14 Apr 2019
Part-1 of spiritual meeting (Satsanga) that took place between Swami and several devotees on the day of Shri Rama Navami:
Discourse Podcast
Shri Veena Datta: What is the difference between astrology and devotion to God?
Swami: Astrology gives a list of bad effects during a period governed by a bad planet (Dashaa). From this list, which specific effect will be faced by a specific person, can only be told by God’s grace, which is obtained through devotion. For example, astrology gives a list of bad effects that a person might face during the period of Saturn, which include, theft, paralysis, accidents and so on. Suppose two persons approach you and both are passing through the period of Saturn. As an astrologer, you may predict that one person may become the victim of theft but the person may instead suffer from an attack of paralysis. The person will say that you have failed in your prediction. To the other person, during his period of Saturn, you may predict that he may suffer from a paralytic attack. But he might not get a paralytic attack. Instead, a theft might occur in his house. He too will say that you have failed in your prediction. Both these affected persons might even say that astrology itself is false. So, you need to understand that based on your knowledge of astrology, you can never predict which specific effect will be faced by a specific person. Astrology only enables you to predict that some good or bad effect will be faced by the person during a certain time. It is even possible for you to be able to predict the specific effect, provided you have the grace of God. The grace comes through devotion.
The ability to predict the specific effect for a specific person is called as the ‘purity of word’ or Vaakshuddhi. It can only be obtained by the grace of God. Hence, the practice of astrology should be associated with the worship of God. The medical degree, MBBS, means the study of medicine as well as surgery side-by-side. If you have a headache, it can be cured by a simple painkiller tablet prescribed by the doctor who is an expert in medicine. But if you go to a surgeon, the surgeon will say that your head must be operated upon to find out the reason for the headache! If you get the grace of God through your devotion, there is no need of studying the astrological scriptures.
As per Vedic astrology, a human being, in his or her life, passes through the periods (Dashaas) of each of the nine planets, one after the other. Each planet may be good or bad for a person based on the nature of the planet as described in astrology, its placement in the person’s birth-chart and the person’s zodiac sign. Therefore, the period of each planet is also good or bad for the person. The so-called good planets deliver the results of the person’s good deeds while the so-called bad planets deliver the results of the person’s bad deeds. The period of each planet is further sub-divided into the sub-periods (antar dashaas) belonging to each of the nine planets. Each of the sub-divisions are further sub-divided into even smaller sub-divisions (vidashaas) of the nine planets. In this manner, there are several levels of sub-division of these planetary periods.
The long span of the period of a good planet is generally good for the person. During this period, the person generally receives the fruits of his or her good deeds done in the past. But even during this generally good period, the person also experiences both good and bad results corresponding to all the nine planets, during their respective sub-periods. Similarly, in the generally bad period of a bad planet, the person also experiences both good and bad results from all the nine planets during their respective sub-periods. This sophisticated arrangement of planetary periods and their sub-periods made by God, ensures that the person never experiences continuous happiness or continuous pain. Continuous happiness for a long time invariably leads to boredom. Continuous misery for a long time becomes unbearable. Frequent change prevents boredom and provides maximum entertainment to the soul. The sub-periods of all nine planets within any planetary period ensure that the person enjoys both good and bad fruits of his or her own deeds in an alternating manner. It is like enjoying sweet and spicy dishes alternately in a meal. If the meal contained only sweet dishes or only spicy dishes, the meal would not be enjoyable. The combination of the two alone gives maximum enjoyment. The Divine Father has made this wonderful alternating arrangement of delivering the good and bad fruits of the deeds of souls for the sake of their maximum enjoyment. He wishes that His children always remain happy.
This alternating cyclic arrangement of the fruit of the soul’s deeds is called the karma chakra. God rearranges the good and bad fruits in this alternating manner. A soul might have committed a number of bad deeds, one after the other and a number of good deeds, one after the other. But the fruits are not delivered to the soul in the sequence in which the deeds were done. If all the bad fruits were to be given to the soul, one after the other, the long continuous misery would become unbearable for the soul. Similarly, the long continuous span of enjoying the all the good fruits, one after the other, would become boring. Hence, God rearranges them in an alternating manner in the form of the planetary periods and sub-periods. Thus, every bad fruit is followed by a good fruit and vice versa.
But when we face miseries, we do not want to bear them. The miseries are actually the results of our own bad deeds. On the order of God, the so-called bad planet is merely delivering the results of our own bad deed to us. But we, somehow, want to escape from the bad results. So, we worship God and force Him to remove the miseries and grant us happiness. Our demand is a violation of justice, which God never permits. But the kind Father also wants to satisfy the praying souls who are His own children. So, He postpones the present miseries to the future and prepones some future happiness bringing it into the present. The praying soul experiences immediate relief from the miseries and the enjoyment of some happiness. But there is big disadvantage in disturbing the original arrangement of the fruits of deeds in this manner. The postponed miseries grow in value due to interest, while the preponed happiness reduces in value; similar to the premature withdrawal of an investment. Even though such interference provides temporary relief to the soul, it is not in the soul’s long term interest. But God allows such interference in the cycle of deeds only to help the soul in developing some devotion to God. Upon developing devotion, God expects the soul to work towards permanent reformation. Otherwise, by such repeated postponement of misery and preponement of happiness, the soul may face a life full of continuous misery in the future. We sometimes find such people whose life is full of misery and not even a bit of happiness, in spite of their devotion to God.
The sum of the periods of the nine planets is 120 years since the average life in older generations was 120 years. This human lifespan is called Purushaayusham. Whatever may be the actual lifespan, the cyclic arrangement of the planetary periods, each consisting of several levels of sub-periods, is never affected. What I mean is that even if the average lifespan of a human being were to become as short as one hour in the future, the arrangement of the planetary periods and sub-periods would not change. In fact, this arrangement applies even to the souls present in the bodies of worms that might actually live only for an hour. Astrology is only an associated part of the spiritual knowledge since the nine planets are the executive forces of God. God is the author of the divine constitution which stands as the basis for the divine administration.
To be Continuued....
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