A friend in media sent the following email -- "Hi Ellie, I'm sending a link about a Guru I met two years ago. He's doing a fairly good job of putting together the Mayan prophecy, the end of the Kali Yuga and the Grace of this gorgeous auspicious Guru Purnima moon."

Dattatreya Siva Baba, the YouTube Guru, predicts a new age of enlightenment starting on this month's full moon - SF Gate - July 14, 2008.

Baba, 60, an Indian mystic and teacher who counts among his students the best-selling author Wayne Dyer, is known to many followers as the "YouTube Guru" because of his frequent video transmissions on everything from yogic meditation practices to quantum mechanics. Lately he's been talking online about something he calls "The Grace Light," a divine light that he believes will usher in a new era of compassion and enlightenment for the human race, starting with this month's full moon.

Baba is holding a series of ceremonies in 20 cities to welcome the light, beginning at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral on July 17, coinciding with a traditional Vedic celebration called the "Full Moon of the Guru." The moon is associated with consciousness, particularly with the right brain. Each phase of the moon carries its own special energy. The full moon represents enlightenment, which is the full flowering of consciousness. This year, called Sarvadari, is the year of enlightenment that repeats itself every 60 years. Every time this cycle comes, there is potential for the world to receive greater intelligence. This is the year of enlightenment, and the special full moon of Guru Purnima signifies the beginning of a new age of enlightenment on the earth.

Focus on 2012: Everything in the universe is cyclical. The Hindus believe that time periods or epochs rotate in what they call "Yugas." We are coming to the end of one Yuga (the Kali Yuga or "age of darkness"), and beginning of another (the Satya Yuga or "age of truth"). The Mayans believed the world would end in 2012, but that should be considered metaphorically. It is the end of a certain era of human evolution, and the beginning of another. All the values and the assumptions of the previous world age will expire and a new phase of human growth will begin. The Greeks and Egyptians also believed in the shifting of the ages is an astronomical phenomenon. There are many traditions recognizing 2012 as a major transition point between the last cycle and a new one.

There will certainly be natural and man-made calamities prior to the dawning of this new era of enlightenment, or the Golden Age. Between now and 2012, there will certainly be seemingly apocalyptic happenings. The world will not be destroyed, but it will be cleansed of negativity, ignorance, hatred and conflict. The calamities will draw people to find answers in spirituality and metaphysics. This will be a return to God from an age that has relied exclusively on reasoning. Human values, like caring for our fellow beings and extending compassion to those living in poverty, will return to the forefront.