Tag: Astrology

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Astrology – worldwide seen as Superstition, in India taught in University – 18 Mar 13

In the past week I wrote about five different types of superstitious people. While I was writing these entries, I wondered if I should include believers in astrology in this enumeration or not. In the end I decided not to and rather write a separate diary entry today in which I explain you the situation of astrology in India.

India is just a very religious country and religion has presented a lot of superstition as facts which is why many people are profoundly confused about them, not sure whether they are true or not. Many people have understood that the old traditions and beliefs of their parents and grandparents are not always right but they often have doubts and the same is true for astrology. People have been doing this for ages, there must be something true about it, or not?

The Hindu religion has been busy for centuries, telling people that astrology is not just something that you believe but that it is based on a calculation, on facts and that it is a science. This has led to the situation that nowadays people may laugh about the superstition of the unlucky black cat but take it very serious if an astrologer gives them a warning about an unlucky day in their horoscope.

I already told you about the ‘muhurt’, the right timing for certain projects and I also wrote about the increasing number of caesarian births that are performed at an exact point of time so that the child has a good birth horoscope. The problem is that people really believe that this is not only a religious superstition. They believe it is really a science.

Just to clarify matters for those who are confused: astronomy is a real science that observes the movement of the planets and due to which we know that the earth turns around the sun, how many planets there are in this solar system and which stars are where to be seen from the planet earth.

Astrology on the other hand is the prediction of events in the future and the idea that the constellation of planets and stars has an effect on your personality and your life. Astrologers believe that they can calculate, with the help of the planets, what times in your life are good for love, which are good for business and of course also when it is not the right time to certain things. Obviously, there is also always the solution available when something doesn’t fit. That is where the business starts and there are astrologers everywhere in India and the normal religious person will use his services whenever there is a bigger decision. If you start a new business or buy a new house for example, you consult your astrologer. When your baby is born, you get his or her birth horoscope done and you always act according to the astrologer’s suggestions.

You can imagine that astronomers are not very happy about being confused with astrologers and they have tried to go against the popular belief that astrology is a science – with no success: in 2011, the Bombay High Court reconfirmed a decision of 2004 that astrology was a ‘trusted science’ and could be taught in universities. So you can have a degree in superstition, in future telling, in a fully baseless calculation which is supposed to reveal the secrets of your future!

Yes, India works a bit differently and superstition is even something that you can study. Astrology is the example for it and unfortunately it will still take a long time until people realize that it is only nonsense.

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Nobody can predict the Future – no Astrologer and no Clairvoyant! – 3 Jan 12

Yesterday I wrote about New Year’s resolutions and described it as a good idea to have a plan for the future. Around the change of the year newspapers, magazines and other media channels are full of predictions of what is going to happen in the New Year. There are astrological predictions for each of the twelve zodiac signs, often describing very much in detail what will happen to those who were born in that zodiac signs.

I really wonder how it is possible to categorize the seven Billion people of this world into twelve groups. How can it be that whatever they predict for the twelve different groups really applies to each and every individual? It is not possible. For the media this is of course just another popular way to fill their pages with entertainment around New Year. I have even read stories of the editors sitting together and randomly choosing predictions for the different zodiac signs.

While these general predictions are clearly too general to be true, there are also individual predictions based on one person’s horoscope with his exact time of birth and the exact birth place. I actually don’t believe in this kind of predictions anymore, either.

What these astrologers do is to take what they read and learned in astrological scriptures and with their formulas about the situation of planets, mix that with what they see in the person and what he or she tells them and then give a their prediction. Depending on their skills, this usually fits the person sitting opposite them quite well because they have practice in making a rather accurate psychological analysis according to the other one’s appearance and behavior.

I don’t say that these people are cheaters who consciously tell people something that they themselves don’t believe in. No, they have faith in astrology, in the planetary constellations and in those things that they have read about in their scriptures. They believe it is a science and according to that they give their predictions. It is not however a science, it has no proof. There is no way to prove that the location of Mars, Saturn and other planets combined really means you would be lucky, healthy or successful.

If you read this and don’t know much about me, you may think that you read the words of someone who grew up in an environment that taught him not to believe in such things. You might think my parents taught me to be skeptical and critical and never believe anything without proof. It is however not like this. On the contrary, my brothers and I studied astrology, I believed in it and in the past we even had an astrological department. I grew up with this belief. In that time I had no doubt that this all was true. There was however one turning point in my life and that is the death of my younger sister. I had studied her birth horoscope and there was no sign that she would leave this world at the age of 29 in a car accident. This and other events in the course of time made me change my mind.

If you have an open mind and are ready to accept change in life, you are able to realize and see things in other ways, too. You can find that you believed in something that was wrong. Now I believe it is very unscientific – even though it is presented as a complex but accurate science. How could it be? If there were two children born at the same place, with the same longitude and latitude and at the same time, will they have exactly the same fate?

Astrologers are not the only ones, clairvoyants also like this time of the year. Everybody who in any way says that he predicts the future, likes to give predictions especially at the turn of years.

For me everyone who claims to know the future or the past is a liar. It is just impossible and I challenge everyone to tell me my or someone else’s past without knowing about it before. I can give you the exact birth time and place and I can tell you that nobody will be able to tell me about my past. It is difficult to prove someone to be wrong with future predictions – there is always the chance of a lucky guess – but I know my past and can tell you whether that person tells the truth.

Again there is the question, if someone knew the future, why could they not predict nature catastrophes and wars? In the past year we have faced tsunamis, earthquakes and more, how come the eastern and western astrologers as well as clairvoyants all over the world were not able to predict this all? Afterwards they all explain that it was logical with the constellation of these or those planets but nobody warned people before.

Some people, who have lost faith in accurate predictions, say that it is not an indicator of fixed events but can show you a tendency. It can help you a little bit with decisions and the general trend of your life. The reality is however that you already know it is not true. If it cannot predict certain events, why would it be able to show you even a vague direction?

I recently read in an article that media now has to show advertisements of clairvoyants and astrologers clearly marked as ‘entertainment only’ and not as real facts. They want to limit the bad effects of such predictions – people get addicted to them! I have seen people who did no step in life without consulting an astrologer or clairvoyant. It is however only a guess – because nobody can ever know what will happen in future.

This is however exactly the beauty of life: nobody, except you, knows what happened in your past and nobody, including you, knows what will happen in the future. See the beauty of this mystery! If we knew what would happen tomorrow, the whole mystery, the adventure, the surprise and the beauty of life would be gone! So why would you want to get to know this? You would miss the beauty of not knowing!

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Muhurat – widespread Superstition of the right Timing – 9 Dec 11

Yesterday I mentioned that people schedule the birth of their child according to star and planet constellations so that the baby has a good horoscope and a bright future. This seems extreme to some of you but this is by far not the only action that people schedule according to planets, stars and moons. They go much more in detail and there are many more insignificant actions that they plan exactly to the right time. This time, the auspicious timeframe that they believe is right for a certain action, is called ‘Muhurat’.

I was recently asked what I thought about Muhurat, about this scheduling of events, of this specific time frame which is good for one action and bad for another. Let me first explain how deep this idea influences some people’s lives.

Muhurat, the right timing, is a concept that is deeply connected with Indian culture. Especially religious people believe that the situation of the planets has a big influence on your life. Obviously your birth horoscope is made according to the date and time of your birth and depending on the planetary situations in that time it is said to be able to show you certain character traits and more. In the same way people believe that each date and each time of each day has certain qualities from the constellation of stars.

So there are certain times that are good for certain actions whereas other times are not good for them. Every person here usually knows the basics, for example on which day of the moon it is good to start a journey or which day of the moon is absolutely not good to purchase something for your home, like a new cupboard. Only experts however could tell you more details. They could tell you that on the third day after the next full moon it is good to start travelling South in between ten and twelve o’clock.

There are so many examples for which situations you can find the right Muhurat. If you want to start a new business, the moon should be there, if you move to a new house, the sun should be there, when you marry and even when you should conceive your child – a right time for everything. And there is a very wrong time which is called Rahukaalam – an inauspicious time, practically the worst time for your actions.

So now you know what Muhurat is. I see it as superstition, just like the thought that it would be bad luck to see a black cat. The problem is that some people believe in this very much and that their lives get controlled by it at some point. Obviously, if there is a right time to do things, there are other times which are wrong. You go to an expert for the bigger events in your life but what about smaller, also important decisions? When is the right time? They go to experts regularly but with each time there are more decisions about which they are not sure – is it now the right time or later?

In the end this thought spreads fear and insecurity. It can create psychological problems because of all the doubts whether it is the right time or not. In my opinion it is nonsense and clever, educated and positive people should not stop themselves from acting just because of such superstition.

It is however not only common among uneducated people but, as other superstitions, too, does not stop form rich, successful, highly educated people either. Many politicians, businessmen and celebrities are known to consult their experts about the right Muhurat for their projects.

Many people only take care of the right timing with the important events of their lives like a new business, marrying or the birth of a child. But if you think that it is right and important in those situations, why wouldn’t it be important in others, too? You cannot just believe a little bit that this is true. If you believe it is important to build a new home at the right time, it should also be important to cut your toenails at the right time. Something could go wrong there, too, you could cut yourself, go to hospital, have an infection and a serious illness because of it! You see, superstition can make you nervous!

I have seen people who did everything at the right Muhurat but did not have success. And I have seen people who showed others that although they start something at the wrong Muhurat they had success. If something goes wrong although you did it at exactly the right time with exactly the right ceremony and listening closely to your expert, believers will always tell you some reason. Another expert will tell you that your previous counselor only looked at Mars, not at Saturn or something similar. There are so many details that you can always find something that was maybe not interpreted in the right way. It is inaccurate and that is in my eyes the first sign that it is just wrong. If it were right, wouldn’t everybody predict the best day to win in the lottery? Wouldn’t then everybody play the lottery and win at the same time? Then everything could be predictable, everything would be like a fixed match. No, I cannot believe this!

It may be a comfort to some people to believe they do something at the right time so it will turn out well. I believe however that you should have enough confidence in yourself and your actions to know that what you do is right. You cannot change certain things in life just by starting later or earlier. Do your best, with love and your full effort and you have the possibility to be happy.

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Hospitals and Doctors ask pregnant Women: Caesarian Section or Natural Birth? – 8 Dec 11

Yesterday Yashendu, Ramona and I spent the day in Delhi. We went there to choose a hospital where we will go when our baby decides it is time to be born. We had talked to several hospitals on phone from Vrindavan and from those had selected four which we wanted to have a look at and decide in which one we felt most comfortable. So we started early and were roaming around in the city the whole day with this task. When we were talking on phone and also at the hospital, the first question we were always asked was ‘Do you want to have a Caesarian or a normal birth?’

This question made us laugh on one hand but also provoked some serious thoughts on the other hand. While we were very sure that we wanted the birth to happen just natural and with as little medical help as possible, we know that many people answer this question with ‘Caesarian’ and opt for the operation. What I wondered about was why this question actually comes up.

The very first thing that people need to be reminded of is that pregnancy is not an illness and a pregnant woman is not really a patient. It is a very natural process and for thousands of years it happened just simply in a natural way. Nowadays we have the possibility, through modern medicine, to check on the health of mother and baby during the process. In this way doctors can help prevent certain tragic events and consequences for the new family. Obviously this can save lives and is the benefit of the progress of medicine.

This is why people usually go to a hospital for the delivery. They know that a doctor will be there to help in a critical situation, too. A caesarian is the emergency solution for such a critical situation. If the baby is lying the wrong way round and a breech birth is not possible, if the child has the umbilical cord around the neck and doctors fear suffocation for him or her, if they don’t hear any heartbeat anymore or if the baby has grown so big that a natural birth could endanger the life of the mother, doctors can decide that a Caesarian would be a much lower risk which could keep both, mother and child alive and at good health.

Obviously this is a decision that is taken according to the circumstances. With time unfortunately it seems to have become a matter of decision for the parents. It seems to be just another of those many decisions that parenthood will bring: which car seat should we pick, should we use cloth diapers or disposable ones and will we have a caesarian birth or not? Women who are afraid of pain believe that this is an easy alternative without realizing that surgical intervention always comes with a higher risk, even if it was planned.

Here in India there is another factor that lets people choose a C-section: the child’s birth horoscope. I wrote about this idea before that people believe they can influence the child’s future by having it born on the right day and the right time. You can decide, within a certain time frame of course, when you would like to have your caesarian birth. Painless, quick and most of all you can decide upon the planetary constellations at the time of the birth. People believe in astrological predictions and want to make their children successful, beautiful, intelligent and lucky by this.

This concept has led to such an increase of unnecessary Caesarian sections that some statistics say hospitals have a rate of 65% caesarian sections where only about 5% were actually necessary. Of course a Caesarian is more expensive than a natural birth without complications in which the doctor just monitors and examines whether mother and child are fine. This can be a reason for doctors to encourage parents not to even try having a natural birth. Many people in our surrounding have had a horoscope done and then decided upon the day of delivery to have their C-section birth.

It is simply not the right concept in my opinion. We have to get back to being more natural and should not mix superstition and medical science. The result is more and more surgical intervention and a distance and fear of a completely natural process.

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Irresponsible Indian Media – TV Shows full of Magic and Superstition – 17 Nov 11

I have told you before that I usually don’t watch TV and if I do, it is usually news. When we are here in India, I watch the news channels and only very rarely anything else. I prefer the real world. In between, in advertisement breaks, I sometimes wonder though if I am really on the news channel. Why? Because the advertisement spots are sometimes full of superstitious nonsense!

One example, a very big one, is the advertisement of ‘Lal Kitab’, which is played not only on one channel but in several, very big national channels. Lal Kitab translated means ‘Red Book’ and it is a book that I have heard of already in my childhood. I was amazed to see an advertisement of that book which I had heard many people, especially women, talk about when they discussed how their future will look like. In the advertisement a lady praises Lal Kitab for telling you how they can change future by simple rituals. Young women can get to know how their future husband will be like.

It is basically a book full of superstitious predictions and also remedies and rituals for all kinds of situations. If you would like to achieve something, if you have the wish for a certain quality in your husband for example, you get advice such as ‘Take a handful of lentils in a full moon night, dig a hole into the earth and let them drop in there one by one’. This is then supposed to have an influence on your future.

What I was wondering about was not only that they must be doing really big business if they can do advertisement on TV. I also wondered how the media could allow this nonsense to be advertised! They claim to have a solution for any kind of problem!

It is not the only kind of superstition and magic promoted on Indian TV Channels though. There are many strange programs in which they talk about ghosts and supernatural powers. There are talk shows in which experts and astrologers make people afraid that there could be certain planetary situations which could harm them. They also give remedies for how to avoid any loss or tragedy that could result from that. Whenever there is a sun eclipse or moon eclipse, they show which zodiac sign will experience which effects and what you can do about it.

Some shows give advice about different temples where you can go to if you want to change or influence your fate. People give testimonials of how they have gone to a certain temple and won their court cases. Other temples are known to help your business and other temples perform special rituals that cure your diseases. Each week they have a new episode showing the religious solution to another problem. You are told rituals for prolonging your husband’s life, for becoming wealthy and for saving your children from evil.

Nearly every channel has such a show and millions of people sit in front of their TVs every day, watching this with interest and believing it to be the truth. After all, it is coming on TV!

Former Supreme Court Judge and present Chairman of the Press Council of India Markandey Katju recently gave a statement that I very much approve of. He said that media should act with more responsibility. Real journalism should bring people out of un-education and lift them up to a higher level instead of going down to their level to entertain them with superstition.

I fully agree with him. In a country like India, where so many people have low education or maybe none at all, media is responsible for teaching people the right thing. Don’t only think of your TRP, your business and your money. Think for a good cause, think for educating the people of this country! TV is a powerful medium and it should save people from superstition instead of further encouraging it!

In many areas of India, there are not enough schools for all children and this is how many people had no chance to go to school. If there is only one TV however, twenty and more people can sit in front of it. Imagine that the TV now showed an interesting, educational program! No, instead they make the viewers afraid and encourage their belief in ghosts, useless rituals and negative influences from all around.

Media has to realize its true role in society and stop fooling people by promoting superstition. Only in this way we can in future turn on the TV and feel good about what we see.

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Is there a bigger Plan? – Our Need for Security – 24 Jun 11

In a counseling session some weeks ago, a woman said to me ‘I believe there is a plan for everything that is going on now and for what will happen in future. What do you think?’ I told her that I had a very different idea. Let me explain you my thoughts on this topic.

Who do you think has a plan? Usually religious people will answer this with God and people who are less religious will say the universe, the higher energy or something similar. It is thus not an idea that is depending on religion. There may be some religions that tell us God has made a plan but also people without religion believe it.

Where does this idea come from? I think it comes from people’s basic need for security. People want to know that whatever happens is in someone’s plan. They want to have rules. If I do this, something good will happen, if I do that, something bad will happen. The concept of heaven and hell provides security because it means that someone is there who has a plan. Religions were made because people saw that there was a need for this security. They provided it and people came.

Astrology and horoscopes were also made because of this need for security. People want to get to know what will happen tomorrow. They have trust that the stars will tell it and that the bigger plan is written in the stars. Others believe in the clairvoyant power of an individual, someone who reads the cards, someone who predicts the future out of a crystal ball or someone who says he has contact with angels who know about the bigger plan. The problem is that with such predictions depend often on how much money you can give to the one who makes the prediction. The more you give, the more successful you will be in future.

I actually believe that there is no plan and that nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. We can take our decisions and have to take our responsibility for the consequences. Nobody knows before what will happen if you go one way or the other. I believe that everything happens for good, which means that even something that in this moment does not seem like a good thing to you, has some aspect that is positive. But you don’t know about this before and it is not ‘planned’ that this happens. Every event is the result of previous decisions or events. There is no plan.

If nobody can know anyway what will happen on the next day, why should we worry about it? There will never be an answer! We will see what will happen and we will deal with whatever comes. The past is past and tomorrow will come. Live in the presence, today, now!

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50-50 Chance to correctly predict the Gender of a Baby without Ultrasound – 22 May 11

I already told that in that time in London, in October 2001, I met many people in my friend’s home where I was staying and some of them invited me to their homes to do rituals, pooja ceremonies and preaching there, too. In this way I got to know a man and his family who wished to invite me for Navratri, a religious celebration time of nine days in which Hindus worship Goddesses. I happily accepted the invitation and so they daily picked me up at my friend’s place and dropped me there again after three or four hours.

It was a religious family and the main reason for inviting me there was a very happy one: the wife of the house was pregnant, already in the 8th month. In the time of pregnancy religious Hindu believers like to have something spiritual and some religious ceremonies going on. It brings luck, you pray for a good pregnancy and delivery and a healthy baby.

One day the grandmother-to-be came to me in a time when I was not busy with a ritual and not talking to anyone else. She told me what she had on her mind. Her son had got to know the gender of her grandchild but he didn’t want to tell her! So she came to me and asked what I thought: ‘Will it be a boy or a girl?’ You may be surprised now why she approached me with this question, how should I know that? I was seen a holy man in that time. As a religious woman, she naturally believed that I could answer this question.

I actually believed it, too! I was sure that I could tell her the gender of her unborn grandchild without any ultrasound pictures. I had studied Vedic astrology and knew a technique with which you can actually answer any kind of question by looking at the ‘horoscope’ of that question. It has something to do with the time that question was asked. That is seen as the time that the question was ‘born’. With my experience in this calculation I regularly answered such questions. I took the question, made a horoscope, looked at some further indications and then reached a conclusion according to which I gave an answer. And in this way I was sure: this baby was a boy.

The future grandmother was very happy that she knew it now, too. Of course she decided not to tell her son about it. He also had not told her what the doctor had said, why should she tell him what I had said?

One month later, when I had already moved on, I received a call from the man, who had become my friend and is still today, and he told me that his wife has given birth to a healthy son. I was of course very happy for them and once again confirmed in my calculation.

That was my life. This is what was happening. People asked me many such questions and they as well as I believed that I could answer them. Again, experience showed that it worked. Today I believe that I was lucky. It was a 50:50 chance. But I believed, they believed and it worked.

Again, I see how life changes. I accepted development in me while staying honest. I say it is not wrong to believe in someone or something as long as it is an open and honest belief. It is okay. When you get to know another truth however, when you find out that what you are doing or believing is wrong, take it out. You need to change and be ready for that change. I keep my window open so that new light can come in. I welcome it and the change it brings.

I always openly say what I believe in and what I don’t believe in. I never believed in materializations because I knew that with some simple tricks, I could do this myself, too. What is wrong is making people believe something that you yourself don’t believe in. Showing people that you can materialize things that you actually hide cleverly in hands or sleeves is wrong. Telling others honestly what you believe in is not.

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True Friends stay when your Philosophy and Belief change – 16 May 11

I have changed a lot and have written about it a lot, too. When doing this, my aim is not, to change anybody along with me. I don’t expect anyone to follow me on my way. I am not a guru and I don’t want to have followers. If my writing however makes someone think and he, from within himself, decides to change, it is also fine. I don’t however write any article with the aim of changing one certain individual whom I have met on my way. I just express what I feel and think. If this is different to what you believe, it doesn’t matter, we can still be friends!

When I told my mother and father that I am not religious anymore and that I don’t believe in any of their rituals anymore, they understood that I have changed. They did not say ‘You are not our son anymore’. They said that it was fine. If this is my way, it is okay, they will still be there as my parents, supporting and loving me.

I write about my own thinking and my opinion. I don’t force anybody to agree with me. Please don’t get annoyed if I share my ideas. Even if our ideology, philosophy and belief is not the same, we can still be friends. This is my place to share my thinking. My and your philosophy will always change but that should not affect our love for each other.

I have parted ways with many people over the course of time. I have changed and they sometimes, too. I also know why they went away: they were attached to one piece of my belief, of my philosophy, attached to one idea that I had and that changed. Without this idea, why would they stay with me?

There were many people who were my followers. They were connected with me because I was a guru. When I stopped being a guru, they left, too. There were people who were in touch of us because we did astrological counseling. When we closed this department, they left and searched somewhere else.

When someone is a friend because of a reason, they can also stop being your friend when this reason is gone. It is okay if such friends leave because they are not true friends. A true friend loves your being. And this person will stay. Those who love me because of just me are connected in love, no matter what we feel or think. My father and my mother also still hug me as their son. Please still hug me as your friend, even if our opinions don’t match anymore. Love is bigger than any philosophy or any opinion.

Real friendships get more and more beautiful the older they get. Keep them alive and enjoy the age of your friendships. I am very happy that I have a few people, not many but a few of them, of whom I can say that we have been friends for a long time. Many things have changed but their love is there for me. And this is how it should be. Simply loving the other being.

Today we have come from Wuppertal to Essen. We are happy to have found new friends in Wuppertal and are now looking forward to make some more friends here in Essen.

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Gurus and Religious Leaders creating Fear to increase Income – 10 Feb 11

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.

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Is Sex not for Pleasure, only for Reproduction? – 7 Jan 11

I once knew a couple that lives here in India, both coming from the west. In my eyes they are misguided by a sect, in their opinion they have found their destiny here. One day I got to know that they are expecting a baby and with this news I also heard that they had been eagerly waiting for this confirmation that she is pregnant. You could say they have been trying to get pregnant the whole seven years of their marriage and that is the truth. At the same time however you would need to add that they only had sex three times in this whole time! So how does this fit together?

In their philosophy, and I happen to know that their sect is not the only organization following this idea, you should only have sex to reproduce. Their belief is that they should only sleep with each other if you want to have a baby and not for your own enjoyment. Additionally to this belief that sexual intercourse is only for conceiving and not for actual pleasure, they believe that an astrologer can tell you the right day for conception. He will make a full analysis of the stars and counts on which fertile day of the woman the signs of the stars are good. These days are pretty rare though – three of them in seven years. Twice they tried and it did not work. You can imagine their happiness when it worked out the third time.

Of course it is always very happy news to hear about a new life that is coming to this earth. To hear this kind of story along with it however gives it a strange feeling. The first thing is that whatever your sexual activities are, they are private. If you go around and boast either with how much sex you have or also with how little, you are showing off. In one case you are showing off your sexual potential and in the other case you show off your commitment to the rules of your sect by pretending to be celibate whenever you don’t want to conceive. I actually don’t believe this story. Even if it was true, then why are you together? You are suppressing your body and your feelings.

Why do you have the wish for a baby if you do not have the wish for having sex? Do you think sex is something dirty and forbidden? Why? These people claimed to be Krishna devotees but also Krishna always respected natural feeling and action!

Really, again I have to ask everybody who believes in celibacy: how can sex be dirty or forbidden if it is the source of life? It is natural for animals and humans. Why would it only be allowed for making a baby? If it was such a bad thing to have sex, why did God not provide us with the possibility to have babies without having sex?

I think it is a state of mental sickness if you let an astrologer dictate you when you can sleep with your husband or wife. Where does this sickness come from? From the manipulation of brainwashing sects. They want to have as much control over their members of possible. By controlling this strong basic instinct, they of course feel they are powerful. So should you ever be in a meeting with a group of people who want to tell you on what day and at what time you should have sex, it will be best to leave them as soon as possible and never return. Don’t get stuck in controlling sects. Enjoy your life and enjoy your private and intimate life with your partner, too. Live naturally and love each other, that’s it.