THE INEVITABLE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS IN ASTROLOGY

strology is one of the ancient arts to have survived through time by rooting itself deep in the hearts and minds of the people throughout time. Even in Vikramadithya’s period, it was a means of social justice in the courthouse. One could say that it was a golden era. Sadly, the age old practice has since long seen a slow but definite deterioration in its fame and respect. In today’s fast moving world, people only see it as a way to look into their future; a few others lean on it when they are faced with problems that they cannot solve by themselves no matter how hard they try.

Indeed, astrology is the solution to most problems but how many of us are truly educated on the basics of astrology? Or even prepared to be educated?

The truth is, every single one of us are tuned in such a way that as long as we get what we need, we do not have to look into anything on a more detailed level. And as soon as we are done with something, as soon as an object’s usefulness has run its course, we tend to toss it away only to seek it out when the need arises again. Regrettably, astrology has turned into one such pitiable aspect.

It is basic human mentality towish for a problem free life. This can only be obtained through astrology, a divine practice that is unbiased and a boon to all mankind. In order to taste the benefits of this art, it is imperative that one learns to realize and understand the foundation and basics of it. I say this from my personal experience.

MY POINT OF VIEW:

From my 25 years of expertise in the field, I know how important it is to the society. I wish to share with you my long and tedious analyses in astrology, the changes that I went through because of them, the things I have seen, and the myriad of useful perspectives that I gained through them in this article. I had mentioned in my previous article that some of the questions, doubts, ciphers, and enigmas in the art used to disturb me incessantly. Though I had a fairly good knowledge on Bhagavat Gita and Kumaraswamiyam, I could not push myself into having a blind faith in the concepts of astrology.

This was mainly due to the political and social beliefs I had when I was in my young adult stage. As a result of that, unless and until I had a clear picture of what was what, I was lost and restless. But I never lost sight or hope and kept jumping into expeditions in the vast sea of astrology. All the questions that rose in my mind may seem simple or even trivial but in fact, they are topics to be discussed in detail and things to mull over. Hence, I produce them before you.

PURPOSE OF PARIHAARAMS (REMEDIES) AND WORSHIPS:

The world is home to over 7.6 billion people, each one unique in his/her own way. The fact that no two individuals can have the same set of fingerprints is a testimony to the previous statement.Likewise, every person has a unique horoscope that dictates his/her life. When it comes to horoscopes, the time of birth of the child is of paramount importance. In the modern era, it is a rarity to note down the exact time of birth of a child.

This in turn leads to innumerable confusions and problems because a few minutes of difference between the actual birth time and that entered in a horoscope can cause much of a headache in the long run. The calculations in a horoscope analysis are extremely sensitive to such minute details. We can see that people born with almost negligible time intervals live completely different lifestyles. It is because, each horoscope is different and its nature depends solely on the soul’s predestined fate of when things will happen and why they do.

This raises the question of genuineness and effectiveness of the clueless worships that we desperately undertake to resolve problems without first looking into the root causes of them. Worships and parihaarams (remedies) are effective only with realizations. Kannappa nayanar’s life is the best example for this statement. Though his method of worship was faulty, it was overlooked because of his pure intentions. His method began from his heart and ended in his eyes. This is what divine knowledge teaches us – to worship the right way or worship with pure intentions. Since I knew this and the general mindsets of the people, I never suggested worships or parihaarams to my clientele.

THE LIVES OF TWINS:

Usually, the horoscopes of twins who are separated by mere two or three minutes are quite similar. If one were to analyze and interpret the results for both of them, the interpretations should be the same. Yet, their lifestyles would sometimes be polar opposites. At the same time, if the twins were to be fraternal (one is a boy and the other is a girl), then one would outlive the other by a significantly longer term. I do not mean to demean any of you but much like how a child would fail to realize the value of gold if it was given to it, we are yet to realize the value of astrology that was passed on to us by our ancestors over millennia.

OUR INTERESTS IN ASTROLOGY:

Questions like “how will my life be?”, “when will I see prosperous times?”, “when will the things that I long for take place?” are all rather third rated questions. They are not only a surface level of understanding of the field but also an insult to the ancient art. Astrology is more than a tool to satiate our mundane needs and wants. As long as our interests are piqued by such surface level aspects, we will end up with only confusions and/or more problems.

We link the different castes, religions, languages, traditions and other aspects with which we divided ourselves to astrology and seek solutions to problems based on them with the stupidest and arrogant mentality. This malicious practice is tantamount to an imaginary road to a city that does not exist. Moreover, each region has its own concepts of acceptable marriage ages, marriage relationships, matrimonial lifestyles, etc.

The clarity required to associate each to the astrology that we have today is still at large.One common question that every sober soul has is,

‘how does astrology explain the mass deaths in times of natural and man-made disasters as well as those in cases like riots, accidents etc.’

I have a short and simple answer to this.

Astrology has rules for everything in it but our mindsets have transformed with the technological advancements and we as a society have failed to grasp the underlying knowledge in the ancient art.

Every day, we stray further away from the divine justice that is mentioned in astrology and hence, we are yet to discover the truths behind said occurrences. In the rapidly changing world, the age old art, though fragmented, has remained unchanged and untainted with all the secrets still in it. Regrettably, we have stooped down to too lower a level to assimilate the basics of it.

Nowadays, it is common to see people who believe that their lives are predestined. Such people would carry out important events in their life on the time that their preferred astrologer suggested.

When things go south, they would reach out to worships and remedies. One can only wonder what their understanding of life and fate is. Truth be told, there is no guarantee that our lives should be exactly as how our horoscopes says. The fate that is described by our horoscopes is as true as the fact that we can change it to our will. I mean to say that with astrology, not only can we peek into our future but we can also alter it for the better. This can be understood only if you look into the other parts of astrology as well. Yes, astrology is more than just horoscopes.

MUHURTHA AND NIMITTHA:

Thiruvalluvar says,

The pendant world’s dominion may be won, In fitting time and place by action done.

Meaning, when something is done at the right time, it will succeed. Astrology says that the outcome of any action is dependent on the time at which it is done. The time aspect falls under the category called Muhurtha.

Traditionally, our minds are set to thinking that any action done at ill times would prove disastrous. Fearing failures, we constantly look out for the auspicious times to do something of crucial importance to us. In layman’s terms, we can use astrology to avoid any passive experiences that may take place, thereby changing the future with making a small change in the present, i.e., choosing an auspicious time to do what we wish to do.

Muhurtha clearly explains that though astrology gives information on the good and the bad that would take place in an individual’s life, it does not necessarily mean to say that they will take place for sure. Likewise, Nimittha sashtra says that we can alter our future by making changes in the present. A nimittha is nothing but an omen. They should be regarded as God-sent harbingers.

A few examples of nimittha are: -

Twitching of the left eye of a woman (a good sign) - Twitching of the right eye of a man (a good sign) - Meeting a single brahmana on the way (a sign indicating sorrow) - Seeing a laundry worker (a good sign) - Oil (a bad sign) - Milk (a sign of purity) - A load of firewood that is seen en route (a bad sign) Muhurtha and Nimittha are inevitable aspects in our lives. We shall see about these in detail in the coming articles.