For me the passion was the thrill in finding patterns, peeking into the unknown, analyzing/dissecting given data and doing it all over again. Maybe it kept my brain occupied and hence satiating the nervous energy within. Maybe the prize was the process itself. Regardless, my energy into the field grew with time. As I mentioned before, I have always loved subjects which require intellectual challenges. Where the known merges into the unknown. During the initial years, when I applied certain rules I had learnt through the scriptures via detailed mathematical analysis to arrive at specific dates, sometimes years before the event unfolded, and then the event did unfold was dumbfounding to me. Something felt not right. Sometimes my predictions literally gave goosebumps to myself and my family members or whoever was the recipient of the prediction.
Perhaps the human mind tends to embrace the unknown only if it fits a pre-conceived notion that it learnt along the way of its environment. If it doesn’t make sense, the average person, will be quick to dismiss it and subconsciously detach from the person or object making any such ‘predictions’. Something is ‘freaky’ about them, so to speak, and none of us likes freaky. Neither did I. But I couldn’t stop. I wanted to know more. The thrill of knowing was more than the ‘terror’ of knowing (something negative) for me. Or perhaps it was a continuous effort to ‘decode’ the unknown and make sense of this amazing art. A cardinal rule in the scriptures is to avoid looking at one’s own horoscope or the ones of close loved ones as one will tend to see it in a biased light and can get very upset over anything negative one might see. That’s the first rule all new astrologers break and I was no exception. After all where was the fun if I couldn’t predict things for myself?
Although I didn’t realize this earlier, the best learning that came from astrology was a spiritual detachment to cause and effect in the arena of day to day life. I am still asked frequently – “doesn’t knowing a negative thing freak you out?”
Of course it did, perhaps still does, but to a much limited extent. Over time a realization dawned that many of these negative events I could foresee, in my own chart as an example, I couldn’t prevent or deflect any of those events. So a small evolution of thought process happened over the years, perhaps as a parallel defense mechanism developing as the understanding and research into this art grew. I learnt how do to what I needed to do, or should do, given the logical parameters at any given time and not bother about the outcome. So if I could foresee my own failure in a voluntary academic examination, did I still work towards it? Yes I did (with full vigor) and yes I failed. But I did such a thing again and again.
Counter-intuitive? Perhaps. Firstly the probability factor again, not everything is hard set in stone. Secondly, I feel there is something failure teaches us and the process of failure teaches us even more. The end game of our learnings and mental evolution is much more complex than a binary good or bad, win or loss. So after all my ‘job’ was to do what I could and fate’s ‘job’ was to do its thing. Over time I have learnt to live in harmony with that fact. It brings in a tremendous calm. Not happiness, not cheer – just calm. To me the calm is almost ‘freaky’ relative to the high energy anxious person I used to be. The illusion of control faded away and taught me to worry about factors only in my hand and leave the rest to the planets. It gave a deep rooted understanding that effort, qualifications/ ability are vital components of achieving a goal and yet not sufficient by themselves. We tend to, at least I did, be anxious about an outcome as we subconsciously feel that after doing the needsome on the factor we can control, the outcome should be controlled as well. But normally it isn’t. Thus to me fate wasn’t just a theory to hide behind, it was an understanding towards the calmness within.
Hi Vivek,
You really “nailed-it” in the last paragraph of this blog! 😉
Very nice site. Bravo!
Regards,
Rohiniranjan
Thanks for the kind words Rohini ranjan ji 🙂
How wonderful for you to share your experiences, feelings and observations throughout the years of learning astrology. I feel grateful to have read this and it gives me a new perspective on how to look at astrology and why it became a new part of my life.
I always wondered about whether it would be harmful for me to study my own chart and my loved ones but as many know it is a difficult thing to resist. I aim for peace and calm in my life always and if learning astrology could help me achieve this “calm” and that “small evolution of thought process” you talked about, then I will continue learning it. Thank you!
Quite beautifully put VS. Your 3rd house is pretty strong it seems :). BTW, I have Sun / un-combust Mercury in the 3rd and people refer to my communication skills many a time. I perceive this life as a spiritual journey; I try and reduce my AhankAra (This soul and the body are the same) and MamakAara (This is mine) as much as I can. Seeing myself (the JeevAtma) as subservient to the ParamAtma provides me much solace. I admire how the Lord sets it all up in our horoscopes according to our karma and sprinkles it with grace at the time the karma takes effect so there is some positive in any situation. God bless.
It has been well described by you. The learning astrology is more about inner evolution than predicting events. Over time one starts appreciating the macro divine design cast in the horoscope which is just unfolding in every one’s life for one’s evolution. It really helps in spiritual evolution, probably that is the reason it is one of the limbs of vedas.
Thanks for the wonderful post.
Great article VS! Thanks much for sharing! Just curios that through astrology it can be predicted who is destined to be very interested in astrology and/or to learn/ practice it, and who is not irrespective of how much exposure or opportunity they get to do so. Do you agree? Thanks
Dear VS,
In this blog you share a very important rule from the scriptures: an astrologer should never look into his own charts or his loved ones. And I agree for the reasons you mentioned. So in that perspective is there anything an astrologer is allowed to do or find out about himself for selfpurposes? For example finding the right remedies, muhurta, pooja and (personal) mantra’s for neutralising bad influences from planets etc?
Could you tell me a bit more about this? Big do’s and don’ts?
I look forward to hear from you.
unfortunately this rule is one which I am sure almost all, if not all, astrologers break.
there is no harm in learning from your own chart as long as one can dissociate from the positive/ negative they see and carry on with their life and karma in a normal fashion. usually issues arise and mostly learning astrologers dont yet have the maturity to grasp all the intricacies of a chart and hence can unnecessarily depress themselves due to a lack of knowledge/ experience
Thanks for bringing that up. I will certainly keep that in mind.
One more question that is related to this. I read that you’re working in Wall Street. What do you think about speculation using Vedic Astrology? (Muhurta – for buying and selling shares etc.)
no i dont use it for speculation or mundane activities. it works well for only human life prediction in my experience
I have found it most useful to read my family’s chart. One thing I realized that even as a father, you can only give values to your children. However, their karmas will play out as per the chart mostly. Then, I realized that I was only an instrument in bringing my children’s body to this world, the soul had some other body in its previous birth and its karma will play out as per the sanchita (the big bag from every birth in the past) and prarabda (that has started to play out) karma. My karma is intertwined with theirs because they bring happiness and sorrow to me as well. I was able to find the answers as to why they are different and why certain things are happening to them. I could lessen these feelings by this realization and by not being too joyful or too sorrowful about things they undergo, but there is no complete escape. So, who is in control? Their creator and how he wishes their karma to play out!! The soul undergoes the karma through the body and its indriyas. The creator who sits inside the heart just waters the seed that is karma. Without Him, the soul can neither be re-born nor can it undergo its karma. He has no paara-paksha (he is neutral).