DIALOGUES IN ASTROLOGY:02: If you want to believe it: Embrace it fully !

I seriously did not find any Muhurat to write this article. Why? you ask! well as India is known to launch its space missions based on astrology, so shouldn’t I write based on some auspicious planetary meeting (yog)? 

We all have observed rise of use of astrology as some panacea. Every odd person is Thanos with multiple rings on fingers yet is rendered powerless. Some worry about when will I meet ‘mere khwabon ki Mallika’ or ‘when will I get a child’, ‘job kab milega, promotion kab hoga’ etc… and to all this Astrolger (remember this term) says, “abhi yog banaa nahi” Ever wondered what this yog is? same as the famous stretching exercise known as Yoga?

Yog/yoga are all derived from the same root word which has to do with time. Yog in literal would mean a meeting or combination. Now you can apply those to Yoga or astrological Yog.  Yoga –exercise wala – is combination of various practices like breathing combined with certain precise body postures, while Yog –astrology wala – is combination of one or more planet with either other Grah, Rashi or Nakshtra.We will get into these names /terms later. One more thing common to both Yoga and  Astrology is that, inept understand will always result in erroneous understanding.

Yoga is more of spiritual practice, however,  the world has accepted it as some amazing top class exercise for whole body. There isn’t much wrong in this understanding but seeing yoga just as mere some exercise, is utter failure of the yoga. Spiritual practice is core of Yoga, because along with body the mind has to be toned into six packs too. The soul needs loads of conditioning, which yoga makes possible.

Our ages old knowledge is superficially understood. Even today in 21st century we haven’t scratched the surface of vast amount if knowledge left to us by Vedas (of which both Yog and Astrology belong to).

Yoga was discarded for very long as some hippie life, fashion fad. But it took years to make its own mark. Same goes for Astrology too. Mostly, they are pitched against modern science. 

I always wonder as to what is modern science is? And if we have something called as modern science then what is categorised as an ancient science? You will see famous Rationalists testing astrology in terms on modern science, as it should pass the test of repeatability, anybody should be able to use it, so on and so froth. When it fails these tests, it is branded as fake, not science worthy, mumbo jumbo and what not. My objection it is simple, why is ‘modern’ science testing used on astrology? 

When these sciences don’t hold water themselves. We all know there is nothing as so called science (okay okay may be Physics-we will come to it later) but rest are same pseudo practices be it Chemistry (which is not universal), Math is not science (it is just a tool) Biology, well corona as proved it is not science at all. Medical science is agreed common knowledge which works but again not universally. Penicillin which works for some doesn’t for others. Allergies, why they work the way work is still not understood.  Thus it doesn’t pass any test of repeatability, or simple to use either. 

Now lets see Physics: its principle based work, I give that, but again laid down rules don’t work on bumblebee (flight), water (anomalous behaviour), gravity (yes you read it right, it not same all over), lets not even mention Singularity, and the list goes on. 

All these things mentioned are usually brushed off as exceptions, but this rule of exception doesn’t apply to astrology. Say you have fever and you visit 5-10 doctors, each will have his own theory regarding your fever and prescribe some generic antibiotic, which will of course cure you, that’s how those medicines are designed to work (unfortunately you cannot design planets to work generically). Once you are cured you bless the doctor, if not you go another and the process repeats. But in no case you say medical science is not science. But when an astrologer (again keep this term in mind) makes an error, the blame goes to Astrology. 

Lets get some perspective. When you make a 5th Std kid solve MSc level Math and if he fails who is at fault ? the Kid? Math? or You?  Same goes with Astrology. Testing astrology with current science methods is like making 5th std kid solve MSc math. All in all what any thing that western master termed as science, will always fall short of understanding astrology. Same thing happened with Hinduism, when the invaders arrived in India, they attempted to understand it with their limited linear thought process, failed and termed Hinduism (the Vedas) as savagery, paganism and uncivilised. They called Indian civilisation,(the only continuous uninterrupted civilisation since bronze age) as mumbo jumbo. Sumerian, Egyptian, Persian, Aztec and many more civilisations came and vanished, Indian has remained and still continues to grow despite all. 

All this points to one single thing, we fail in our understanding (and I am not pointing to being patriotic, or running any agenda) and approaching these complex true sciences. Yes yoga is a  science and so is astrology. Just because its practitioners make mistake, doesn’t make the science worthless.If I can’t recite math tables, or make mistake in it, I am at fault and not Math. 

Same goes for the astrologer-yes we finally come to this term. Astrologer is one who interprets the so called planetary motions for us and predicts the  future, that makes him the one very important factor why astrology fails. What we all forget he is also under the influence of the same planets who hold our future. As much as astrology gains from astrologer, it suffers at its hands too. Astrologer makes the error and astrology gets blamed.

Astrology lays down rules for who can be an astrologer and what his conduct must be. These are the same dos and don’ts we see in other professions, like hygiene guidelines for surgeons. If he breaks them, patients suffers, same astrologers (almost 95%) break their laid rules and are bound to make mistakes. 

Lets delve in it a bit more. To  begin with we need to scrap the term Astrology. It is inferior to the actual word –Jyot-ish (again not driving patriotic agenda). The Indian meaning of this practice Jyotish is simple -Enlightenment. This is nothing to do  with predicting future, kab bachcha hoga, job kab milegaa where is my soulmate etc… To put it plainly its a way of life to make you understand your Karm. Everything else is bullshit (Yes I said it)

Jyotish is based on Karm theory, hence accepting the concept of cyclic birth is a MUST. Once cannot go cherry picking with Jyotish. You cannot reap fruits of your actions, you cannot adjust your fruits of those actions and say I do not believe in action. The point here is simple-the holistic approach needed to understand this science is absent. We tend understand this concept with linear and false understanding of Karm too. Karm is not Justice. It’s not what you sow is what you reap. It’s rather the cliched ‘karm kar phal ki chinta mat kar’ you can sow an apple seed but yet reap mango later.  That’s a hard concept to digest, but therein lies the beauty of Vedic philosophy.

Jyotish is a very misunderstood subject. It on its own a complete guiding philosophy as how to live a healthy life and achieve the Moksh. It deals with yog (excercise-waala), Ayurved and its use to balance your Karmic life, stop creating unwanted Karm and move out of the birth cycles. And to achieve all this it has laid down guidelines. Like any other field of knowledge, this can be misused for selfish gains. One can use nuclear power for peaceful or annihilating purposes, depends on who uses it. Same with Jyotish too. Not every practitioner knows this nor feels the need to follow them, hence loads of bad practices have crept. As there is no accountability laid on the Jyotishi (the right word for astrologer) one has to accept this is not anymore the pure practice, rather corrupted by the selfish needs (again-even the jyotishi is under influence of planets, has his karm too).This gives rise to creativity in milking the customer as much as possible, using the hom-havans, puja, shanti, gemstones, only your imagination is your limitation.     

The simple point is Jyotish is far more than what we make of it, it is a very deeply thought subject, which cannot be fathomed by our corrupt understandings with limited spiritual practices. The reason why Jyotish gets complex is due to it mixture if life (a weird phenomena) with Karm, developing complex understanding if multiple life, cyclic nature of time, couple it with current life, realise ones current actions in perspective of multiple  births and then reach a outcome. There no modern science that can handle (it can’t yet get grasp of singularity) and we who have learnt life through that lacking science will always fail to understand the true depth of Jyotish. 

We will always run to a Jyotish for every mundane problem, rush to him for solution for every marriage problem, job/boss issues, education etc… Never try to understand that Jyotish is to set you free  and not make you addicted to it.   Dependence is not its aim, its mere guiding light in the fast paced overcharging life, it is not a crutch nor a walking stick. We need to understand it and apply it in rightful doses so that it helps us achieve the goals of moksh. Do not forget that the marriage for which every second person runs to the jyotishi is Bondage as per it, a hinderance to your moksh. 

Our lack efforts, our approach to it is what needs to be corrected. To begin with lets call what it is -Jyotish —> Tamso ma Jyotirgamaya