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VA does not imply a Fatalistic Vision of Life:
Interestingly, contrary to our possible misconception
of Vedic astrology implying some fatalistic vision of life, in which man
is ever at the mercy of his irrevocable ‘destiny’; it offers us a series
of intelligent Remedial Measures in the form of daily charities, prayers,
worship of certain prescribed Devatas [Deities], and the uninterrupted
wearing of sacred objects on our bodies, such as ‘Kavachs’
or ‘Yantras’, as the means
& mechanism of surmounting all the varied
karmic
-obstacles’, which may be part of our ‘destiny’.
This seemingly ‘inconceivable’ but
nonetheless very desirable goal is achieved by modifying
the ‘karmic-effects’ of the cosmic forces that are shaping
our ‘destiny’, through the reciprocal-impact on our ‘destiny’
of these Spiritual Remedial Measures. In this way, the resultant
‘karmic
-effects’ of the cosmic forces are made
more favourable for the fulfilment of our endeavours in
every sphere of our life. This in a nutshell is what
Vedic astrology all about.
Its origins lie in the insights and
spiritual-illuminations that its wise progenitors - the
Vedic Rishis [Sages] had, at a time when their
spiritual-culture was in its heyday, some five to
nine thousands years ago[2, 3]. Thus it may be traced back
to its source, the Vedas, the oldest corpus of spiritual
and mystical-literature of the world [2,3,4]. For the present,
by ‘Vedic’, we may understand ‘spiritual-knowing’ or
‘spiritual-learning’, such as what must have transpired in
the ‘pure-consciousness’ of the Vedic Rishis.
When we examine VA, with eyes sensitive to ‘duality’
we will find that it gives us a profound ‘karmic-understanding’, of
both - the malefic-patterns of ‘persistent conspiracy of fate’,
as well as the benefic-patterns of ‘consistent good-fortune’ - that
we might have observed many a time, in the field of our
mysterious human lives.
It also gives a detailed picture of which spheres
of our life have the blessings of Isvara [‘God’] and which suffer from
an inherent denial of His grace. Thus, it throws a flood of spiritual
and karmic-light on how we may decipher and assimilate our
misfortunes & sufferings and thereby even opens the door to
spiritual-awakening, which may well come our way, as a result
of our deep understanding & assimilation of these unexpected
‘conspiracies & blows of fate’. Great though these blessings are
in themselves, yet we must not be under the naïve impression that
these are the only blessings that Vedic astrology has got to offer to us.
Vedic Astrology is
a Vidya & not a ‘Science’:
By a Vidya is meant, a subtle system of spiritual-knowledge, discovered by the
Vedic Rishis and having as its essential hall-mark, its recurrent focal-theme
of the presence of Divinity [Isvara or Parabrahma]- at the very heart of every aspect
of nature, as well as in the very bosom of man’s consciousness. In this sense,
all Hindu Vidyas are manifestly ‘Isvara [Divinity]-centred’ or ‘centered around the
Devatas [Deities]’, rather than being in the nature of the ‘Sciences’ - such as we
know them in our own day - with their characteristic aloofness from the ‘spiritual’
and the ‘consciousness’ aspects of our human life. This fundamental distinction between
the Sciences on the one hand and the Hindu Vidyas on the other, will have
to be constantly borne in mind, if we are to reap a more bountiful harvest
as a result of our turning to Vedic astrology and its powerful Remedial Measures.
The natural Vedic self-consistency between the existence of
numerous Vedic Devatas [Deities] on the one hand and a unique Godhead [Parabrahma]
on the other, may be seen in the following passage of a modern Vedic Rishi, who has
had a substantial role to play in creating an intense awareness of the paramount
importance of the Vedas, which he held to be the original well-spring of India’s
timeless spiritual culture:
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“It is a marked, an essential feature of the Vedic hymns that
although the Vedic cult was not monotheistic in the modern sense
of the word, yet they continually recognize, sometimes quite
openly and simply, sometimes in a complex and difficult fashion,
always as an underlying thought, that the many godheads whom
they invoke are really one Godhead, - One with many names,
revealed in many aspects,approaching man in the mask of many
divine personalities.”
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- Sri. Aurobindo
[5]
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Even renowned Jyotish Acharyas [authoritative learned teachers
of Jyotisha or Vedic astrology, according to a certain definitive school of learning]
are often seen referring to Vedic astrology as a ‘Science’ [6,7]. Although one can advance
three sound reasons in support of such a perception; yet when we look at this whole question
from more fundamental considerations, the ‘scientific’ nature of Vedic astrology is seen to
be only of very limited validity.
On the grounds that Vedic astrology is ‘quantitative’ like Mathematics,
Statistics, Engineering or Theoretical Physics, and is also highly ‘systematic’
like the modern Sciences; this perception of the Jyotish Acharyas does indeed
have a certain validity. Moreover, Vedic astrology also has that other
hall-mark of the modern ‘Sciences’- namely, the development of this system
of knowledge occurring always only as a result of the constant mutual-interaction
between empirical data from human lives on the one hand and the theoretical formulation
of the astrological sutras on the other. This is exactly like the constant interchange
in the Sciences between theory and experiment. Thus some similarities do exist between
the methods of Vedic astrology and the modern methods of the Sciences.
However, in spite of these similarities, when we
look into the Vedic-origin and the philosophical & inherently spiritual-orientation
of Vedic astrology, we see that it will be more consistent to classify it as a Vedic
or Hindu Vidya, and set it apart from the modern Sciences, since these two systems
of knowledge, in so far as their philosophical foundations are concerned, are actually
poles apart. We had emphasized that Vedic astrology is ‘quantitative’ and also a subtle system
of knowledge. Now, there are many quantitative and subtle systems of knowledge, in our modern
civilization as well, like the examples we have cited above. However, all these differ from the
Vedic systems, only because they are part of a larger modern materialistic world-view, which does
not recognize the existence of the ‘spiritual’ dimension of life nor of the underlying
Divine presence, permeating the whole of man’s world as well as the world of nature.
This sharp contrast between the systems of modern knowledge, called the ‘Sciences’
and the ancient Vedic spiritual-systems of knowledge, called the Vidyas, makes
it abundantly clear in which sense Vedic astrology may be deemed to be a ‘Science’
and in which sense, it may be deemed to be an ‘esoteric species of knowledge’, a
Vedic Vidya - but never a ‘Science’.
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