Law of Karma & Astrology

Law of Karma & Astrology

The subject generates a critical interest particularly for people with Indian mindset. The Law of Karma being one of the prime precepts of Sanatan Dharma has been imbibed in the psyche of our people through ages. However, we have, for almost all practical purposes, deformed the concept of Karma. On the other hand, we also believe strongly in 'Fate' . The coexistance of belief in the law of Karma, Fate, Freewill and Astrology creates confusion and ambiguity in life. It would, therefore, be better that we understand these notions in simple terms and then assess its relevance with each other. For this purpose, we need to understand another precept of Sanatan Dharma, 'Reincarnation' past birth and the consequitive birth. Vedic Astrology founded upon precept of 'Reincarnation'. Reincarnation is dependent upon The Law of Karma. The Law of Karma can simply be stated as: "As you sow, so shall you reap." or "For every action there is equal and opposite reaction". People who believe in 'fate', believe that during their life they are subject to experience certain events in a pre-defined way. This means, that happenings are decided long before they occur. Thus, notion of 'Fate' does not allow any scope for the freewill of a person. If we believe in 'Fate', we enter into an unending loop of the primary element of cause and the subsequent happenings. Just think 'What is the cause of creation of the Fate?' In the form of the 'Karma', this question is partially resolved. Every Action has equal Reaction. This way, Karma or action of a man is cause of the creation of Fate. However, what is the cause of the first ever Karma ? Every act once performed creates its reward on the basis of attitude and intention of the doer. Thus, Karma is a process of transformation of 'Action Energy' into 'Reward Energy'. There is no power that can falsify this transformation. However, the time of fructification of Karma is beyond human judgement. On the basis of time of fructification of reward, Karmas are divided into three categories: 1. Sanchit:  Those Karmas where the fructification time of the reward is very long and generally beyond the present life time. Arrears of such past Karmas is the cause of cycle of lives of the spirit. 2. Prarabdha: The portion of Sanchit Karma where the rewards are due to be delivered during the present life. 3. Kriyamana: Are such karmas where the rewards are delivered immediately upon performance of the Karmas. An action is done, reward availed and nothing is left out. These are the actions performed through the free will of a person.These are the actions performed in present time.

For the purpose of this article, we are concerned with the portion of the Sanchit Karmas, called Prarabdha. In English, Prarabdha, is called 'Fate'. 

However, contrary to the common man's belief, the priority and order of fruictification of the Prarabdha does get modified. This is possible through Kriyaman Karmas. As a result of the present actions, a kind of volume gets generated on the time line of human life. The pressure and volume of the resultant rewards pushes the turn of the rewards otherwise destined to be availed as Praarbdh. 

With this explaination, it would be easy to  appreciate the validity of Astrology and Astrological Remedies. Let us understand this with the help of an illustration.

Let us assume that a person 'A' is destined to avail the rewards of his prarabdha at his age of 40. The  rewards are negative in nature because they are the product of some bad karma performed by the person in past, might be in previous lives. Now, the person takes help of astrology and gets cautioned about the negative period. As advised He performs some remedial measures, let us say, 'chanting of Mahamrintyunjaya Mantra'. This remedy works on different dimensions. Because of his power of faith in astrology and the reverance for the Mantra, positive mental vibrations are generated. The performing of remedy is a Kriyaman Karma because it is done in present time and with an intention to get result in immediate future. As the volume of this Kriyaman Karma increases, the fructification order gets affected. The sequence of fructification of bad karma (destined to be delivered now) gets disturbed. The bad rewards cannot get room to be delivered now. This is the secret of Astrological Remedies.

In this illustration, it should be noted that the Kriyaman Karma is performed by the person who is chanting the Mantra. The volume of this act pushes away the negative rewards i.e. Worries, Tension etc. to take place in the life of the person who is chanting the mantra. It cannot affect the Prarabdha of another person even if the mantra is chanted in his name and on his behalf..! 

However, let us not get befooled to believe that the Prarabdha is mitigated altogether because of performance of remedies. It is only the sequence of  fructification that has got changed. Its a big relief for the person concerned, though for the time being.

This is what lord Krishna has directed "Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam" योग: कर्मसु कौशलम | Adeptness in Performing Acts is Yoga. Adopting and performing Remedies so as to generate pressure of Kriyaman Karma is a smart way to avoid the bad rewards for the time being.

Creating Excellence

Here is the secret of 'Creating Excellence' in life. 
If you are able to find out  -

"Activities that generate 'Joy' from within yourself?"
"What is it that you can do better than others can do?"
"What is it, where you don't need appreciation or reward from others ?"
"What is it, where you don't  notice the duration of time spent as you do it ?"

If you find this fields or activities, know that this is the 'Purpose of your Life' !! This is the field where you can excell. This is the field where your contribution will make the world a better place.

The big merit of this concept lies in the fact that it turns you internally focused. It generates joy within. The joy boosts positive attitude. When you are engaged in activities you love; you would develop an internal locus of control. You will begin to believe that you are responsible for your own success. This will reduce excuses and complaints for others.

On the way towards creating excellence, one needs to keep an eye on ones attitude.To keep us aligned with the goals we have set, we need to have a mechanism for self appraisal and audit.You will agree with me that we get derailed often from the plan we have chalked out for our wholistic and poised living.

So, take a break - ask yourself, 'Do you enjoy life?' Introspect. These breaks are important to take stock of the direction of our life and guide it towards achieving joyous life. Through introspection we can know whether we are running after pleasures or we are following Joy ?

Introspection is a mechanism to analyze our inner trends, the transactions and state of mind and to evolve perceptions that can enable him attain his desired way of living . Evolving a plan to develop potentials and achieving balanced development is the first step; periodical introspecton is the next.

In quest of fuller life.

"It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied" said Socrates.

This speaks about the value of human happiness over the pleasure of sensual gratification. Through this platform, its our endeavour to bring in the consciousness amongst the educated urbanites towards this distinction.

Its heart burning to know, according to a latest survey, that only 20% of Indian population is honest. However, if one wishes to take out positive output from the survey; it is found that 49% of population is in favour of 'keeping subjects like moral studies and human values in acedamic curriculam.' This indicates that people do appreciate the value of morals and ethics but they don't find opportunities to learn them in the schools.

          

With the increasing trend of specialization, academic education is becoming more and more focused on vocations. We have been producing great number of Engineers, Doctors, Financial Analysts and business Managers. While, with their unquestionably high professional competancy, their contribution in country's GDP remains praise-worthy; together, they do not form a happy and cultured society. The lack of moral education has made them 'money makers' and they seldom feel the need to appreciate the value of humane faculties. The question remains, where do we wish to take the human society ? Leave aside cherishing life, can we expect people with such a training to even know other higher dimensions of life ?

Have Fun

It has not remained just a matter of belief now, it is being supported by scientific studies that fun enhances the value of life. Whether at home or at workplace, regular exposure to fun increases productivity.  It recedes mental stress and the resultant better internal environment decreases the physical fatigue. Fun is normally shared with others.  It is contiguous. It spreads among others present at the scene. This way, a happier person improves  environment  of the place, be it home or at the work.
We need to appreciate ‘Fun’ as an important characteristic of a healthy human personality. However, irrespective to the benefits, we don’t allow fun wherever we need better results. We discourage an attempt to invoke fun with the stricture to be ‘Serious..!’
This way, we have created organizations that negate ‘FUN’. Institutes : schools, Church  or business  they all create ‘anti-fun’ environment. Think of busy professionals. How badly they need fun..!  Working with serious attitude throughout the day, their hair turn gray and they look more than their age.!
It is wise to form a habbit to include repeated breaks in our daily schedules. If organizations accept to include Fun on the workplace, they wont need to spend on arranging Stress Relieving workshops and seminars.
Taking 'Fun' along our way will help us realize our Goal of 'Joyous Living'..!

The Purpose of Life

You ask:  what is the meaning or purpose of life?  I can only answer with another question:  do you think we are wise enough to read God's mind? 

                                                                                                                               -Freeman Dyson

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If you randomly stop any man on the road and ask him as to where is he going and why; you will get a reply without delay. However, if you ask a person 'What for he is living?" or 'What is the purpose of life?' you will, most probably find ignorant faces. An average person seldom knows the answer. Even there are millions of us to whom the question never arises. What a fun that everyone is living but no one knows ‘why?’  

The question is quite simple and yet the most puzzling one. As we enquire, we find different answers from different sources. The religions have their own but different answers. The philosophers have their own ideas. Mythologists view it differently and so do the sociologists. Rather than indicating the ‘purpose’, each presents different perspectives of life. An answer that can be accepted by all unanimously is yet to be found.

We are not able to find most convincing meaning of life because we don’t know whether our birth is our own selection. We try to find the logic of our existence. However, It would be natural for logical mind to be ignorant about the meaning of ‘life’ because it developed much later after our birth.

The subject of ‘understanding or finding the purpose of life’ is taken up very seriously by people with religious and spiritual bent. How strange, it could be that the same people strive throughout their lives not for ‘Life’ but for ‘Getting rid of Life..!! Don’t they strive for ‘Liberation’, ‘Emancipation’, or ‘Nirvana’?

At this point, we can make out that the exercise for finding ‘Purpose’ or ‘Meaning’ of life is very complex. No two intellectuals would ever accept each other’s point of view. On the other hand, for the majority of common men, the best option is to find ways and means to live life happily.

“What is the purpose of life?” -  We don’t know.

“How long is the journey?”    -  We don’t know.

“What is the destination of this journey?” - We don’t know either..!

So, in the face of these major uncertainties, it’s only wise to enjoy every moment of it (of course) without hurting others..!!

On the Path

My personal exploration in search of answers to questions like What is the purpose of Life ? Does God Exist ? How to live life to the Fullest ? etc. led me into spiritual domains. On the way, I studied various schools of thoughts and found that the religions and the Ashrams have messed up the simple and easy things into most intricate concepts.

While demystifying the spiritual concepts, I realized that to get the answers, I need to unlearn a lot that I gathered during my journey. Living a meaningful life is in deed a simple task. For an ordinary human being, the lofty concepts and theories and mystrious Kriyas hold no practical utility. On the contrary, these are the points from where his innocense pushes him in the vulnerable zone of falling prey to the mentors who are good for nothing.

During this time, I was exposed to writings of OSHO, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Orison Swett Marden, Stephen Couvey, Dr Annie Besant, and Vivekanand ji. I have great sense of gratitude for what I learnt from them.  I love watching Eckhart Tolle, Amit Goswami, Sirshree Tejparkhi ji of Tej Gyan Foundation and Acharya Yogeesh ji on youtube.  

 

I would humbly admit that my thoughts would reflect the glimpses of the teachings of these personalities and scripture. As a matter of fact, I believe that there can never be anything in the world that could be claimed to be 'Ones Own'. At a subtle level everything is 'One'. Cosmos is a reservoir of intelligence and we are all floating in this ocean of energy. The human brain is a multi-channel receiver-cum-transmitter and any one, in a fraction of second,  can get connected with the reserves of thoughts having simillar frequencies. This is the reason, at times you find exact copy of your thoughts said by a celebrity who lived on the earth much before your birth. Our present mind is always busy manipulating upon the captured traces of thought vibrations and releasing them back into the space.