Posted: May 01, 2010 11:02 am
So - the first time I meet my (future) father-in-law, he comes to stay with us in Bombay. Me a little nervous... not knowing how Indian parents can be (or rather knowing, and hoping in this case it won't be as bad as that..haha!). Anyway, I have to spend a couple of weekdays alone with him while my boyfriend is at work, so it's just me and 'Papa' at home.
I had always known he had his own very weird beliefs, but I had no idea *what* they were! He's not a hindu, something different that he has made up on his own. He has his own 'spirit' that advises him (he makes all sorts of weird movements and mumbles silent stuff when he's consulting him), and.. get this... this deity is a snake... from... oh yes... Atlantis! Anyway, he gets told all sorts of things you have to do to affect particular events in your life (the snake tells him what exactly) - like take coins you have 'charged' with your bad energy and give them to a begger, or burn incense and put a bit of the ash on your tongue and forehead while repeating a mantra, or eat dried fruit you have done rituals over... all that kind of stuff.
But it got really loopy when he told me that this snake fellow is helping to bring about the destruction of all mankind - full on End Times stuff. We all have to pray to him to be one of the 144 lakh (144,000) that will be saved (talk about mixing up yer woo!) and there will be bodies everywhere afterwards so it will be tough! It's nothing to do with being a good person, it's only if you beleeeeve! He said Hitler was a good person, just doing god's will killing off people that had to die anyway (I'm not sure how he explains the fact that the End didn't happen in their projected natural lifetimes). Yikes... Hitler a good guy? At this point... I am freaking out inside and feeling pretty upset, but I can't say anything - I've only just met him. Plus - this is India - it's just a whole different ballgame!
There was funny stuff too - like a little girl that always sits on his lap or shoulder talking to him all the time - and he can see her. Okay
Whatever you say. Does she go to the loo with you as well?? And the best was that the aurora borealis is caused by a race of creatures that are deep down inside the core of the planet... and they have a hole at the north pole that lets the light out and causes the aurora. Yep.. oh boy. Sigh... Brian Cox would love it 
So of course, I didn't start believing as he hoped, and in fact, my (now) husband discovered science and became an atheist, which his Dad said was more hurtful than when his wife died!!
Actually, he doesn't even really know he's an atheist - he just knows he won't do all the meaningless ritual anymore, and that is bad. 
I'll never forget those days though... I've never heard anything like it. It was very unnerving.
I had always known he had his own very weird beliefs, but I had no idea *what* they were! He's not a hindu, something different that he has made up on his own. He has his own 'spirit' that advises him (he makes all sorts of weird movements and mumbles silent stuff when he's consulting him), and.. get this... this deity is a snake... from... oh yes... Atlantis! Anyway, he gets told all sorts of things you have to do to affect particular events in your life (the snake tells him what exactly) - like take coins you have 'charged' with your bad energy and give them to a begger, or burn incense and put a bit of the ash on your tongue and forehead while repeating a mantra, or eat dried fruit you have done rituals over... all that kind of stuff.
But it got really loopy when he told me that this snake fellow is helping to bring about the destruction of all mankind - full on End Times stuff. We all have to pray to him to be one of the 144 lakh (144,000) that will be saved (talk about mixing up yer woo!) and there will be bodies everywhere afterwards so it will be tough! It's nothing to do with being a good person, it's only if you beleeeeve! He said Hitler was a good person, just doing god's will killing off people that had to die anyway (I'm not sure how he explains the fact that the End didn't happen in their projected natural lifetimes). Yikes... Hitler a good guy? At this point... I am freaking out inside and feeling pretty upset, but I can't say anything - I've only just met him. Plus - this is India - it's just a whole different ballgame!
There was funny stuff too - like a little girl that always sits on his lap or shoulder talking to him all the time - and he can see her. Okay
Whatever you say. Does she go to the loo with you as well?? And the best was that the aurora borealis is caused by a race of creatures that are deep down inside the core of the planet... and they have a hole at the north pole that lets the light out and causes the aurora. Yep.. oh boy. Sigh... Brian Cox would love it So of course, I didn't start believing as he hoped, and in fact, my (now) husband discovered science and became an atheist, which his Dad said was more hurtful than when his wife died!!
Actually, he doesn't even really know he's an atheist - he just knows he won't do all the meaningless ritual anymore, and that is bad. I'll never forget those days though... I've never heard anything like it. It was very unnerving.