ASTROLOGY AND PALMISTRY ARE NOT SCIENCES AND THERE CAN NEVER BE. THESE ARE AGAINST MAN'S SPIRITUAL GROWTH, AGAINST MAN'S FREEDOM, AGAINST MAN'S HUMANITY


Man has been under many superstitions for thousands of years. Even very educated and so called civilized people of advanced countries also have many superstitions. The organized religions and their priests have been supporting these superstitions as means of exploitation. These have ingrained in human psyche so deep that even the advancement of science and technology could not dispel them. Unfortunately scientists have their own superstitions. Even communists have their own superstitions.

Belief in Astrology and Palmistry is one of the superstitions which is prevalent almost in all types of people in almost all countries of the world in one form or the other. Many physicists have disapproved it as a science. Still the priests, politicians and people with vested interests, who want to exploit people's beliefs for their ulterior motives, are still supporting it. Indian Government has even made it a subject of academic study in schools. Students from the very beginning are being taught superstitions and strangely enough nobody has objected it. It seems there is nobody in India who is free from these superstitions.

Astrology was a device invented by ancient people for spiritual advancement of man. These were created to destroy the ego in man and make him a part of this vast universe. This was part of spirituality. But as has been the case with great spiritual discoveries, falling in wrong hands these lose their real meaning and are taken down from their sunlight peaks to the dark valleys. Now a great spiritual device has been reduced to charlatanism.

Here under we are giving the vision of an enlightened master Osho about Astrology and Palmistry. These ideas will give a shock to many and leave a bitter taste on their tongues. This is because we have been living in lies since long which are sweet in the beginning but leave bitter taste in the end. India has been suffering due to such superstitions since long. What Osho has said will taste bitter because truth is bitter in the beginning and sweet in the end (in its results?)



ASTROLOGY IS MAN'S WEAKNESS, BECAUSE HE CANNOT SEE THE FUTURE AND HE WANTS TO SEE IT

"Astrology is man's weakness, because he cannot see the future and he wants to see it. He is always afraid to go astray. He wants to be certain that he is on the right path, yet the future is absolutely unknown, nothing can be predicted about it. But there are people who are always ready to exploit man's weaknesses."



EXCEPT DEATH EVERYTHING IS UNCERTAIN IN LIFE

"In life, only one thing is certain and that is death. Everything else is uncertain, accidental. Man would have loved death to be uncertain and everything else to be certain. Astrology is his effort to make life a certainty."

"I am reminded of an old story. A great king dreamt that a black shadow was standing before him. Even in the dream he began trembling out of fear. He asked the shadow, "What is the point of making me so afraid in my sleep?"

The shadow said, "It is for your benefit. I am your death, and tomorrow evening when the sun is setting I will come to meet you again. Just out of compassion I have come to tell you. You have been a good man. This is an exception -- I never tell people when they are going to die. So you have twelve hours -- if you want to do something, do it! This is your last day."

"He became so afraid that he woke up, and the dream disappeared. He was perspiring all over. It was not a dream, it was a nightmare, and there was confusion in his mind whether there was any truth in it or not. In the middle of the night he called all the astrologers of the capital to find out the meaning of the dream. They came with their scriptures, different schools of astrology, and they began to discuss among themselves, fight among themselves. By the time the sun was rising the old servant of the king, who was almost like his father, because his father had died when he was a child and this old man had taken every care of the boy, protected him, protected his kingdom, enthroned him.... The king had great respect for the old man. The old man whispered in his ear, "If you can listen to me, my suggestion is that these fools that you have gathered here will never come to any conclusion till the very end of time. They have been discussing for centuries. Their discussion is refined, their expertise is tremendous, but what you need is not their great scholarship but a certain conclusion, and there is not enough time. My suggestion is: you have the best horse in the world. Take the horse; at least escape from this palace and this capital, as far away as possible."

"It appealed to the king. He left the astrologers to discuss and he escaped from the palace. When death is facing you, you don't feel thirsty, you don't feel hungry, you don't feel any need for rest. He wanted to go as far away as possible. He crossed the boundaries of his kingdom -- by the time the sun was setting he had reached hundreds of miles away to a beautiful garden. When he was tying the horse to a tree, he thanked the horse, and he said, "I knew that you were the best horse in the whole world, but you have proved it. You have come with the speed of the wind and you have taken me out of all fear. What those astrologers could not do, you have managed to do it."

"And at that very moment the sun set and he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked back -- the old black shadow that he had seen in the dream was standing there, and said, "Your horse is really the best. Not only should you thank him, I also thank him, because I was very much worried. This is the place and this is the time where you have to die and I was worried how you would reach here. Your horse is a wonder: he brought you to the right point, at the right time."



THE ASTROLOGERS SATISFY YOUR EGO, DISPEL YOUR FEARS, BUT THE SCIENCE IS ABSOLUTELY BOGUS

"Your whole life you are afraid of death. You keep yourself engaged, you don't want to recognize the fact that death is following like a shadow and nobody knows what is going to happen the next moment. People live in the world as if they are here forever and they know perfectly well that nobody is here forever. But these fearful people, fearful of death, of disease, of failure, become victims of cunning people."

"Astrology is exploitation. And not only does it exploit you, it gives you a great egoistic idea also -- as if millions of light years away stars are interested in you, as if their movements decide and determine your fate. This way, a small man becomes the centre of the whole universe. The astrologers satisfy your ego, dispel your fears, but the science is absolutely bogus."

"It is better, more courageous and spiritual, to remember that we are very small -- as small as a blade of grass. And to recognize the fact that it is good that the future is not determined, otherwise you would not have any freedom."

"Astrology is against freedom. If tomorrow is decided, then I am a machine, not a man. Only machines should consult astrologers, not men."

"Man's future is open and an open future gives freedom, freedom to create yourself. Astrology does not give you the freedom -- it is the greatest slavery. Every minute detail is written and there is no way to change it -- it will happen the way it was determined. It has reduced man to a puppet, a puppet of blind forces."

"I absolutely deny the validity of astrology because I am against all slavery. My whole effort is to make you aware of your freedom."

"If astrology is right then Gautam Buddha, Kabir, Dadu, do not deserve any respect. It was determined; they had to become what they became. So what is great in it? And murderers do not need to be condemned. Just as Buddha is a puppet, the murderer is a puppet, and both are in the hands of... we know not, we are not aware of those hands."

"No, I deny this determination. I want to say to you that the achievement of Buddha or Kabir or Nanak is their own achievement. It is their creation, it is their effort, it is their struggle. And they deserve all respect for it."

"And the murderer, the rapist, the criminal -- they are also creating themselves. They could have created themselves as a Buddha, but they decided to create themselves as a murderer. The whole responsibility is theirs. Astrology takes away your responsibility. Anything that takes away responsibility from man is dangerous because responsibility is our very soul, responsibility is our very glory. Without responsibility we are just robots. With responsibility arises human freedom."

"There is no science of astrology and there can never be. It is against man's spiritual growth, it is against man's freedom, it is against man's humanity."



ASTROLOGY AND PALMISTRY HAVE MADE MAN SLAVE OF BLIND FORCES AND ALSO IRRESPONSIBLE

"Those lines (of your hands) have nothing to do with the future. We can cut both your hands off -- still there will be a future. We can do plastic surgery and remove your whole skin -- still there will be a future. Those lines are simply the fold marks of your hand."

"But we want to be irresponsible. Deep down we want somebody else to take the responsibility. Some god should take the responsibility and write your fate."

"In India you read the hand's lines, but have you ever read the lines of the feet? Why are you neglecting them? But there are in existence a few aboriginals who don't read the lines of the hand, they read the lines of the feet, and by that they think they are trying to find their future in darkness. These are just stupid consolations. And you can see it happening everywhere -- in different ways you can try it."

"We make the birth chart and we decide according to the birth chart which man is suitable to marry a certain woman. But all your birth charts have gone wrong, because nobody seems to suit anybody."

"I have never come across a husband who is happy with his wife. He may be happy with another's wife, but with the other's wife his birth chart does not suit. I have never come across a woman who is happy with her own husband. But great astrologers, scholars, palmists have decided.... I used to live in Raipur. Living just in front of me was an astrologer, the best in Raipur. His fees were very high and every day there was a crowd of people asking him about their sons' and daughters' marriages. One day I told him, "You are deciding the future of other people. What about yourself?" Because his wife used to beat him!"

"He said, "It is all business. I don't know what these lines mean, they don't mean anything at all. My whole life I have been matching -- but nothing matches."
A deep desire not to take responsibility is behind the whole game, and the man who is not ready to take responsibility has refused to be a man -- he has fallen from human dignity."

"Once another astrologer was very much interested in reading my hands, my birth chart. I said, "I don't have any birth chart, but hands you can read. But before you read my hands look carefully at your hands."

He said, "Why?"

I said, "That will be decided later on." He worked hard, consulted his scriptures and then he said many things. I said, "Thank you."

He said, "What about my fees?"

I said, "I told you that before reading my hands you should look at your own hands. You should have seen that this man is not going to give you the fees. If you cannot predict such a small thing, and so urgent, then everything else must be meaningless."



ASTROLOGY AND PALMISTRY ARE FOR ANIMALS, NOT FOR MAN

"Man is born as a tabula rasa -- plain unwritten freedom. And this is his glory. A dog can only be a dog and nothing else -- that is determined. A dog has a fate, all your astrologers should move towards dogs, cats and all kinds of animals; they have a determined nature. If you study a buffalo you will see that she will not eat any kind of grass, only a particular grass."

"Man has risen above the animals, and the basic evolution in man is that he has freed himself from all fetters that blind him. He is totally free to create himself, whatever he wants to be. Every opportunity is available. He can reach to the highest peak of consciousness; he can fall to the lowest depth of darkness. He carries both heaven and hell within him. But except himself, nobody else can decide it and nobody else can predict it."

"In Bombay, a few friends brought a great and famous astrologer. I said to the astrologer, "You can predict only for one year from today, and I will tell you in writing that whatever you predict I will do absolutely the opposite. Even to the point that if you say that I will live a long life, I will die. But I will not support any slavery."

The man looked around at the people who had brought him and said, "Where have you brought me? This man is dangerous. If he commits suicide, I will be caught. Why did you tell him that he would live long, when he has said that he will do exactly the opposite?"

I said, "Just for a small experiment you can say that I will not hit you and I will hit you right now. That will be decisive." He was very angry. I said, "That does not matter. What matters is that my actions are my actions and I take the whole responsibility of my actions. Good or bad, but I do not want to throw them on the shoulders of God, fate, kismet, all that nonsense. It is time that we should get rid of it. It has kept this country poor because what can you do? -- your poverty is written in the stars. You cannot stop the growing population. What can you do? -- children are sent by God. You don't take any responsibility for anything. Without responsibility there is no freedom, and without responsibility you fall down to the level of animals, not man.
Astrology is for animals, not for man."

(The Last Testament Vol. 6)

NOTE: Osho International Foundation has the copyrights of above quotations of Osho.

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