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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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