptic visions of doom, special-interest theological interpretations and scholarly dissection. However, everyone agrees that on that day something will happen

I am of the view that for humanity to be wiped out, we do not need a once in a 26,000 years celestial event. A software glitch in the orbiting military satellites that carry deadly biological weapons or a nuclear button pushed by a senile head of a tiny republic can wipe out life on Earth a hundred times any day.