Two distinct developments that must take place,
logically, after the introduction of the astrology courses in the
universities is that some of the astrologers emerging out of a good
training course in these subjects will be most useful counsellors in our
society. Then, in course of time, practising astrology without a proper
license should be declared illegal, punishable under law.
The need for this must be understood and appreciated.How many people
can say with pride and so much confidence after scrutinising astrological
predictions given to him by an astrologer forty four years ago, that he
has been an optimist because he believed in astrology? How many people
can say that the astrologer had never seen him but had made all the
predictions on the basis of the horoscope he had prepared after the birth
details were supplied to him? The identity of the person who has gone on
record saying this will be revealed later. First some advice and
caution.
If an astrologer cannot raise your
realistic hopes through what he reads by balancing the positive and
negative features of your horoscope, do not go to him. Life is neither a
story of unmitigated gloom nor of never ending successes. The silver
lining seen in encircling gloom is an ability an astrologer with a
spiritual background will invariably have.
A greedy one will miss it because his love of the lucre tempts him to
demand a fat fees and fatter amount for graha shanti.
Mingling such greed with lack of research for the complex life of
modern times can be devastating in its bad effects. But astrologers have
their subterfuges, those entrapments about which many complain.
It is what makes astrology looks more a piece of charlatanry than a
luminous piece of honest counselling. There is that fear psychology
astrologers know how to create through their waffling. They know that
some of their clients are familiar with fright producing jargons like
sadhe saati, kaal sarpa yoga and Saturn and Rahu periods which in the
mind of a layman, already in trouble, are apparitions he wants not to
know anything about.
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What astrology must do is to make you an optimist. What one can
achieve in life within astrologically discernible limitations is what an
astrologer with experience and honest intention can see mostly.
Sir Woodrow Wyatt
Here is an instance from what Sir Woodrow W yatt, the famous
Englishman who had come to India at the age of 26 says about the superb
predictive value of Hindu astrology and how it made him an optimist.
(from Who does notconsult stars an article he wrote for Times London
in May 1988 and reproduced in the Pioneer, Lucknow some days after.)
" But such predictions are unlikely to reach anywhere near accuracy,
of say, Indian astrologer working on a precise time, date and place of
birthof the person concerned.Â
I went to India in late 1944. I had a friend, K.M. Pannikar, who was
Prime Minister of the princely state of Bikaner. He asked me if I would
like the court astrologer, K.P. Sharma, to cast my horoscope emphasising
that his accuracy had been sharpened by being put in the local look-up
for a day or so any time the made serious mistake over the Maharaja's
immediate future. This was unfairto Mr. Sharma: frequent applications
to an astrologer dilute and muddy the brew.
Mr. Sharma, whom I never met and who knew nothing about me (not that
there was anything to know when I was 26), cast my horoscope blind in
January 1945 from the actual minutes and second of my birth, which I knew
and from the house I was born in.
The full text is published as a three-page appendix to my
autobiography, "Confession of an Optimist".
" When I have felt let down I have been encouraged by looking at it
afresh because Mr. Sharma foresaw most of the next to come good his in my
life. For example, " The royal planet in the tenth (viz, the Sun) house
alsoindicated titles and honours in the later half of life".
I was knighted when I was 64. I was sent to the Lords when I was 68.
How the devil could Mrs Astrologer tell that and many other things from
my stars. But he did. He made amazing accurate predictions for my friend
Pannikar which puzzledus in 1945 but became clear when, unexpectedly
ambassador of independent India in Peking (1948 52), he was able, trusted
by both, to persuade theAmericans and Chinese communists to begin the
negotiations which ended the Korean war.Â
"My horoscope is a main reason why I have always been an
optimist."
Wyatt was fortunate because he met a raj jyotishi and not the run of
the mill practitioners we see near every fourth lamp post in big cities
these days.
In future,properly trained astrologers, reviving the traditions of raj
jyotishis, and with the fear of punishment for unethical practices
looming beforethem always, may become a reality.
It is why the UGC steps to introduce astrology courses in the
universities have to appreciated.
But the UGC has no mechanism of knowing the standardofteachers of
astrology and the type of students attracted to astrology courses. As it
is, in Delhi, there are astrological classes conducted by many attracting
students from different strata of our society.
It is not known to many that astrology is the most difficult subject,
moredifficult than any subject taught in unversities, with its
elaborate methodologies, skill of interpretation in the ever changing
social context of modern times. How many teachers are equipped to
interpret old astrological maxims in new
light and how many students have the mental equipment to avoid the beaten
track ofjargons, cliches and the dead weight of dogmatic
interpretation given in badly translated books from Sanskrit to Hindi,
English or other regionallanguages?
The complain made by some teachers teaching astrology is generally
that most of the students attracted to astrology courses are those who
havefailed in making careers and want to learn a trick or two to make
money through astrology since in India thousands keep consulting
astrologers.
It is a tragic trap into which the astrology course can fall