Monsoon

09:00
Will it ever stop raining? Today the law against "unnatural sexual intercourses" has been amended, it was used mainly against homosexuals by the police and the court. The sexual minorities are celebrating in the street. Some traditionalists Hindus react in today's paper, like Baba Ramdev, a "spiritual father" famous for making up new yoga techniques to prevent hairloss or make your marriage happier: "These gays are sick people and should be sent to hospitals. Then they can marry or stay bachelors just like me". Deep.




20:00
I meet Rahul on the train, he takes me to the ISKCON temple (International Society for Krishna CONsciousness) where he's late for the lecture. A beautiful temple of fine Rajashtani architecture, which you don't find much in Mumbai. All the monks are graduates and often have a scientifical background. Having done High studies and a year working experience are required to become a monk here. Their belief in the soul and in rebirth are founded upon scientifical explanations, or at least they provide scientifical answers where science can't. Something most religions do anyway. The cells in a human body are constantly regenerating, and every 7 years the cells of our body are completely different from the ones 7 years back. Therefore, asks the monk, how can we say that we are still the same person, bearing the same name et having the same habits, wishes and desires? A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, main prophet of the Krishna faith, responds that the fact that we remain the same person can only be explained by the presence of an immortal soul, which resides in our body and move within it. The same soul will leave the body at the time of death to go around looking for another one.