Animal signs

Understanding animal signs was an ancient science. In those days people lived in very close quarters with animals, both domesticated and wild. Hence they had opportunity to understand the animal signs clearly and related it to understanding the environment better.

For eg. when does dragonfly fly a lot..? when there's a lot of moisture in air and about to rain. So simple.

When lizards make sound, they do either to avoid fighting or for courtship. In either case they are asking for their acceptance. So when people say something and lizard makes sound, people mis-interpret it as acceptance. lizards make sound asking for acceptance.

We also had various beliefs in the past based on our environment at that time. You are not supposed to hit on top of the head (it means you are unprotected and face death). You are not supposed to wave off with your right hand (lakshmi will leave you), but you can do so with left hand or left foot (poverty leaves you). You are not supposed to hit your chest or thighs as it indicates death happened in the family. a lot of beliefs like these which had some basis from their own lives.

Now when lizard falls on the body you will throw it off by hitting that body part.  Hence if lizard falls on head, it is death (you hit the head). if it falls on right/left hand, you wave off right/left hand, you lose lakshmi/poverty and if it falls on chest or thigh you hit them, death is going to happen.  So gauli shastra simply comes from this.

Why did the beliefs on body parts come up..? They came from their work environment.

Thus every belief has an origin of rationality but becomes a matter of faith due to change in our environment.

Not just lizards, birds, cattle, insects can share with human beings a lot of information on their understanding of environment, if we know how to read it. Human beings lived in very close quarters with plants and animals in the early stages of civilization, gleamed a lot of their behavioral signs, which they transferred to their next generations. As human beings slowly lost touch with living in close quarters with plants and animals, they could not appreciate this knowledge fully.

What starts as rational understanding transforms to sentimental and emotional knowledge and from then on slips on to faith and superstition.