long ago. I myself am an astrologer and also calculated the right time when you should appear with us.

- Truth? What did the soothsayer say about me?

“He said you would come and marry my daughter. And I've been waiting for you for a long time.

- Truth?

Narada thought deeply. At that moment, the girl again entered the room with a glass of water, and Narada gave her an appraising look - good, you can’t say anything. Maybe, indeed, all this is already predetermined? You can't go against fate. After all, Kali Yuga is in the yard. Well, who can remain a real brahmachari? Eh, was not where ours did not disappear. It's not all that bad. Is it worth it to pretend? Well, if all this is foretold, then let's do it.

No sooner said than done. On the right day they played a wedding, and family life began with all its joys and hardships.

So the recommendations of non-professional astrologers are able to justify the secret desires of a person who held on and strengthened with all his might, but, having heard that this was his fate, lost the last support on which his mind rested. Without such support, the mind becomes strong and the senses go out of control. Therefore, before talking about the fate of a person, you need to understand whether this will help strengthen the mind or only destroy desire. resist sinful tendencies. An astrologer should make a person stronger, more exalted, more spiritual, and not open the way to hell for him, saying that the path of sin is predicted by the stars, and therefore there is no point in resisting him. So modern astrologers can easily say that your marriage is hopeless, because the stars speak of your incompatibility, so you need to immediately look for a new candidate. These are not just false astrologers, they are Maya's servants who help people take their first step into the bottomless abyss of sin and vice.

Soon Narada's first child was born. Worries have increased. Narada had to work hard to provide for her family. Some time later, his father-in-law died. It was necessary to bury the old man in accordance with all the rules. Then another son was born, then a daughter. The elder began to grow up and went to school. When he was ten years old, a terrible drought broke out, and cattle fell. The wife fell ill and, after lying in bed for several months, died.

Narada's grief knew no bounds. He would not have been able to survive if it were not for the small children left in his care. After drought and famine, heavy rains began to pour, and the river that flowed through the village overflowed. One night, she became so angry that she demolished the entire village, including Narada's house. Miraculously, he managed to grab his children and climb onto a tall neem tree that grew in their yard, but the elements did not let up, the water kept coming, his little daughter was crying in his arms, in the end, terrible waves carried off his sons, and they drowned at before his eyes, crying plaintively and calling for help from his father. But the father could not do anything - he had a daughter in his arms, whom he could not leave. At that moment, a boat was passing by, he decided to take the opportunity and grabbed the boat, threw the girl into it, but the boat escaped from his hands and was carried away in the stream along with the crying girl. In desperation, Narada threw himself into the water, and a turbulent stream carried him, but then he became afraid, and he began to look for something to grab onto. At that moment, a log floated by, shouting "Krishna, save me!" he grasped the log tightly shutting his eyes, at that moment suddenly everything was quiet, and Narada opened his eyes and saw that he was holding on to the yellow dhoti of Krishna.

This world is arranged like a whirlpool. No matter how pleasant it is to swim on its edge, the water gradually sucks the swimmer into the center, the speed of the water flow increases, the waves become higher, fear overshadows consciousness, it becomes darker and darker, at some point it becomes clear that it is simply impossible to break out, and only then does a person turn to God for help. And in this state, a person comes to an astrological consultation, so the task of an astrologer is not to inspire a person to fight this whirlpool on his own, using various economic methods and Vedic tricks from the karma-kanda section, such as pleasing the demigods or the rulers of the planets. The task of an astrologer is to be a representative of God, who helps a person turn to someone who is really able to save him from this hopeless situation. Without talking about God, you can deprive a person of the last chance for salvation, which means that you can actually drown him in the ocean of illusions with your own hands. Therefore, I would recommend that the price of the consultation immediately include the price of the Bhagavad Gita, which should be given to a person, as a book that can solve all his problems. Maybe the astrologer will not have time to tell everything about God, but the Bhagavad Gita left in his hands will be able to do it in the best possible way.

So Narada looked up and saw Krishna's sympathetic smile:

- Did you call me? By the way, what about the water? You wanted to bring Me a glass. I keep waiting.

Narada, embarrassed at having dozed off, got up from the ground and ran towards the village. In the village, the door was opened by the same girl.

What do you want, traveler?

— Воды, glass of water. And faster.

“Perhaps you will come into the house and take a break from the road?”

- No, I only need water for Krishna and nothing else. A glass of water and I'm leaving.

- Are you sure about this?

— Absolutely. Just a glass of water for Krishna. I don't need anything else.

So the astrologer must explain to a person what really makes him happy. Psychologists have been studying the relationship between money and happiness for decades. But they came to the conclusion that a person, thinking in this way, does not become happy, but stumbles over his desire to become happy through wealth. The general conclusion is that money makes people happier only when it allows them to move from humiliating poverty to the middle class; beyond this stage, wealth does not have a noticeable effect on human happiness. This is also stated in the Bhagavad-gita: one must perform one's duties for the sake of maintaining oneself and those who are from me depends. And this must be done in a practical and reasonable way. But maintenance alone is not enough.

Not only the Bhagavad Gita, but modern psychology is starting to run counter to economic theory, which says that the most important commodity we can buy with extra money is choice. If you have 500 rubles in your pocket, you can choose between a full breakfast or a glass of kefir with an apple, and if you have only 10 rubles in your pocket, you can only be content with a glass of tea, and then, perhaps, without sugar. The extra money supposedly makes it possible to satisfy additional desires of a person, and the more desires are satisfied, the happier, according to economists, we should be.

However, a serious problem has arisen. Research shows that choice is not a panacea for happiness. For example, a person likes to choose one type of pasta from 5 different types in a supermarket, but offer him 108 types of pasta, and a person is exhausted to death, making a choice, and after buying something, he will become even more worried that he made the wrong choice. Yes, there should be a choice, but the secret of a happy life is not in the expansion of choice.

Yes, a person becomes a little happier when he has a choice, but when there is a lot of choice, happiness does not increase, rather, the effect of a new level of suffering appears. Moreover, the growing income generates new demands that do not correspond to the real needs of the person. And to satisfy them, you have to waste time, which is not enough even to perform basic duties.

So what conclusion did the scientists come to? And besides, as in the Bhagavad-gita: as soon as the initial needs of a person are satisfied, it is not a growing income that brings happiness, but good social relations and satisfaction from activities, the achievement of a goal, a sense of meaning in life and belonging to an exalted culture.

But the conclusions did not end there, further is even more interesting. Psychologists were surprised when they analyzed the incomes of happy and unhappy people. Yes, money can't buy happiness, but happiness can help bring additional income. People who consider themselves happy, as a rule, earn more over time compared to those who constantly cry about their miserable lot. The feeling of happiness makes a person more practical, productive and proactive. In addition, people who are satisfied with their lives are more likely not only to marry, but also to live their whole lives together.

Parable 3 HOW TO SEE GOD'S PLAN?

Astrology is not an ordinary science, which aims to disassemble some element of material nature into its components, and it does not matter whether it