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| Hindu yoga guru claims homosexuality can be cured ? |
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The television guru whose yoga programmes are watched by an estimated 85 million people throughout the world, made the claim in an appeal to the overturn a ruling last week which legalised homosexuality. He has warned he will launch nationwide protests if the ruling is not struck down and said all of India's main religions regarded homosexual acts as sins
In his petition, he argued that homosexuality was a curable disease and that sufferers could seek a cure. "It can be treated like any other congenital defect. Such tendencies can be treated by yoga, pranayam and other meditation techniques," he said.
Pranayam are a series of breathing exercises which include hyperventilation, a slow release of breath while chanting "Om". His followers have said there are particular yoga positions which also help prevent sexual urges. The overturning of India's law criminalising homosexuality was welcomed by India's gay community and by campaigners, including several leading designers and Bollywood stars.
But it was condemned by Muslim, Christian and Hindu leaders in India. Baba Remdev, who counts senior government ministers among his devotees, issued a particularly strong response. In his petition he compared homosexuals to "other anti-social groups", and said legalisation would have a "negative effect" on the young, while increasing the prevalence of HIV/Aids.
"These are unnatural acts not designed for human beings. The decision of the High Court, if allowed to sustain will have catastrophic effects on the moral fabric of society and will jeopardise the institution of marriage itself. This offends the structure of Indian value system, Indian culture and traditions, as derived from religious scriptures," it said.
Swami Ramdev remains extraordinarily popular despite a number of controversies surrounding his own ayurvedic medicines. In 2006, a leading Communist MP claimed laboratory tests revealed human and animal remains in his herbal treatments. Other tests supported his denial, but the popularity of his medicines grew regardless. He has also drawn criticism for his claims that yoga and ayurvedic medicines can ease the symptoms of HIV/Aids and cure cancer. His petition was filed as gay activists extended their campaign for equality in other areas of social life. A young couple in Haryana defied their families to stage India's first gay wedding in a Hindu temple.
Dean Nelson @telegraph.co.uk on 08 Jul 2009
Baba Ramdev is all set to move the Supreme Court against the recent Delhi High Courts ruling that legalizes gay sex which according to him goes against Indian culture.
While anal sex (poom maithun) has been in passing declared deviant by Vedic texts as its believed to unbalance the fine vital currents coursing through the nervous system thereby bringing about all sorts of mental disorders that in several cases may lead to a possession of the homosexual concerned by adverse spirits, the stress in the Vedic literature is more on preventing unnatural sexual unions like pratilom� (hypogamy) and sagotra (inbreeding) relationships with strict punishments prescribed for those indulging in these perverse eugenic practices that are said to lead to the birth of psycho-genetically abnormal persons .
Baba Ramdev's claim that homosexuality is "curable" is a myth as in most cases if the tendency is due to a genetic mutation that's hardwired into the brain circuitry then it is irreversible. Hypnosis or auto-suggestion therapy is superficially effective in a few cases. If at all the Baba's claim is based upon some old Vedic text then the case of a male displaying effeminate and gay tendencies has, from this scriptural perspective, more to do with "possession" by a "disembodied" female "spirit" who seeks to fulfill her unsatisfied sexual urges through the possessed male that, it is said, if exorcized, frees the concerned male of both his exaggerated feminine as well as homosexual traits and vice versa for lesbians. I wonder what his theory on bisexuality is.
While gays constitute a mere 2% of the Indian population, the birth of hypogamous and inbred individuals in society account for a far higher figure. If the Baba is serious about propagating original Indic values, then apart from seeking to abolish gay sex he ought to vigourlessly take up the case of outlawing hypogamous and inbred relationships even more seriously. But, here, he wont find support from the law, non-Hindus or liberal Hindus who have done away with caste-based marital rules. In fact, several states seek to promote hypogamous marriages by monetarily rewarding those couples who enter into hypogamous relationships and besides there exists no law banning intra-gotra marriages.
The point with contemporary gurus like Baba Ramdev is that they, without possessing in the least the lofty spiritual credentials, tend to equate themselves with the illustrious ancient or modern rishis (Bharadwaj, Valmiki, Vashista, Kapila, Shankara, Aurobindo, Ramanna and others) when all that they �re capable of is bookish talk that has nothing to do with the actual yogic experiences when spoken of in a profound mystical sense. As such Baba Ramdev and other Vedic imitators should stick to peddling their exorbitantly charged sessions on mundane yogic postures and marketing of their run of the mill Ayurvedic potions instead of posing as great champions of Vedic values.
Dr A K Isaacs
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