#005 FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS AND GAMBLING

To those who are celebrating the Festival of Lights: "Pl. accept my best wishes".

In some parts of India, there is a custom of going for a binge of gambling, often using playing cards, with stakes. There is another painful method of gambling in business circles. It is speculating on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange.

More forms of gambling are quite rampant Nationwide. Betting on Cricket. Cock fighting. Betting on car numbers. Betting on election results. There is nothing unfit for betting.

Here is a small old anecdote. A worried father of a student approached his school headmaster and requested him to cure his son of the dirty habit of betting on everything. The Headmaster promised him that he would do it in no time.

The next day, the Headmaster phoned the student's father and invited him to see his son being taught a lesson.

The Headmaster entered into a bet of Rs. 100 with the boy, who said that he (Headmaster) had an abcess on his back, whereas there was no such abcess in fact. The Headmaster thought that the boy would certainly lose his bet and in future he would not gamble.

The next day the father went to Headmaster's Chamber along with the boy. The Headmaster opened his shirt and banian to show his back. The father and the boy found that the Headmaster did not have any abcess on his back. The boy accepted that he lost the bet and paid the Headmaster the agreed Rs. 100/-. The Headmaster was overjoyed and informed the father that the boy was cured.

The father was unhappy and sighed. The boy bet Rs. 500/- with his father that he (the boy) would get his Headmaster open his shirt and banian and stand semi naked. The father believed that the Headmaster was very stiff and strict and the boy would fail. But the boy played the game of losing with the Headmaster a small sum of Rs. 100/- and winning bigger sum of Rs. 500/- (Net Profit Rs. 400/-).

This may probably be called "hedging" in Investment and Finance Circles.

The dirty habit of gambling, many people know to be prevalent from Mahabharata days. But, I must inform my readers that it is prevalent even during the Vedic Period. The Atharvana Veda, Book 7, Chapter 10, Verse 109 contains seven chants intended to secure success and wealth in gambling. I am presenting all the seven chants to interested readers at my blog Atharvanavedayb.blogspot.com. Here is the link: AtharvanaVedaYb.BlogSpot.Com.

Las Vegas is famous for global gambling. The investments made by American gambling firms in China (Makau Island), yearly is more than total foreign investments received by India in all other areas every year. The third richest person in US, Head of an American gambling firm has visited India recently to explore business opportunities. Goa, a tiny State on the Western Coast of India, is setting up some parks for global gambling.

Hence India will take off to gambling. Of course, Hindus will also. Hail!