NEW DELHI, August 24, 2006: When Kauri Takasu, a Japanese tourist, decided to visit India to have her naadi-astrology read, she was emotionally surprised by the experience. Kauri explains, “Nowadays, there are many schools of astrology getting popular in Japan, but none that predicts with 100 per cent accuracy. When I came to know about it and naadi-shastra, I decided to come here to try and find out my leaf and to know more about my future.”
The news report explains, “Takasu’s palm leaf is among millions stored at various places, each one recording the fate of an individual. The preparation of the database is attributed to several Indian sages around 2000-3000 years ago, who then passed them on to their disciples. Written first in Sanskrit verses, the texts are cryptic and deciphering them is a discipline by itself, called ‘naadi-shastra’ (shastra: study). With time, as the scriptures passed hands to southern India, they were translated into Tamil by King Sarbhoji of Tanjore in the 14th century AD. As of now, most of the remaining scriptures are in Tamil, owned by members of the Valluvar family, now scattered all over India. All the ‘naadi-astrologer’ asks for is your thumb impression, figures out what ‘category’ it is, pulls out the corresponding leaf and starts rattling off your past, present and future.”
K.V.R. Ravichandran, a New Delhi based naadi-practitioner, said, “Most people have an earlier reluctance to believe in the authenticity of the discipline, because of the sheer simplicity of the whole proposition. It is just systematic database management. Thumb impressions of human beings are divided into 108 categories, a classification modern science agrees with. Once the category is figured out, it is just a matter of finding your entry, which might take anything between 10 minutes and 15 days. Apart from family members, we are willing to train whomever is interested and has faith in naadi. There is no need to advertise, which might erode the sanctity still associated with the discipline. Whoever has been destined to come to us and see his ‘naadi’ will find a way, no matter what.” (HPI adds: We don’t know the address of any naadi reader.)
Srinivasan, a stock market investor from Bangalore in southern Karnataka, was also amazed at his reading. The article explains, “When Ravichandran reeled off his past life correct to the minor hairline fracture he had in his thumb while playing basketball at age eight, he was left flabbergasted.”