Astrology Articles

Astro Articles By Girish Menon http://www.horamag.com Astrology and Spirituality During your visit to any astrologer the first thing he tells you is about your time or dasha. Based on your natal chart he tells you whether you are going to a bad time or good time. What is the concept of good time and bad time? Why has nature created us to undergo bad time? To understand it first we must define bad time. Generally during bad time a person undergoes obstacles. He is unable to fulfill his desires. His materialistic needs do not get fulfilled. The most interesting observation I have made is that during the bad period the individual ego gradually comes down. I know many cases of people proud of there achievements and when they undergo a bad period they gradually gets subdued, and lose confidence in themselves which is very unfortunate. Man should not only fulfill his materialistic needs but also his spiritual needs. Modern man has no interest to fulfill his spiritual needs. His understanding of spirituality is restricted to visiting holy places. He should be able to strike a balance between both the needs. The very basic qualification needed for spiritual growth is shedding your ego. During your bad period nature has unknowingly shed your ego giving you the opportunity to grow spiritually. This is the period where one should spend some time for spiritual rituals like meditation, yoga etc. In the olden days astrology was called jyotisham guiding people to the path of spirituality. Astrologers used to guide people based on your chart to begin your spiritual journey. Our ancient rishis introduced the science of astrology to guide people spiritually. Astrology was only a tool for people to prepare well in advance towards the path of moksha. Personal predictions were secondary. Depending on ones natal chart the ancient rishis studied your nature and personality and based on that gave advises on how to lead ones life both spiritually and materialistically. Unfortunately the present generation of astrologers does not guide people to spirituality. They cannot be blamed because their clients are mostly interested in solving their personal problems. They guide their clients to temples asking them to perform certain poojas. So a bad phase in life should be taken positively and as an opportunity to be in tuned with nature. By Girish Menon

Sadesathi We have a tendency of mixing spirituality with our materialistic needs. We have in fact made a cocktail of both. To fulfill our materialistic desires we take the help of spiritual techniques or masters and to fulfill our spiritual desires we spend money on donations on spiritual organizations. Giving donations is not wrong but the motive behind it is wrong. We should not mix both of these divine desires together. Both have their importance and their respective methods to achieve. Take for e.g. in astrology the 12th house is considered bad. It is totally from your view point. If you analyze your chart the 12th house from materialistic point of view then the 12th house becomes inauspicious. The 12th house represents expenses, imprisonment etc. But from spiritual aspect 12th house represents moksha. Strangely 12th house represents physical bondage if we look from materialistic point of view but 12 th house represents moksha (eternal freedom) if we look from spiritual aspect. For a person who is more inclined towards materialistic desires his 12th house is considered bad. But for a person who is more inclined towards spiritual desires the 12th house is good for him. I know of a client who started a manufacturing industry after receiving blessings and nod from a reputed spiritual master. He was so confident that he invested huge amounts but today he is in the verge of closing down. This is one example of mixing spirituality with business. It would have been better had he consulted a good astrologer or a consultant before starting his business. He should have taken spiritual advice from his spiritual master. We have the wrong notion that by spending money we can buy spirituality or by donating to spiritual organizations we can automatically progress towards enlightment. Helping the needy will reduce ones karma dosha which is important but will not give enlightment. Satisfying materialistic desires is not in our control. We are controlled by destiny and depending upon your planetary positions which will decide whether you will become a king or pauper. We have heard of so many cases of king becoming pauper and vice versa. Though we cannot change our destiny nature has given us a free will with respect to spiritual growth. I have already written an article regarding planets and spirituality (astrospirituality). Sadesathi is considered as an inauspicious period of seven and half years. It means for a person in his life cycle during the transit of Saturn 21 years of his life span will undergoe Sadesathi. Swami Vivekananda has in his horoscope Saturn and Moon in the 10th house the house of profession. Now sadesathi by astro definition means Saturn transiting your moon at 12, 1 and 2nd house from the position of your moon in your rashi chart. Now Saturn and spirituality have a deep connection. The karaka for the 12th house is Saturn Sadesathi is an opportunity given by the divine for us to grow spiritually. Saturn represents a loss of awareness, or ignorance. This loss of awareness can also mean the diminishing awareness of the material world of manifestation. Here Saturn indicates the ascetic, rich with inner spirituality, and lost to this material plane of existence.

On September 9th 2009 Saturn will be transiting from Leo to Virgo rashi. So if your janma Nakshatra (placement of moon in your chart) is Leo, Virgo or Libra then you come under Sadesathi. Nature has given you a golden opportunity to evolve spiritually. This is the precious time where you must devote some time in chanting, prayers, meditation, yoga etc. Your bio magnetic field will enhance your spiritual level because of Saturn transit. The above techniques will be more effective for people coming under Sadesathi. If you totally focus on your materialistic desires you will be disappointed because your mind is already tuned towards spirituality and going against your mind’s nature will lead you to discomforts. That is the reason we generally hear that people undergoing Sadesathi are facing problem. They perform prayers and pooja out of fear. Any activity especially divine activities performed under fear will not yield results. There are people who tell with pride that they are God fearing. Don’t fear god, love god. By fearing God you are in fact insulting his divinity. Love is a divine emotion which links directly to him. Love is the most powerful technique to attain enlightment. If you are unable to love the creator at least love his creation. So take the Sadesathi phase as a positive one and do not panic. Devote some time everyday for the above techniques. Remember the most important technique is to LOVE GOD. With this motive performing the above techniques will enhance your spiritual growth. By Girish Menon

Importance of Planets Have you ever wondered how planets far away can influence our lives? How can planets in the solar system orbiting in there own axis around the sun can decide our future, profession, health, relationship etc? How a planet can for e.g. Jupiter can be good for someone and bad for others just because of the placement in the natal chart. That means if a planet is wrongly placed in ones chart the planet makes sure that the person is going to face difficulties and vice versa. Lets take example of a person whose planet let say Jupiter is badly afflicted in his chart. So during the maha dasha of Jupiter this person will undergo a bad time. He takes wrong decision in his work place or show lack of interest in his work leading to financial difficulties. So in other words our thoughts are influenced by these gigantic lifeless planets far away from us. I have personally studied cases of children failing continuously in exams during there bad dasha. With the change of good dasha the child suddenly excel in studies. Same with business entrepreneurs. How can planets influence out thoughts? To understand the connection first we must understand our solar system the macrocosm and our human aura the microcosm. Have you ever wondered why these planets revolve around the sun? What will happen let say planet mercury disappear from the solar system? What difference does it make in our lives? We are aware that everything created in the universe has a purpose. Only that the purpose is a mystery to mankind. For

creation we know the importance of sun and moon. Without there existence life would cease to exist. The other planets also have an important role in creation. It is believed that in the first month the child who is in a semisolid stage is controlled by Venus. The second month the solid state is governed by the planet Mars. The third month of growth is controlled by Jupiter. The formation of bones in the fourth month is governed by Sun. The formation of Skin in the sixth month is controlled by Moon. The formation of organs in the seventh month is controlled by Saturn. In the eighth month the life to the child or chetna is controlled by Jupiter. Apart from that planets play a crucial role in balancing nature. I have already discussed the importance of bad dasha with respect to spirituality in my section “Astrospirituality”. There is one another important reason for nature in creating bad time for man. If you observe the world population at least 85% of people go through bad time when compared to the 15% people going through good time. The people with good time are generally the cream of the society that includes industrialist, celebrities, politicians etc. For the balancing of nature this ratio is correct otherwise if it was other way round our society will be in a total chaos. Take for example if you want to build your own house. For that you require manual labors Plumbers etc. Now if every body has got good time there will be nobody to build your house. From food to clothing to staying which is our basic necessity becomes difficult to attain. The problem is with people misusing there good time for there selfish needs in terms of power, corruption etc creating an unbalance in the society. Your servant who cleans your house should be respected. Without them your life will be miserable. You must understand that the difference between you and your servant is time. Other wise it could have been the other way round. Now we have to understand the connection between planet and humans. Apart from the physical body there is one more field known as the aura or the Bio magnetic field which is located in the front of the body. The other end of the field is the location of an energy concentration or the soul. The area between the soul and the physical body constitutes our biomagnetic field and the chakra layers. The physical body consisting of eight layers is a common misinterpretation. The truth is that the soul has eight layers, with our physical body being the eighth layer. In fact our body is only a layer (gross) form of the soul. The first layer of the soul is ajna, second is vishuddha, third anahata, fourth is manipura, fifth swadhishthana, sixth is sahasrara, seventh is mooladhara (Biomagnetic field) and the eighth is the physical body. Our biomagnetic field is controlled by Mooladhara chakra. The clockwise and the anticlockwise spin of mooladhara causes a double spin of the subatomic particles, one vertical and one horizontal, creating a biomagnetic field. Magnetic field has a single spin whereas biomagnetic field has a double spin. An atom with a double spin is called life An atom with single spin is called matter. A group of atom with double spin is called the cell

When a child is born depending on the time of birth the planetary positions at that moment have an influence on the child’s destiny. Imagine nine runners running a race. All the nine are in there different respective positions. If you click a photo at that moment the photo you get at that given moment remains fixed. Similarly when a child is born, the different positions of the planets at that moment become fixed. The picture taken at that moment is called the natal chart which is used by astrologers for predictions. Planets though far away from the earth have an influence on the child’s wellbeing. The scientists believe that all spherical planets and stars are huge space lenses that send powerful beams which go through the human body just like nuclear radiation penetrating through metals. These penetrating kind of radiation are extremely powerful and create a huge cloud of space that can neither be found by optical or radio telescopes. When the earth rotating around the orbit crosses one of these flows, all biological objects in this effective area receive a dose of this radiation. The seven chakras of the child works as an antenna to these planets. We can call chakras as mini planets. Once the child is exposed to the earth, the radiations emitted by these planets, depending on that particular time, will be recorded and stored by these chakras. We must understand that the planets emitting radiation is in fact an intelligent thought wave formation. These thought waves influence our thoughts and our actions are guided accordingly. Any action we perform begins with a desire. From desire comes action. For e.g. desire to play cricket created our own Sachin Tendulkar. Added with the desire favorable planetary positions made him world famous. These desires are not created by us but are influenced by the gigantic planets. Our ancient Vedas speak about desirelessness. A person like a highly evolved person who reaches a state of desirelessness cannot be controlled by the influence of planets. He controls his own destiny. In fact they leave their body on their own will (Samadhi). This wonderful gift nature has given only to human beings.

Astro Consciousness We live constantly in 3 mental states or consciousness. One is the past conscious state, the present conscious state and the future conscious state. Past conscious state consist of our past memories and experiences, future conscious state consists of goals and desires and present conscious state is the blend between the past and the future. Take a simple example. Let us say that you have a desire to eat sweets. For that you go to a sweet shop buy the sweet and eat it. This simple action has involved all your three states of consciousness. Your past memories from your past conscious state has made you aware in the present state about the taste of the sweet, the shop from where to buy from and the desire to eat which has come from the future state to the present state. The present state of consciousness has blended both the past and future thoughts prompting you to take action. Man in his whole span of life time lives constantly in these three stages of consciousness. It is important to blend both the past and future states of consciousness

before performing any action. Take an example of a convict who committed a murder. In the present conscious state he has taken his memories from the past conscious state i.e. may be revenge to kill his victim. Had he taken his future conscious state in his present he would have realized the consequence of his action i.e. imprisonment and would have probably refrained himself from this heinous act. Similarly if you act without thinking and perform an action without using your past experience there are chances that you might end up losing. Hitler attacked Russia in winter causing his downfall. He failed to study the past experience of Napoleon’s Waterloo who attacked Russia in winter. These three stages of consciousness are not only time bound but also space bound. Time is not infinite but has a beginning. Take an example of a mango seed. You keep the seed in your cupboard for a year nothing happens. But the moment you plant it, the seed starts to sprout and within few years the seed becomes a big mango tree. Time starts from that moment you planted it. So time has a beginning and end like life and death. Now suppose you plant few seeds in different location like a forest or in a centre of a busy street, obviously the seed planted in the street will not survive. Here the seeds are you and I planted on this earth by the divine nature. Our ancient Rishis realized the importance of time and place and based on this information introduced the science of astrology. The three states of consciousness are also space bound. A bud becomes a flower and then a fruit. The past present and future is a space where the bud is pushed to the next space the flower. The memory of the flower pushes the fruit to the next space i.e. fruit. If the fruit that is the future consciousness does not allow or create an environment for the flower to change itself, the fruit will cease to exist. It’s like as if there is a wall in front of you, one cannot move forward, because there is no space for you to move. All these three space of consciousness plays an important role in our lives. Planets have an influence in these three spaces of consciousness. Take for ex. a person just completing his Saturn dasha and entering in to the next Mercury dasha. The Saturn influenced his past space of consciousness and Mercury will influence his future space of consciousness. This person’s behavior, interests and his future activities will be a blend of the influence of Saturn and Mercury. If both the planets are well placed in his horoscope he will lead a successful life. By Girish Menon

Birth Time Many urban Indian women nowadays turn to doctors to time their delivery at a propitious hour. Thanks to the advice of astrologers and priests, these women and their families believe that being born under a favorable star would bring wealth and health to the child. Requests for delivery at an auspicious hour usually come from educated, rich families.

Take an example of a child to be born at 10.30 pm. The ascendant at that time could be Leo. That becomes the first house. Counting from there the sixth house i.e. Capricorn has benefic planets like Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury. Now as per the chart predictions benefic planets in sixth house is not good. Now let us suppose the mother decides to undergo caesarean at around 9.30 pm. The ascendant at that time will be in Cancer sign. Counting from there the benefic planets will now be in fifth house. Benefic planets in fifth house is good because fifth is a trikona. Now the question is did the mother take the right decision? Can she change the destiny of her child with this simple manipulation? Can we manipulate nature?

I had a similar case study of a woman who underwent caesarean for the same reason 15 years ago. In spite of that her child who was to undergoing good time in fact had a miserable educational career. It is important for an astrologer to know before predicting whether the child’s delivery is normal or not. If it is caesarean then calculation should not be taken from the time given. By manipulating the operation parents are in the wrong notion that they can change the destiny of the child. In fact the child’s birth time as per my above example should be calculated at 10.30 pm and not 9.30 pm. In our ancient astrological test no reference was mentioned about caesarean operations. Calculations were based on normal delivery only.

One should understand that birth and death is decided by nature and nobody can manipulate both these events. If a child is destined to born at a particular time, nature has its own mysterious reasons for that. It is foolish on the part of man to think that he can manipulate nature. Today conducting caesarean operation for astrological reasons is in big demand as confirmed by some gynecologist.

Sarpa Dosha

Sarpa Dosha a much feared Dosha has its importance in astrology. People have the misconception that it has something to do with snakes. Either you or your forefathers must have harmed some snake leading to Sarpa Dosha. In fact Sarpa Dosha has nothing to do with snakes. In countries like china snakes are eaten as delicacies. So all of them must have Sarpa Dosha which is not true. Sarpa Dosha is a Biomagnetic genetic disorder. A genetic disorder is an illness caused by abnormalities in genes or chromosomes. If you observe the shape of DNA it resembles like two snakes coiled together. In olden days our Rishis visualized it through their intusion, called it Sarpa and any disorder in the DNA was termed as Sarpa Dosha. Apart from our physical body we also have our Bio magnetic field. Our Biomagnetic field is a subtle replica of our physical body. So Sarpa Dosha is a disorder in our Biomagnetic field. It is believed that if all the planets fall in between Rahu and Ketu in

your birth chart then you are the victim of Sarpa Dosha which is not true. Take example of Sachin Tendulkar. As per his chart he has Sarpa Dosha due to the above reasons. But you look at his career. He is world famous and broken all major records. He achieved success at the age of sixteen and still going strong. Apart from him there are many famous personalities like Jawaharlal Nehru whose chart claims to be affected by Sarpa Dosha. Sarpa Dosha which is a Biomagnetic distortion has a direct influence on our chakras.

Chakra is a Sanskrit word that translates as wheel or disc. Chakras are wheel-like vortices which exist in the surface of the bio magnetic field of man. The Chakras are said to be "force centers" or whorls of energy permeating, from a point on the physical body, the layers of the subtle bodies in an ever-increasing fan-shaped formation. Rotating vortices of subtle matter, they are considered the focal points for the reception and transmission of energies. There are seven major chakras or energy centers (also understood as wheels of light) located within the subtle body. Hindu and New Age tradition believe the chakras interact with the body's ductless endocrine glands and lymphatic system by feeding in good bio-energies and disposing of unwanted bioenergies. Chakras spin clockwise and anticlockwise. A proper and healthy spin is required to energize our Biomagnetic field. The distortions of Sarpa Dosha affect the spin of the chakras. A weak spin causes depletion in the Biomagnetic field. A weak field in turns can cause imbalance in our hormones causing disharmony in the physical and mental level. Decisions taken during this period goes haywire causing mental agony.

By Girish Menon http://www.horamag.com