I said yesterday that Hindu priests and gurus often create greed in people. They tell them that they can perform rituals for them which will bring them money, luck, happiness and more. They use another feeling to sell their rituals: fear.
Fear brings a lot of money for many religious institutions and people. Selling through fear works in a similar way like selling through greed. Fake clairvoyants, astrologers and fortune tellers tell people about all the horrible things that could happen to them.
They tell them they can see in their hands, faces or in their aura some very bad things that will happen in future. They predict that Saturn will come in a constellation that will bring bad luck and sudden loss for their business. They forebode diseases and illnesses for the person himself and the family. They prophesy death of family members through accidents, snake bites and other misfortunes. Some even mention bad luck and unhappiness in future lives and incarnations but most of them concentrate on the current life as it is more urgent to those who ask.
Anybody who goes to these priests, preachers, gurus and cheaters is in some way superstitious. And whoever is in that business has good knowledge of human nature. They can guess easily in which way they can make the other one afraid. Everybody would get afraid, or at least feel uneasy, if someone told you of all the bad luck that you will certainly have in future if you don’t do any of the ceremonies and rituals recommended.
There is always a recommended way to save yourself from the prophesied bad luck. That can be a certain ritual, a prayer or a ceremony but also wearing a protective pendant, necklace or wristband. Of course you can buy all of these items and book all of these ceremonies with the person who made the prophecy or, at the most, with one of his relatives or their commission agents, who give them a share of their profit.
If you once see clear through this dirty business, you will understand how these people get richer and richer. It is a shame and whenever I hear from anybody that they left the belief in such nonsense and such cheaters, I get happy. We need to spread the word and let more and more people know that this is happening here so that less and less people get cheated in this way.
Related posts
Caught in a Web of your own Fears? Here is what to do! – 21 Oct 16
How to deal with your ‘Fictional Future Fear’ – 17 Feb 14
‘Not afraid of anyone but God’ means being afraid of everything! – 18 Jan 13
How to deal with Anxiety and Fear – 15 May 12
Don’t be afraid of Fear – 10 May 12
Fear of 2012 – Will the world end, change or just be gone? – 24 May 11
Harold Camping predicting Doomsday and cashing in on resulting Fear – 23 May 11
Scare your Fear away by being alive – 25 Apr 11
This happens in other religions, too, not only in Hinduism. In Christianity it may have been more clearly in the Middle Ages. In that time they sold so-called ‘letters of indulgence’. You could go to your priest, tell him your sins or the sins of one of your forefathers, pay him some money and get this piece of paper on which it was written that you would not have to spend much time in purgatory, so you or your relatives would have to suffer less. Who likes the thought of the own father suffering in the fires of near-hell even if he was a heavy drinker? You would try to buy him out of it.They don’t do it that obviously anymore but even today there is the clear message: you have to be good, otherwise you go to hell.
Still working with fear, even in these modern times…
When I was in India, I was surprised to find so many people wearing signs of protection against evil spirits etc.A priest told me and explained me about all the different pendants, ones in which you put Mantras, then the Yantra signs that should offer protection and more.
It was strange for me to see that many foreigners also bought them. I mean, it is not your God, it is also not your devils or demons, so why do you care?
Why wouldn’t you wear Hindu protection signs? Do you really think that the bad energies that are in India would not attack you just because you are Christian?I think there are a lot of charlatans but there are also many genuine clairvoyants, too.
No, I actually share Swami Ji’s opinion there and think that this is all nonsense. I am not afraid of any energies, ghosts, afterlife horrors or any such thing. I was only joking but if you want to hear it: I don’t believe in any such person’s talk, simply because they say the same things to everyone. So why get afraid and freak yourself out?Be in peace and love and life will be good to you.
Evangelical Christianity still plays the fear card very much with its constant threats of imminent Armageddon, Rapture, and Judgement Day. It keeps their believers in constant fear so they will keep coming to church and giving money to the evangelical churches and their preachers, hoping that this will help save them.
Isn’t it a crime to make someone afraid, even fear for his life, and then take his money?
Sometimes I find it hard to believe that there are really people who still get afraid of this kind of threats. Although I of course believe you that there are. Armageddon may happen, Judgment Day, too, but shouldn’t you have some faith in God that he takes care of his creation, that he is there for you and accepts you as his child?
The whole preaching of Jesus suggests that he died for all humans (or Christians?), taking their sin away from them. Isn’t it against this idea if they fear Judgement Day?
I think yes, that would be a crime but unfortunately there are no prosecutors who would take this case 🙂 Is it a threat to your life if someone tells you that you will die in a month if you don’t do his ceremony? Is it a threat to your business if someone tells you, your store will have a horrible loss if you don’t buy his incense and light it in the shop?
I mean, this could also be a means of making someone do what you want. If someone is superstitious enough, he will do whatever you tell him, right?
A very interesting topic!
It might be easier for Christians in the US to put Judgement Day out of their minds if there weren’t so many that constantly harp on this theme, and also politicians as well as non-politicians who actually promote and encourage more war because they believe there must be Armageddon (wide scale warfare) before we can get to the Rapture (the “good” people being taken up to God). Rapture novels which envision this in various ways are big sellers in American bookstores. There are millions of Americans who fantasize and obsess about this every day. Also, regular non-evangelical churches never got over playing the fear cards too, though not as extremely. There’s always an implication in the regular Christian churches that if you don’t go regularly to church services and get the Eucharist, and if you don’t go to confession if you’re Catholic, you will be in the bad graces of God and may be damned for not being a good Christian.
It is really bad that there are people who think there has to be war for you to get rescued by God. They want to destroy the world in order to be the only ones saved, right? How can this be a good thing to do? How can you think you would be the good one who will be saved if you promoted war before?
It just seems impossible for me to really understand that thinking. I can logically talk about it but that really someone believes this with his heart, is really hard to imagine.
And I never understood how confessing your sin to a priest can help you become a better person in the eyes of God… but I guess if you grow up with these ideas, you are conditioned to feel guilty if you don’t.