Auspicious days In Hinduism, people are believed to have auspicious or favourable days on which they will have a high probability of success in any task they do. Such days with a certain time are calculated based on the individual's birth star, moon, and planetary phases according to
Hindu astrology. Starting a business or businesses signing new deals or starting new ventures is mostly conducted on auspicious days of persons involved in the business. Hindu marriages are also done in a matching auspicious time and date of a bride and groom according to
Hindu astrology and
horoscope of the bride and groom.
Fortune telling Fortune telling is a common practice in
India. Fortune tellers have a variety of ways of predicting the future like
palmistry, consulting
horoscope,
numerology,
parrot astrology,
boom boom mattukaran etc.
Godmen and faith healers The word
godman in modern usage is a colloquial blanket term used for charismatic spiritual leaders in India. Locally, they may be referred to as
baba,
swami,
guru,
shastri,
bapu or
bhagat. Many of them claim to have magic or psychic powers and perform miracles. There are also female gurus. Many of them are worshiped by their followers as
avatars or living gods. To prevent this disaster, the
manglik person is first married to a tree, an animal, or an inanimate object, so that the purported evil effects of the
mangala dosha befall on the mock "spouse".
Lemons Lemons are generally considered as a counter weapon to a "mantra" which is a spell that can be also used for trickery or evil. Some Hindu people also carry lemons while travelling so that they cannot fall under the spell of a "mantra" of a stranger. According to the
nimbu totka or
nimbu mirchi totka superstition, hanging a lemon strung with seven
chili peppers wards off
evil spirits and
Alakshmi, the Hindu goddess of misfortune. People hang lemons and chillies - sometimes with a piece of coal - outside their homes and shops, or in their vehicles. According to one explanation, the superstition may be based on the belief that beneficial
Vitamin C from the lemon and the chillies is released into the air, and that their odor can repel insects and other pests. Lemons and coconuts are used in Hindu rituals called
pooja.
Government of India frequently performs Hindu rituals on vehicles, computer and electronic equipment, airplanes, jetplanes and weapons. Breaking a coconut in such
pooja is also common. Hindus do
Shastra pooja which is goddess worship is performed on weapons.
Solar and lunar eclipses There are several superstitions associated with
solar eclipses. Solar eclipses are associated with war, violent events and disasters. Any cooked food is considered to have become impure during the event; they are thrown away or given to beggars. People don't eat or cook food during the event. Other people also avoid venturing outside. It is believed that the sun rays become toxic during the event and a bath must be taken after the event. Similar beliefs exist around
lunar eclipses, where food is avoided and people refrain from venturing outside. Rationalist organisations have been trying to eradicate these superstitions by organising events during eclipses, where people are encouraged to drink water and eat food.
Vastu This is a superstition common in
Hinduism which defines how a house or a building should be constructed and how the orientation and direction and location of rooms and doors should be arranged. Many construction companies in India construct buildings according to it.
Hindus follow
vastu and they believe that bad things happen in their life or deterioration of their health or disputes with others are due to
vastu doshas or defects and they try hard to remedy those defects by altering living space or with other things which counter the effects of
vastu.
Vastu is similar to
Feng shui in China but with more psychological implications for not following
vastu correctly.
Notable persons and incidents • Originally from Sri Lanka,
Swami Premananda moved to India in 1984 and founded an
ashram in
Pudukkotai, Tamil Nadu, in 1989. In view of the so-called spiritual powers of the accused, which included doing miracles like materializing
vibhuti and regurgitating small Shiva
lingams, an
illusionist was invited to the court and he performed both the miracles in the open court. In 1997, the Swami was sentenced to life imprisonment and fined
lakh for 13 counts of rape and a murder. •
Chandraswami, astrologer and spiritual guru, was a close associate of former Prime Minister
Narasimha Rao. He was indicted in several lawsuits including in the assassination of Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi. In 2011, the
Supreme Court of India fined him
crore ( million) for multiple violations of the
Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA). • In December 2002,
Santosh Madhavan defrauded an Indian
expatriate woman living in
Dubai of (
lakh) by claiming he had supernatural powers, and disappeared. The
Interpol issued an alert for his arrest on the advice of
Dubai police. Later in 2008, his photograph was recognized by the woman in a magazine and she realized that the person was living in
Kochin pretending to be a godman called Swami Amritha Chaitanya. On learning of the Interpol alert, he denied the allegations, but the local police were suspicious and decided to search his properties. The police discovered CDs containing child porn from the premises. He was convicted of raping under-aged children and sentenced to 16 years of imprisonment in May 2009. • In August 2002, when
psychic surgeon Reverend Alex Orbito visited
Bangalore from Philippines, some
rationalists filed a case in the city court. The city court declared
psychic surgery to be a trick and ordered the organizers to stop the event. The organizers ignored the order and decided to go ahead. The court ordered arrests for contempt of court but Alex Orbito evaded arrest and escaped from the country. Bangalore police has stated that there are no plans to extradite him but he will be arrested if he tries to return to Bangalore. his blindly trusting devotees learned about the true nature and practices at the ashram. In his ashrams, there were many types of abuses occurring in the name of being a true devotee. Underage girls were sexually abused. After being caught, he was sentenced to life. • Chintaharan Chauhan, an Indian man, dressed as a bride for 30 years in order to ward off illness and death from his family. He claimed that several people from his family started dying after his wife committed suicide when he left her. He thought that his wife's death was the reason behind the deaths in his family; therefore, he decided to dress as a bride in order to keep his wife alive within him, and stop the continuous series of deaths.
Criticism Sanal Edamaruku, president of the
Indian Rationalist Association, has criticized TV channels for broadcasting shows featuring godmen. Narendra Nayak, president of
Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, has stated that politicians patronizing godmen serves to sanction superstitions of the general public. Nayak has also debunked several so-called miracles of godmen like
psychic surgery, materializing
vibhuti, money, jewelry, and
fire eating. He travels through villages demonstrating the tricks behind these miracles.
Witch-hunts Some people, mostly in villages, have the belief that
witchcraft and
black magic (kala-jaadu) are effective. This prompts some to seek advice from witch doctors for health, financial or marital problems. Unfortunately, others, especially women, are accused of witchcraft, attacked, and occasionally killed. According to reports, widows or divorcees tend to be targeted to rob them of their property. Revered village witch-doctors are paid to brand specific persons as witches, so that they can be killed without repercussions. The existing laws have been ineffective in curbing the murders. In June 2013, the
National Commission for Women (NCW) reported that according to
National Crime Records Bureau statistics, 768 women had been murdered for allegedly practicing witchcraft since 2008. Alongside this, they announced plans for newer, more stringent laws.
Recent cases Between 2001 and 2006, an estimated 300 people were killed in the state of
Assam. In October 2003, three women were branded as witches and humiliated, afterwards they all committed suicide in Kamalpura village in
Muzaffarpur district in Bihar. Between 2005 and 2010, about 35 witchcraft related murders reportedly took place in
Odisha's
Sundergarh district. In August 2013, a couple were hacked to death by a group of people in
Kokrajhar district in Assam. In September 2013, in the
Jashpur district of
Chhattisgarh, a woman was murdered and her daughter was raped on the allegation that they were practicing black magic. ==Incidents==