21st December, 2012 is propagated as a date of catastrophe and/or transformation by people who claim to have understanding of age old Mayan calendar.
The Maya civilisation was flourishing in the rain forests of Central American region about 2000 years ago. The whole civilisation met a mysterious collapse and was wiped away in AD900. There are no evidences that could suggest the sudden and mysterious collapse of the civilisation. Mayans inhabited the earth in ancient times but their scientific and astronomical knowledge is competent enough in the present times. They sharply defined the days and months and years on the basis of lunar cyclical movements. According to them, the present cycle, i.e. “baktun” started on 13thAugust, 3114 BC. The Mayan calendar is 5,125 years long and ends on 13.0.00, which is 21st December, 2012 according to modern calendar. Now, there are various interpretations of these readings. The most common among the various inferences is that an abrupt end of calendar denotes the ‘end of world’.
In support of this thesis there are various other facts enumerated. Significant among those are:
1. An external planet from the current solar system named ‘Nibiru’ will strike the earth, resulting in devastation of the population and ecological balance of earth. The name Nibiru has been referred in Mayan and Sumerian civilization texts. It is often called as Planet X in modern times.
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2. The other possibility is the deviated planetary alignment that will move towards galactic equator. This can result in shift in magnetic poles. This will eventually lead to sun flares. That may result in a cloud shrouding the whole earth and acid rain from the sky.
The point of significance is that Mayans did not directly refer to any devastation and catastrophe in particular. On the contrary the last impression of the writing is distorted and the inferences are made by mere assumptions.
The concerned topic has created ample confusion in the general public. The enormity of the issue was so gross that the NASA chief had to publically debunk and deny the predictions made by a section of society. According to him there is no existence of any unknown planet which is so huge and close to the earth orbit. If there would have been any, it would have shined like the sun and the moon and easily visible by the naked eyes. But nothing of the sort is detected so far.
The other notion about the galactic equator is also defied by the head NASA. The galactic equator is an arbitrary line. It is 30,000 light years away from the earth. It is a long distance to cover in such a short span of time and even if the worse happens. Then even there is no effect of magnetic poles on the spinning of the earth. So there is not going to be any adverse effect of the dreaded event.
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Mayan civilization believed in transformation. According to them there was a life before the present cycle and there will be a cycle afterwards. Claiming it to be an abrupt end of the world is mere hypothetical without any concrete grounds. However, some people do believe that the change will occur but that will be in the favour of society. The coming times will see improvised spiritual and conscience of the human beings than their devastation.