Besides predicting the future, astrology can be used as a tool to guide us towards Self-realisation, writes Pratiksha Apurv. Published in Speaking Tree on May 13, 2018.
Most of us think that an astrologer is someone who tells our fortunes and future. However, if astrology is understood correctly, it deals with things much deeper. It is a well-known fact that everything in the universe happens in cycles and moves in a circular or elliptical order. Our present is, therefore, linked to our yesterday and our tomorrow will carry the imprints of yesterday and today.
Astrology even goes a step further. It claims that whatever is going to happen tomorrow is pregnant in our today. Action and reaction, cause and effect, all happen in an orderly manner – both at microcosmic and macrocosmic levels. If events and happenings are deciphered objectively and understood well, we will have more clarity about astrology, and how it can be used as a tool to guide mankind towards Self-realisation, rather than merely as a subject to predict the future. Since time immemorial, astrology has been a process to make humanity a little more religious, with the soul ready for ultimate acceptance. It is not just about past, present and future but it has various dimensions.
Life Here And Now
Astrology should be considered a scientific and also a spiritual phenomenon in the understanding of life as we know it. It is not just future oriented but intrinsically embedded in our present moment, our life here and now. To know about the planet’s movements and how they are going to impact our today and tomorrow is just one dimension of this science.
The other dimensions of astrology explain the frequency of the chakras in our body. An enlightened Master, by touching our chakras, can reveal whether we have been able to experience them. Most of the time, only two or three chakras are activated; the remaining ones just lie dormant. But they are our past and an integral part of our present. If all the seven chakras get activated and are in motion in this birth, there is no possibility of another birth. A person with all the seven chakras in motion goes beyond the cycle of life and death.
In the Kathopanishad, there is an enlightening dialogue between Nachiketa and Yamraj, the king of death. Nachiketa has a simple question for Yamraj: “What happens to a man after death?” Yamraj tries to brush the question aside by offering Nachiketa boons and gifts, but the young boy refuses to budge. He turns down every gift, saying that all Yamraj is offering will endure for only a limited time period and that it won’t bring him eternal bliss.
Yamraj is pleased with Nachiketa’s persistence and tells him that Atman was never born and never dies, and those who realise this subtle essence go beyond the cycle of birth and death, and those who are ignorant and fail to see the real aim of life, keep moving in that cycle.
To understand astrology, one has to understand that life is whole and everything in it is in organic unity. It is just one aspect of spirituality – in other words, it is the science of wholeness, undivided.
There are 120 cyclic years of planetary periods; for example, Ketu completes a cycle in 7 years; Venus in 20 years; Sun, 6 years; Moon, 10 years; Mars, 7 years; Rahu, 18 years; Jupiter, 16 years; Saturn, 19 years and Mercury, 17 years. In astrological terms, these periods are called Mahadashas, indicating good or bad effects of these planets, depending on the sign, house and various other aspects.
Dig Deeper
If we dig a little deeper to understand the subtle meaning of scientific astrology, it teaches us another vital aspect. It reveals that we are surrounded by energy fields that keep affecting our lives. Explained scientifically – the radioactive elements released by Venus are different from that of the Moon; similarly, Jupiter’s energy is different from that of the Sun.
The energy of all these planets affect a child at birth and scientists have proved this phenomenon.
Osho states that one can understand astrology if we can discover our past and future woven in the innermost core. Then astrology becomes dharma, it becomes spiritual and scientific. Otherwise, with focus on non-essentials, just the temptation to know about tomorrow and future could turn it into a street circus.
Flourishing Legacy
Astrology, Osho says, is not a developing science, rather it was plundered and found in a shambles. However, its remnants indicate that there was a flourishing scientific legacy behind it.
Denouncing those sitting on the street predicting the future in the name of astrology, Osho says that today, ninety-nine percent of talk on jyotish, astrology, is misleading; only one percent still provides its beautiful flowering. While planets impact us, they too are impacted by human beings, states Osho. The impact, he says, is never one-sided and even a small leaf on earth can also impact the sun like the sun impacts it because everything is interconnected.
To understand the nuances of jyotish, we need to understand this organic unity. Earlier, there was no scientific endorsement for jyotish but now since we are sending so many satellites into space and receiving signals through them on Earth, there is a growing sense of acceptability.
We have now come to believe that there is nothing which is left untouched by the effect of the planets. In its true sense, astrology could open the door to spirituality.
Note by Osho News: Ketu or the South Node of the moon is a shadowy planet i.e. as per Vedic Astrology, placed always in diagonal opposition (180 degrees apart) to Rahu – the North Node of the moon.
Pratiksha Apurv – www.pratikshaart.com
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