Tuesday 8 November 2011

Different Strokes-Astrology and Spirituality KVRKBhargav


Different Strokes- Astrology and Spirituality
By KVRK Bhargav

(Bhargav is a student of Swami who after completing his B.Tech in Textile Engineering graduated with an MBA from the the Sri Sathya Sai University in 2001. Ever since, he has had the great fortune of waiting for Swami’s direct guidance. He has been blessed with many interactions with Swami and he pursues astrology as a hobby to understand how it complements and dovetails spirituality. He shares his insights on how the planets are not causes of fear; rather they all serve the common goal of prodding man towards his spiritual destiny of Self Realization).


What controls the life of an individual, Free will or destiny? The debate continues. Astrology tries to answer this question. Astrology or jyotish is considered the eye of the Vedas and the highest limb that was taught in ancient India as a preparation for understanding the Vedas from a scientific point of view. The blue print of the life of an individual in a particular lifetime is carefully preserved by Almighty in a horoscope which comprises destiny. This can be understood in three ways.
The first approach is that destiny is what we come into this world with, and how we shape it is our free will.  Swami explains this with a beautiful analogy. Consider a chain of ants moving on the ground; by seeing their movements, we can ascertain their position after some time depending on their speed and direction of motion. But if they decide to change their direction in the middle then it will change the destination of the ants. The initial movement of ants is the destiny and change in the middle is free will. The individual in this approach tries to know the hurdles and bottlenecks in his horoscope and tries to take corrective action like worship and charity to mitigate the ill effects of the planets. In this approach the individual is myopic and concerned only about the short term gains, forgetting the real purpose of life.   
The second approach throws light on our purpose in this life. The individual consciously exercises his free will to fulfill the purpose of life trying to align himself with his destiny. Now let me explain the nitty-gritty of this approach with an example. We get a clue of what we are good at or what we have developed in previous births by seeing the placement of planet ‘Ketu’ and, the purpose of our incarnation by using these skills developed in the previous births from the placement of the planet ‘Rahu’. Mahatma Gandhi was born with the innate strengths of assertiveness, pioneering nature, initiative and leadership as in the sign of Aries, the ram, but his purpose was to create harmony, balance, truthfulness and justice as in the case of Libra, the scales.   The remaining planets fine-tune our nature and character to achieve that purpose.
The third perspective takes the standpoint to the highest level. It states that whatever happens to us in this life is destiny but it is purely in our control (free will) to be affected or unaffected by it.  As Ramana Maharishi puts it beautifully: he says that pain is inevitable, but suffering borne out of the pain is optional- which according to him, is the only free will which we have. Bhagwan Baba puts it very aptly as: Navagrahas cannot affect you if you have Anugraha(grace of the lord).We get a deeper understanding of our strengths and weaknesses by studying our horoscopes. We also understand that whoever behaves in whatever way is due to the placement of planets in his horoscope. A strong Mars makes a person short tempered, a weak moon results in fickleness and timidity. A strong Venus gives a pleasure seeking nature and a strong Saturn makes a person altruistic and austere. This understanding gives us a sense of freedom and purpose as we learn to forgive ourselves and others. We are at complete peace as we realize that everything happens by the will of God. Astrology helps us to understand the grand design of God. Astrology allows a deeper tolerance of circumstances and allows us to understand the unity of life through reading the beauty of God’s laws and oneness of consciousness. It is a science based on nine planets and twelve zodiac signs and a complex tapestry made out of them.
(…..To be continued in the next issue of Venugaanam)

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