[world-vedic] NOSTRADAMUS?

[Guest guest]

HERE IS AN INTERESTING ARTICLE FROM THE TIMES OF INDIA

 

By Nikhat Kazmi

 

NEW DELHI: Guess who's coming on July 4? Mean monsters from Mars making

mince-meat out of mankind? Errant nukes from Mir, which blows up into

smithereens or more focused Ghauris from the not-so-distant East?

 

Actually, none. Notwithstanding Nostradamus and his eerie end-of-the-world

predictions which have already sent the Americans and Japanese seeking out

remote sites and subterranean havens in order to escape apocalypse. Which are

choking the Net with an unprecedented proliferation of Nostradamus websites,

brimming over with the whys and wherefores of Armageddon-round-the-bend.

 

``Why should we be troubled by this fellow, who lived 500 years ago and still

keeps bothering us?'' queries Ajay Bhambi, astrologer. ``He told us the world

would end in 1991. It didn't! So, why should we believe him now?'' wonders

Bhambi.

 

According to him, Nostradamus was a visionary more than an astrologer. Hence,

his prophecies are not fool-proof, since they are not based on astrological

calculations. Unlike its Western counterpart, Indian astrology has no theories

about apocalypse at all.

 

``There are no astrological indications of the end of the world in the Indian

astrological science. Neither now, nor after 2000 years,'' affirms Bhambi.

 

Most of the Indian astrologers would like to debunk Nostradamus' 16th century

prophecies as a marketing gimmick.

 

According to Kumar Jayakeerti, an Ahmedabad-based astrologer, the predictions

are totally baseless and mere gimmicks to gain publicity. Each time these

predictions surface, the market gets suffused with sundry reprints of Les

Prophecies. Today, in terms of sales, the French seer's book stands second only

to the Bible, having sold more than six million copies. Add to this the umpteen

doomsday cults - David Koresh, Moses David, Aum Shinrikyo - that keep

mushrooming now and then and you have a throbbing Armageddon industry that draws

heavily on Nostradamus and his clairvoyance.

 

Shiv Vishwanathan, a science historian, points to the commercialisation of

Nostradamus Inc. For, the world market has consistently used the French seer's

predictions to market a book out of context.

 

``There is a lot of overreading, underreading and misreading into his works. We

must look at Nostradamus as one of the great fathers of futurology, making room

for coincidences, improbabilities, hits and misses in his theories,'' explains

Vishwanathan.

 

According to him, the futurologist did not actually give predictions. ``He

merely built scenarios for the future; linearity and certainty are not an

integral part of the science of futurology,'' he adds.

 

Is there life after the fourth of July, then? ``In fact, we are on the threshold

of a grand new century, where knowledge and wisdom shall reign,'' says Bhambi.

Doomsayers be damned.

 

(With inputs from Shramana Ganguly in Ahmedabad)

 

 

 

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