ASTRONOMICAL CALCULATIONS
Whether you call it our movement or organisation, it has no do’s or don’ts. It is not dogmatic but filled with freedom.
Ancient sages conceived of specific ideas; studying stars, for example, led to astronomy, and the mystics took astronomical calculations and formed astrology from them.
This is not to deny astrology, but astrology must be viewed only in the light of the astrologer. For astrology, it could only be as good as the astrologer. For example, if I want to study your life, I do not need to study planets. I need to look into your eyes, see your totality there, and do an entire life chart on what life holds for you.
These methods were devised as specific guidelines. But then the guidelines were taken too literally instead of figuratively. As far as astrology or numerology, or phrenology or any “ology” goes, it is the intuitional insight of the person concerned that would understand what underlies the currents that underlie the subject on whom a chart is drawn.
Who says you have a chart in life? Are you not formulating your chart day by day?
MAN IS THE MASTER OF HIS DESTINY
I admit to one thing: that every human being since birth is born with certain tendencies that extend back to previous samskaras and karmas and previous doings. They are born with certain tendencies, but that does not mean they must be followed to the “T”. Tendencies can be changed.
For example, this person whose father was an alcoholic and believed that because his father was an alcoholic, he too tended to be an alcoholic. This is not scientifically correct, but there is a tendency. But the son does not need to become an alcoholic. Though the tendencies might be there, you can formulate what you want to take unto yourself.
Every day, every moment is a new moment, and you are forever formulating the next moment. This moment formulates the next moment, the next moment formulates the third moment, and the third formulates the fourth, and like that, it goes on. That is why we say man is a master of his destiny.
YOU ARE A PRODUCT OF CONDITIONING
I might have told you this story before, where this man is living in Johannesburg, and of course, I am living in Cape Town, a thousand miles away. He phoned me and said, “Guruji, I have a problem, and I want to fly down to talk to you about something. It is essential in my life.” I turned up my diary and said, “Look, come down such and such a day.” So, he came down. We sat down and chatted a bit, and then, as the first thing, he pulled out a horoscope, a life chart done by one of the most famous astrologers in South Africa. It was written that if you get married, your marriage will only last for two years and will be the unhappiest days of your life. I closed my eyes and started meditating. Immediately after that, I took that 8,9,10 pages; the more pages, the more you can change. I tore it to bits, threw it in my wastebasket, and said, “You fly back to Ingrid, propose to her, and get married.” They have been married for several years, talking about ten years ago. They have two kids now, and they are thrilled.
So, astrologers can harm people because that thought will be working on their minds all the time, and when an idea works in your mind all the time, you can materialise the thought. Be it good or bad. After all, you are a product of conditioning, conditioning of your mind. Therefore, I always say, call yourself, “I am weak, I am weak, I am weak”, and you will get weaker. But say, “I am strong, strong, strong,” and you will get stronger.
EACH PERSON IS A CATEGORY UNTO HIMSELF
That is from the astrologer’s point of view. Let us take the point of view of the person who goes to an astrologer. Why does the person go to an astrologer or a numerologist or blah, blah, blah? You know the essential factors are only these: a sense of unsafeness, a sense of no self-confidence, a sense of insecurity or inadequacy. You are so afraid of yourself.
Do you know that the horoscope chart in some newspapers increases the circulation of some newspapers? Thousands of people, when they buy a newspaper, the first page they open is the horoscope page. They look at that, and their whole day is governed by what the morning paper says about what will happen to them that day.
4000 MILLION PEOPLE
How can you divide up 4000 million people into 12 zodiacal signs? How can 4000 million people fall into 12 categories only? When is each of the 4,000 million people a category unto himself or herself? So, we must not rely on these things.
Instead of getting out of conditioning, they are conditioning themselves more. You will meet a girl with red hair this afternoon. Will you avoid her or take her to tea? Does the man meet the girl with the red hair? He does not.
So, stop looking at horoscopes! What is the sense of it? No sense. Instead, wake up every morning and tell yourself that I am Divinity. I am a product of Divinity itself. I am a product of Divinity; Divinity shines through me, and I am that Divinity. A simple little prayer in the Heart. Thank you, the powers that be, for seeing a new day. And let this day be practical. Or, say, “Help me make it a good day.”
All these thousands of books published on astrology and all these “ologies.” You talk of junk foods in this country. I call these junk sciences. They are unnecessary because you are formulating your life every moment of the day. Therefore, you are the master of your destiny and not some astrologer. He would not be writing astrology charts if he could know his future.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang US 1983 – 33
