It is said that "Agastya's Leaf," a book of prophecies about life left by a sage named Agastya over 2000 years ago, originated in South India. I happened to have a connection, and I was told that I could find my own leaf in Bangalore, so I went to look for it. Each person's prophecy is written on a single leaf (or rather, a board), and the one that matches the index is the person's leaf.
First, my right thumbprint was taken. Women apparently use their left hand. Then, an elderly man holding a bundle of leaves asked me questions like, "Were you born in the month of ○○?" while searching for the leaf (or board) that suited me. After several minutes of checking whether it matched the index, ...
If there are many, then at least some of them will be correct... I thought. But within about 5 minutes, about half of the first bundle, she hit on things like: "Were you born in month ○?" Yes. "Were you born in year ○?" Yes. "Is your father's name ○○?" Yes! "Is your mother's name ○○?" Yes! She quickly hit on things like my brother's occupation, my current occupation... my birth time... and then she quickly found my leaf.
Some people take hours to find it, so it seems like I had a very good combination of factors.
She answers simple questions on the spot.
"You will live past ○○ years old."
"You will get married between ○○ and ○○ years old" (Apparently, there are sometimes notes in the later report with the wife's name).
"You will have ○ children, and the composition of your children will be..."
"What will your financial luck be like?"
"What will happen with your job?"
"You will become independent at age ○."
"You will be involved in a ○○-related business at age ○."
"It will be a business with connections to many countries."
"Approximately how many employees will you have?"
"Will you have any major illnesses?"
Things like that came up, and many of them were things I hadn't expected or known about, so I thought, "Wow, is this really happening?" I paid the fortune-telling fee of 2,000 Rupees (approximately 3,400 yen) + 100 Rupees (170 yen) for the English translation, and decided to have her create a detailed report. It will be an English report of about 6 to 10 pages, and it will be ready in about a week. I decided to wait for the details.
It seems that if you go without an introduction, it costs 5,000 Rupees (approximately 9,000 yen), but I was able to have it done at a friend's price (about 1/3) because I was referred. There's a rumor that going on a tour from Japan to South India costs 60,000 yen.
It is not my leaf, but it is written in something like ancient Tamil.
This photo? Or painting? The person depicted is supposedly the saint "Agastya."
I heard that he was a person who was quite short.
It's not necessarily accurate, but it's rumored that it accurately predicts the month of a husband's death, the year of a major illness, or the year of marriage, and has a high degree of credibility.
There are many things that don't apply, but things like this are quite fun.
You rarely see Agastya's leaves in Japan.
I'm looking forward to the week after the report is completed.
■ The results of the "Agastya's leaf" reading are out.
I was told that the results would be available on Saturday, so I went last Saturday,
but I was told, "It's not ready yet. Please come next Saturday."
This is a typical situation in India (laugh).
So, I went to pick it up again yesterday, and it was ready.
This old man had the contents of the Agastya leaf written down on paper for me.
The page on the right seems to be in Tamil, while the left page is written in difficult-to-read English handwriting.
It's a total of a little over 20 pages.
About 10 pages are in English.
There's a section called "General" (number 1) which is a life overview, and it's about 5 pages long.
I also requested information about "Business" (number 10), which is about 5 pages long.
The handwriting is beautiful but difficult to decipher (laughs).
It also uses some Indian words (like "krole"), so it would be even harder for travelers to understand.
I was able to read and interpret about 95% of it, but there are some words I don't understand at all.
Well, I don't think it will have a major impact.
Most of it is good, and it makes you wonder if it's really about me (laughs).
In any case, this paper won't magically create my life, so it's just a guide.
It's up to me to make decisions and take action, so I think the benefits are in being able to pay attention to the points and events that I need to be careful about.
(Assuming it's accurate, of course).
It also mentions my future work, including things I'm trying to do, and says that those things are "possible" from my perspective and interests, so it's not entirely wrong (since anything is possible in the future).
I read in a previous blog that getting this done normally is expensive, but when I asked an Indian staff member at my company's office,
he said it would cost "tens of thousands of rupees" for a tour. So maybe it was reasonable.
I only had them look at sections 1 and 10, but a tour probably includes almost all the sections, so it might be a fair price if that's the case. It would be too expensive if it was just section 1 (General), which would cost 5-10 times more. I'm not sure about that, and I probably wouldn't have asked the staff member about it.
Still, it's surprising that it mentions things like getting married, even though I have no plans to get married and I'm not even that interested in it right now.
Is that really true? (laughs)
It also mentions building a house in Tokyo, which is possible, but I don't have any plans to do that right now. The direction of my business is also unclear.
Well, I'll just keep it for now and see if it's accurate in a year or two.
To be honest, it's written so far into the future that it's hard to tell if it's accurate.
It also mentions when I might have health problems and when my parents might pass away, which seems reasonable given their age.
It also mentions my brother, which might be true. I don't know.
Well, it was interesting, but it might not be very useful in the near future.
Either way, I need to live a normal life, otherwise this wonderful life will end without achieving its goals.
It's amazing that something like this existed 2000 or 5000 years ago.
Was my life already almost decided 2000-5000 years ago?
I believe that free will plays a big role, but even so, the general direction seems to be correct.
It's truly "Incredible India!"
Supplement:
"Incredible India" is a slogan used by the Indian tourism board to promote India.
It conveys the feeling of coming to India, where you'll find a mix of surprises and unexpected things!
Postscript:
I noticed that the age is off by a year.
It turns out that India counts age based on the counting year.
You need to subtract 1 year to get the Japanese age.
If that's the case, the age at which I'm supposed to return to Japan seems to be correct.
Postscript:
One of the staff members at my company's office apparently got this from somewhere else, and 70% of it was accurate.
That person was so scared that they said, "I don't want to know my future," and threw away the tape without listening to it.
(Apparently, they receive the results in the form of a tape at that place, not a written document).
That person was shocked because they lied about their name and birthdate, but the place still got their real name and destiny.
Postscript:
I suspect that the basic system of this Agastya leaf is as follows:
There is a lineage of people who can read the destiny of others through training. (This is probably true).
This lineage can read the destiny of not only people who are currently alive but also people in the future.
When reading the destiny of a person in the future, the lineage needs a clue as to whose destiny they are reading.
Coming to a temple or office-like place of Agastya and interacting with the staff while performing a kind of ritual is a clue.
Based on that clue, the lineage writes the destiny of the person in the future on a leaf (or a board).
Therefore, fate is not necessarily something predetermined, but rather "the fate at the moment a person arrives at the Agastya temple or office." As that person makes choices about their fate, fate continues to change.
The most accurate information is about the "past" fate, but if a person is not interested in the past, the leaves may not contain much information about it. The most recent fate is the most accurate, and the accuracy decreases as time passes from the date the Agastya leaves were found.
It is also presumed that there are many parts that are not written on the leaves. Those parts are supplemented by staff who work at the Agastya temple or office, who are actually priests. They inquire with a deity (the only way to describe it. It's like the guardian deity of the Shiba clan, and it's likely that the spirits of ancestors who have served the temple for generations are working behind the scenes) and fill in the information that is not on the leaves.
For about a week after I visited the office, I repeatedly felt a sensation of being probed in my abdomen (dan tien?), and each time, I felt very tired. I believe that the Shiba clan was investigating me and writing about my fate at that moment on the leaves.
This is my intuition, so it may or may not be accurate, but either way, I think that the result is the fate at the moment a person visits the Agastya temple or office, and that fate can change in any way afterward. It might go well, or it might not. Therefore, just because something is written on the Agastya leaves does not mean that it will automatically happen, and effort is necessary.