Astrology, it is the ‘in-thing’ resurgent since the last decade or two. Top credit should go to our celebrities for turning Astrology in vogue. Celebs donning multiple coloured stones, projects starting with specific letters, famous people changing how they spell their names (guilty!), astro talk shows, all have contributed to this surge.
Hard to believe that just a generation back, birthdates were not documented properly. Indian villages are full of people born through the 50’s and 60’s with birthdates mysteriously falling on the 1st of June. Well, no real mystery here, it’s more a mark of education. All those having birthdates on 1st of June, have attended school in one form or the other.
Cut to today, birth dates and birth times are recorded to the second. And an increasing number prospective parents are ‘planning‘ an auspicious birth time for their future offsprings. Epidurals are the new yagnya-samagri for observing the ‘shubh’ mahurat.
How did we get here?
Well, the key attraction of astrology is: It tells you, your future. Along with the curiosity it generates, it catalogues our innermost desires. From material possessions, cars, houses, property, to abstract ideas of education, sports performance, to life essentials of job, money, marriage etc. Astrology covers the entire gamut of the human experience.
But, is anybody really understanding Astrology ?
Astrology is part of the larger Indian tradition like Yoga.
At the surface Yoga is an exercise science, some may view it as a fancy body stretching routine. But then, why invoke the sage Patanjali at the start of every Yoga session? Because, Yoga, corresponds to an idea of ‘the way of life’. Take a deep dive into yoga, you will find guidance for everything, when to sleep, when to wake up, what to eat, when to eat, when to practice yoga, what stages to practice it in. It even delves into controlling your thoughts, it’s about focus, it’s about an attitude towards life. An apt sentence enlightening us about Yoga is, “If a person’s reason succumbs to the pull of senses, the person is lost”. Yoga is pushing the human toward control over the pull of the senses.
In general, all Indian traditions are a wholesome reflection on life. No philosophical thought is in isolation, it tries to cover all aspects of life.
Astrology should be looked in a similar vein. As a non practitioner of Astrology, from the outside I can guarantee one thing, Astrology is not merely about revealing the future. You need to look at the philosophical roots of Astrology. The theory it subscribes to at large can be considered as the Karmic philosophy of life – Every action, creates Karma, every Karma creates a consequence. Life is a cycle of Karma.
Astrology takes the whole idea of birth and re-birth very seriously. Every Astrological chart lists out a ‘balance dasha’ from a previous life. Ideally, the Astrologer must explain the idea of karma, to create an understanding about the current state of person. This is a very torturous idea. It makes a person responsible for their actions, the burden of responsibility for one’s life is immense. And it is through this understanding that a person can improve their own life.
Instead, modern Astrology, takes the easier route, prescribes donning stones, offering puja’s, and circumvents the entire ‘understanding’ process.
This is a huge disservice to the philosophy of Astrology.
Astrology or any Indian philosophy, is devised as a tool for greater understanding of the scary concept of ‘life’. Understanding depends on the intellectual capacity and intellectual wisdom of a person. (later we may go into the difference between intellectual capacity and wisdom).
And in the case of astrology as it is practiced now, the intellect of two people is at stake, the reader, and the listener.
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