Hinduism does not condemn homosexuality
Published on: Monday, 6th July 2009 10:11 AM
By 
Administrator
Source: Rediff
The Hindu Council in United Kingdom on Friday welcomed the Delhi High Court's historic judgment, which decriminalised consensual homosexual relations, and said Hinduism does not condemn gay people.
"The British Hindu homosexual community will welcome the news that their brethren in India are now able to enjoy the same freedom as they do here," said Anil Bhanot, general secretary of Hindu Council UK.
Bhanot said the Hindu scripts describe the homosexual condition to be a "biological one, and although the scripture gives guidance to parents on how to avoid procreating a homosexual child, it does not condemn the child as unnatural."
"Hinduism prescribes 16 ceremonies to mark each major stage in one's life span. We would usually observe the birth, name, adolescence, marriage, retirement and death ceremonies but there is a little known ceremony called the 'insemination' ceremony or the Garbhadan Sanskaar, which I am sure nobody observes nowadays. This insemination ceremony talks about homosexuality," informed Bhanot.
The ancient saints or prophets advocated that there are two elements, fire (agni for sun) and water (soma for moon) which determine the sex of a child. "Of the 16 days from the end of the menstruation cycle, sexual intercourse for the purposes of procreation was forbidden on certain days as during these days the menses may continue," he said.
The theory goes that if insemination takes place in the night of an even number from six to 16, a male child will be born whilst on an odd number of fifth, seventh, ninth and 15th night, a female child will be born, Bhanot added.
Read more : Rediff