Freedom and Destiny K.N Rao on Vedic Astrology

Kotamraju N. Rao first learned about the cycles of destiny from his mother. She had studied in the traditional Vedic manner: a spot under a tree would be cleaned and consecrated to the divine, then she would sit at the feet of her guru listening intently for hours as he expounded the interconnectedness of all things, and the manner in which celestial movements reflect human affairs, mirroring back to us the tides of our lives. In 1942, as Rao was recovering from typhoid, mother and son would sit together staring at the ceiling, visualizing the movement of the planets, and mentally making astronomical calculations so complex that few university astronomers today would attempt them without a computer. Rao learned astrology despite the protests of his father. A stalwart patriot throughout India's struggle for independence, his father objected, "We did not pass through the fire of freedom to become slaves to fortune tellers who turn people into fatalists!" These words have haunted Rao to the present day, as he sits in a hotel room in San Rafael, California, preparing to address the Second Annual Symposium on Vedic Astrology. Rao is one of the most respected astrologers in South Asia today; the convention hosts are thrilled that at age 62 he has consented, for the first time, to leave India and teach the Americans here. Rao, for his part, is deeply concerned that Westerners' burgeoning interest in Vedic astrology be guided properly. Western students, he feels, must understand that Vedic astrology is a spiritual science, that it has always been intrinsic to yoga, and that true astrology cannot be practiced without the disciplines of yoga. They must also understand that the Vedic system is specifically designed to help people work with their karma, to understand that events occuring to them now are the results of their previous actions, and that by taking charge of their lives in the present and attuning themselves to the divine, they--not the stars--can control their future. In person, Rao is a dynamic figure who combines fierce intelligence with extraordinary compassion. I mentioned to him that while here in the West both science and religion condemn astrology, in India, major astrological texts are considered important adjuncts to the Vedas (ancient Indian scriptures) and many of the most revered astrologers of history were, like Rao himself, yogis. "If astrology has been condemned in the West or in the East it is mainly because most of the people have reduced it into an art of fortune telling only," Rao replied. "Astrology is not fortune telling. Astrology is a delineation of human character, the flow of the life force, how that life force manifests itself at certain times in one's life. Astrology was a compulsory subject in all the ancient guru kulas (schools) of India. Anyone who is condemning astrology is ignorant of the great Indian tradition. "What does astrology have to do with yoga? In India it is totally linked, it is totally known. In Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, one of the powers a yogi is said to acquire is understanding of the nakshatras (lunar signs used in Vedic astrology). Now when the yogi develops this power, what happens? He is able to see without a horoscope. A yogi who cannot do astrology without a horoscope is not a yogi. When a maha yogi like Christ tells one of his disciplines, you shall betray me before the cock crows twice, how did he know this? That is yogic power. That is astrology. But that is the inner astrology. Please try to understand. "Astrology is the art of seeing the total manifestation of human life from the beginning to the end. And once you see this, what happens? Astrology teaches you vairagya, detachment, as nothing else in the world can. Astrology is very, very useful in spiritual guidance. Basically astrology was made use of only for spiritual life." After learning astrology from his mother, Rao went on to deepen his understanding of the subject under the guidance of the renowned yogi Bhaskaranand. "There are so many branches of esoteric astrology in India that are kept secret by sadhus," he explained. "They can tell you there is a better time for you to do more extroverted sadhana (spiritual practice), introverted sadhana or a combination of both. Too, they tell you since you are more emotional, better you take to bhakti (devotion). Since you are more on the physical side, start doing everything through hatha yoga first. In the other case you find extra intelligence so follow the jnana marga (path of discriminating awareness)." Rao himself strictly follows yogic tradition in his own practice of astrology: like the ancient Indian astrologers, he will not accept a cent in payment for his work. He is deeply concerned about money's corrupting influence on his profession. "There are more quacks in the world of astrology than in any other field today, even in India. There are people who do not know elementary astrology but are making a fortune. Our tradition in India always has been not to make money from astrology." "Originally in India astrology was kept secret because the sadhus and the saints lived in the cloistered atmosphere of an ashram or hermitage in the forest. From them the brahmins learned astrology, but when they came to the city they never made money out of it. If you gave (the brahmin astrologer) 10 rupees, 5000 rupees or one flower, it made no difference to him. That was what was known as guru parampara, the tradition of a guru. In course of time because of our unfortunate history the guru parampara got destroyed, so it became what is known as kula parampara, family tradition. Now in a family it is not always necessary that you get a worthy disciple. The father would not allow the tradition to go outside of the family, so he would use the dullest of his children, who could not become a doctor or an engineer, and teach him astrology. In this way unfortunately after a period of time astrology started going into the hands of the dullest people in the culture." This was indeed in sharp contrast to the past. The standards previously demanded of astrologers were high. The ancient authority Varahamihira explained that, among many other extraordinary qualities, the astrologer must possess personal and spiritual purity, intellectual brilliance, inner quietude and a detailed working knowledge of mantras. These were necessary if the astrologer was to fulfull his or her true purpose as an illuminating spiritual guide, helping people work with the process of karma. There are three types of karma, according to the yogic tradition: actions we have done in the past that are creating our present circumstances, actions we have performed that have not yet borne fruit, and the actions we are performing in the present moment which in turn will shape the course of our future. "No one can escape the consequences of the karmas he has done or is doing," Rao explains. "Karma is like a calf which knows how to search out its mother even in a herd. The Mahabharata (Indian epic of which the Bhagavad Gita forms a small portion) refers to the relation between astrology and karma thus: It is not the planets and lunar signs which give auspicious or inauspicious results. It is all the result of one's own karmas though the popular belief is that the planets compel a person into a right or wrong act.'" Rao likes to give the example of the boy who died as a result of a snake bite. A villager caught the snake, intending to destroy it, but the snake protested, "I didn't really kill the boy. I was taking orders from Yama, the god of death." The villager confronted Yama, who demurred, "I'm not responsible. I was acting under the orders of Maha Kala, the great wheel of destiny." But Maha Kala would not accept the blame either. "At the appropriate time, I give the results of each soul's own karma. No one is responsible for a soul's destiny but that soul itself." The Vedic seers developed a technique called vimshottari dashi, based on the 27 lunar signs, to peek into the "great wheel of destiny." Using it they could determine, to some extent, during which portion of a person's life a particular karma was more likely to "catch up" to that individual. They would then recommend spiritual practices to help alleviate the results of "bad" karma. They felt that although one cannot escape the results of previous actions, one can sometimes mitigate those effects through right effort. Rao remarked that his own guru "encouraged surrender to the will of the Lord as the supreme path. There could be nothing superior to worship, in a simple, straight and guileless way, he insisted, and I have found that to be the best, most effective and uplifting way of both propitiating' the planets and making steady progress on the spiritual path. "If you worship God with deep faith, don't bother to go to an astrologer. Then you are appealing straight to the Person who controls the destiny of the astrologer and of the planets themselves, the Emperor of emperors. When you are worshiping God you are on the right path. As an astrologer I assure you that if you are leading a decent, good life and you are worshiping God, ninety percent you will have no problems, either mental or emotional or physical." Rao added that the most ancient, authoritative texts on Vedic astrology prescribe as an antidote to "difficult" periods in one's life proper worship of the divine, charity and service. The Phaladeepika adds that the person who is on the spiritual path honestly, the planets will trouble the least. "Astrology is not meant to make you a fatalist but asks you to become intelligently spiritual. Astrology is the link between apara (ordinary reality) and para (the highest reality), leading you to para finally because it reminds you that there is a much greater cosmic force about which you may be negligent. It teaches you to live within your limitations, but to live beautifully." In his effort to help educate the public about Vedic astrology, K.N. Rao has written numbers of books including Astrology, Destiny and the Wheel of Time as well as The Nehru Dynasty, in which he describes the impact of astrology on Indian political history. In India it is not uncommon for politicians to release incorrect birth data in order to produce more flattering astro portraits of themselves than their actual horoscopes may warrant! Rao is actively performing statistical research to help validate Vedic astrology, and is training a new generation of astrologers in accord with their yogic legacy. "It is to fight against quackery that we in India started our classes under the Indian Council of Astrological Sciences. We have the best classes in the world today in Delhi. We teach there systematically, a two year course. The point is, students should not be quacks. They should be well trained people. By now we have produced more than 1000 students. At the moment we have 400 students studying in Bharati Vidya Bhavan; we have 16 teachers. Dr. Charak who has come with me is one of our teachers. He is a famous doctor, he is a surgeon, and he is also a medical astrologer. That is our level in India, the highest level in the world. We are rescuing astrology, but in the process we have made a lot of enemies among the quacks who find it very difficult to exploit people so easily, because we are putting into circulation more and more trained people." The Sanskrit term for astrology is Jyotish, which means literally "the science of light." In ancient times, the seers of India learned to use the sun and the moon and the planets and stars as tools to help them look within themselves. They were able to see their inner Self suffusing the universe and the vastness of the cosmos contained within their own being. They peered deeply into the process of destiny and grasped the all important mechanics of free will. Attuning themselves to the divine force that controls the motion of the heavens, they liberated themselves from the wheel of time. "Above the levels of food, material comforts and sex, there is a world of eternal bliss that man can enjoy in this life," Rao concludes. It is that world toward which Jyotish points. We have only to follow the light.