Three civilizational design principles in the VedA. Civilizational continuity in a changing world. A Perspective on Response of Hindu AchAryAs to Changing Patterns of RtA. The non-response to 15th century European incursions in the South of India. Continuing Non-Response to the 21st Century Globalism.
Continuing Non-Response to the 21st Century Globalism
By Jayant Kalawar, August 29th 2023
In the 21st century there are currently two sets of technologies, which through their ubiquitous use, have become an integral part of the patterns within which humans experience their life cycle: technologies to manage female body cycles, specifically menstrual cycles, contraception, surrogate and ivf birthing. The second is telecommunications and computing technologies. These two technologies have enabled substantial amplification of the feminist movement. Some call it cyberfeminism and networked feminism[i], to characterize the digital revolution, which includes not only internet based social media, but more importantly AI and bio-informatics, leading to emergence of a socialized digital mental life integrally connecting through bio-tech with biological life. These technologies are enablers of both sukshma sharira and sthula sharira in humans.
As we noticed earlier in this paper, invention of double entry bookkeeping and joint stock company organization enabled risk taking projects helped usher in the industrial revolution and made Europe dominant. The feminist movement[ii][iii][iv] along with scalable organizational capability of the internet may in the near future lead to a transhumanist revolution[v]. The civilizational threat (to stability of the materialist state) that AI-Biotech based transhumanist revolution will pose has been given considerable thought: “A general ability to stabilize a vulnerable world would require greatly amplified capacities for preventive policing and global governance”.[vi] The intellectual drivers for such a feminist-transhumanist revolution, enabled by new technologies, are the elite universities in the USA[vii]. The AI-Biotech enabling technologies in the 21st century are likely to play the role of destruction of labor intensive manufacturing based industrial societies, just as in the 17th century industrial technology enabled destruction of India’s flourishing handloom textile industry. The desire and will, the sankalpA, required to accomplish dominion through the industrial revolution in the 17th century was provided by the owners and managers of joint stock companies out of Europe, supported by their Kings. In the 21st century the technology based drive for dominion is more complex: the desire and will for dominion using feminist-transhumanist revolution is provided by a lose interconnected network of tech billionaires, elite US Universities, media, globalized financial markets, financialized Corporates and the US State institutions[viii]. This interconnected network seems to have a life of its own, which current Western social theories are unable to explain and therefore unable to develop public policy. We are muddling through the process of adapting social organization processes and technologies to respond, influence and adapt to the feminist-transhumanist revolution.
How will Hindu AchAryAs respond to emergence of such a transhumanist revolution? Is the response going to be pro-active or are we going to repeat our performance of the past, with Hindu AchAryAs not engaging in questions of social organization and processes (“we do not engage with MllechA” being one such response)?
So where do we go from here? How may a VedA based DharmA renaissance arise, while taking into account a globalized interdependent world with multiple mAnav sanghatanA?
First, the two current major competing paradigms, one based on European Enlightenment (Capitalism with Democratic representative or authoritarian state) and Islam (with its global Ummah and local Masjid), claim universal application to the entire mAnav jAti. Any VedA based renaissance may have to clearly and compellingly articulate in a practical way how it will enable flourishing of the entire mAnav jAti and indeed all inhabitants and ecology on mother Earth, not just BhArata or Hindus.
Second, the current Euro Enlightenment based Artha and Kama ShAstrAs supporting globalized world and potential oncoming feminist-transhumanist revolution is based on a) Newtonian-Einsteinian physics which assumes space-time as fundamental reality and b) evolutionary theory of biology which gives primacy to sthula sharira and does not account for sukshma and KAraNa sharira. Despite their limitations, these theories have enabled technology and engineering which have helped very large numbers of GrihastAs in the mAnav jAti[ix]. For VedA based renaissance to emerge, there may have to be a) a new theory of physics arising out of the concept of space-time being a dependent reality based on prANa-spandanA and b) a new theory of biology based on jIva being seeded in the sthula sharira with the first infusion of prANa from the cosmic spandanA.
Third, any renaissance of Hindu Dharma would have to be led by GrihastA well accomplished in desh-kAl-paristhiti (hence not the renunciate Brahmacharis and Swamis) and at the same time knowledgeable and immersed in the knowledge and practice of understanding the human manifestation as sharira treya. Development of robust explanatory descriptions of the emergent phenomena based on first principles of Hindu shastrAs are going to be one of the necessary conditions for such a renaissance to arise. What may a beginning of such shastra based explanatory descriptions look like? Here is a link to my provocative essay Is Marriage Necessary? , if you would like to explore further on this trail, which may take you away from the rutted path we have habituated ourselves to for quite some time. So, will there be a Hindu Civilization in the future? Perhaps it will depend upon how much fire Hindu grishastas generate through their intellectual Tapasya….
[i] “Cyberfeminism and networked feminism (fourth-wave feminism)
The term cyberfeminism is used to describe the work of feminists interested in theorising, critiquing, and making use of the Internet, cyberspace, and newmedia technologies in general. The term and movement grew out of ‘third-wave’ feminism. However, the exact meaning is still unclear to some: even at the first meeting of cyberfeminists The First Cyberfeminist International (FCI) in Kassel (Germany), participants found it hard to provide a definition, and as a result of discussions, they proposed 100 anti-theses52 (with reference to Martin Luther’s theses) on what cyberfeminism is not. These included, for example, it is not an institution, it is not an ideology, it is not an –ism.
Cyberfeminism is considered to be a predecessor of ‘networked feminism’, which refers generally to feminism on the Internet: for example, mobilising people to take action against sexism, misogyny or gender-based violence against women. One example is the online movement #metoo in 2017, which was a response on social networks from women all over the world to the case of Harvey Weinstein, a Hollywood producer who was accused of sexually harassing female staff in the movie industry.” https://www.coe.int/en/web/gender-matters/feminism-and-women-s-rights-movements
[ii] One way to describe the feminist revolution in terms of AchArya Abhinavgupta’s teachings is that the IchA of Swantantrya, the desire for individuated autonomy, that is carried in each inward breath, finds much more scope of play, for the female sthula sharira, due to technologies for managing menstrual cycles, birth control and birthing.
[iv] “Indian women spend eight times more hours on unpaid care work than men. The patterns are similar across educational qualification, and employment or marital status: women with higher education, or earn their own incomes, do not spend any less time on unpaid care work. Shifting mindsets and rebalancing domestic work requires coordinated effort from key stakeholders, with public-led investments in care infrastructure and services complemented by soft interventions from private sector employers and community-based organisations.” Extracted from https://www.orfonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ORF_OccasionalPaper_372_Time-Use-Gender_new.pdf
[v] “Transhumanism is a loosely defined movement that has developed gradually over the past two decades.[1] It promotes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding and evaluating the opportunities for enhancing the human condition and the human organism opened up by the advancement of technology. Attention is given to both present technologies, like genetic engineering and information technology, and anticipated future ones, such as molecular nanotechnology and artificial intelligence.
The enhancement options being discussed include radical extension of human health-span, eradication of disease, elimination of unnecessary suffering, and augmentation of human intellectual, physical, and emotional capacities. Other transhumanist themes include space colonization and the possibility of creating superintelligent machines, along with other potential developments that could profoundly alter the human condition. The ambit is not limited to gadgets and medicine, but encompasses also economic, social, institutional designs, cultural development, and psychological skills and techniques.
Transhumanists view human nature as a work-in-progress, a half-baked beginning that we can learn to remold in desirable ways. Current humanity need not be the endpoint of evolution. Transhumanists hope that by responsible use of science, technology, and other rational means we shall eventually manage to become posthuman, beings with vastly greater capacities than present human beings have.” Extract from https://nickbostrom.com/ethics/values (accessed on October 18th 2022).
[vi] The Vulnerable World Hypothesis, Nick Bostrom, Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford Abstract: Scientific and technological progress might change people’s capabilities or incentives in ways that would destabilize civilization. For example, advances in DIY biohacking tools might make it easy for anybody with basic training in biology to kill millions; novel military technologies could trigger arms races in which whoever strikes first has a decisive advantage; or some economically advantageous process may be invented that produces disastrous negative global externalities that are hard to regulate. This paper introduces the concept of a vulnerable world: roughly, one in which there is some level of technological development at which civilization almost certainly gets devastated by default, i.e. unless it has exited the ‘semi-anarchic default condition’. Several counterfactual historical and speculative future vulnerabilities are analyzed and arranged into a typology. A general ability to stabilize a vulnerable world would require greatly amplified capacities for preventive policing and global governance. The vulnerable world hypothesis thus offers a new perspective from which to evaluate the risk-benefit balance of developments towards ubiquitous surveillance or a unipolar world order. Source: https://nickbostrom.com/papers/vulnerable.pdf
[vii]Snakes in the Ganga by Rajiv Malhotra and Vijaya Vishwanathan, 2022, provides insightful perspective of the deep and broad the momentum of this feminist-transhumanist revolution, emerging out of elite US Universities, targeted at BhAratiya society.
Three civilizational design principles in the VedA. Civilizational continuity in a changing world. A Perspective on Response of Hindu AchAryAs to Changing Patterns of RtA. The non-response to 15th century European incursions in the South of India. Continuing Non-Response to the 21st Century Globalism.
The Devi Waiting For Her Children (c) Jayant Kalawar 2019
Besides the invasions from the north west by carriers of the Islamic flag, Europeans began making incursions in the south of India beginning late 15th century. How did Hindu AchAryAs respond to these incursions?
Here is a summary description of selected European incursions, beginning with the Portuguese entry into KeralA and subsequently Goa, Daman and Diu, beginning May 1498, while the Vijayanagara Empire (1336 – 1646) was at its peak. These examples show how newer forms of social organization and technologies enabled non-Hindu cultures to gain control over BhArat over long periods of time, implying that with initiative and curiosity Hindus could have learned these new ways and thus maintained and extended their domain into the Central and Western Asia and Europe 800 years ago.
The invention of double entry book keeping by Money Lenders / Bankers in Europe in general and Italy in particular beginning in the 13th century enabled merchants to lend risky long term project funds[i] (as opposed to specific asset based letters of credit e.g. Hundis) to Kings and Archbishops to finance trade related voyages combined with the cultural project of missionizing Christianity. This funding process helped Spain launch Columbus to the Americas (1492 – the quest was for the Indies but landed in the Americas) and Vasco Da Gama to India (1498). Design and construction of long distance sailing ships with substantial platforms to carry cannons was commissioned through such funds. The financing of these well-armed long distance sailing ships launched Europe’s global imperial project. When Vasco Da Gama arrived in Kozhikode (aka Calicut) he was given permission by theSamoothiri to set up a Portuguese trading post, along with missionaries. Vasco Da Gama headed back to Lisbon. The Portuguese traders were a competition with the Arab traders[ii] who had set up shop in Kozhikode since the 12th century. The Arab traders had their own militia for protection of their assets and also served as the Samoothiri’s navy for protection of the port as well as protection against pirates of the trading ships plying to and from Yemen as well as Egypt. The Arab traders persuaded the Samoothiri to expel the Portuguese. The Portuguese sent a ship with the message of an impending siege by the militia of the Arab traders at the behest of the Samoothiri. The trading post was able to withstand the siege for about 3 months, when 3 Portuguese armed (with cannons) ships arrived. It is said that on just the sight of the armed ships, the soldiers who had laid siege ran away (this may be an exaggeration, but the net result is not in contention). That was in 1503.
The Portuguese thereafter focused on defeating the Arab naval forces that were controlling the Arabian Sea. A pivotal naval war in 1509 ending with victory of the Portuguese armed ships over the joint forces of India based Sultans, the Ottomans and Egypt[iii]. What was the Navy of the Empire of Vijayanagara doing? It seemed to be mostly based out of Honavar and focused on raiding Arab ships plying from Yemen and Aden to the sub-continent with horses bred for cavalry of the Mughals and Sultans who were preparing to attack and occupy Deccan. These naval raids secured a channel for supply of cavalry horses for the Vijayanagara Empire. The Vijayanagara naval commander, Timoji, at Honavar was also reputed to have provided intelligence to the Portuguese armada, enabling its victory in the war against the combined navies of the Sultans of Gujarat, the Ottomans and Egypt in 1509. Subsequently, Timoji is also said to have advised and enabled capture of Goa by Afonso de Albuquerque in 1510. For his services, Timoji was briefly made the interim governor of Goa.
So it may be that it was in 1509 when BhArat began coming under European hegemony, much before European Renaissance which began in late 16th century. Rest was just a matter of time[iv].
Did Hindu AchAryAs guide Hindu kings to establish trading posts in Yemen, Aden, east coast of Africa in the 800 years (since 9th century, during the RashtrakuTA’s there are references to Arab merchants camping on the west coast) prior to Vasco Da Gama’s landing and later (post Vasco Da Gama) in Europe? What efforts were made to secure and learn techniques of double entry book keeping, funding risky long term projects and building out of the new weapons and naval technologies that were coming out of Europe, post Vasco Da GAmA’s landing in Kozhikode?[v]
Extending double entry book keeping to accounting equation gave rise to concept of risky equity by the second half of 16th century Europe. That led to formation of the Joint Stock Company as a social organization. East India Company was one of the joint stock companies (1590), with large number of small investors[vi]. The company was chartered, under the umbrella of the United Kingdom of England and Wales, specifically for investing in a high risk project of setting up trade route to India. The joint stock company social organization and the social contracts with individual investors enabling higher risk ventures continues to be the core social contract across the globe today.
The management of the joint stock company was responsible of making returns for the investors in ways that are legal. In 1757 at battle of Plassey, Jagat Seth financed the war for the East India Company, including bribing Mir Jafar so Robert Clive can win. Did Jagat Seth know about the concept of joint stock company? In 1750s (more than 150 years after its founding) East India Company was in its death throes. Jagat Seth could have taken over the company and made Clive his employee. Was that explored? If not, what kept Hindu money lenders / bankers from learning and exploring about this form of social organization?
In general, people from all over the world came to both the western and eastern shores of India. China sent trading ships to the east coast ports, for example, for millennia. Did Hindus set up trading posts and dominion relationships with any of these countries they sold to? It would be interesting to research to [vii]see whether the exports had to be paid for with gold and silver, since there appears to be little reference to what India was importing. If indeed that is so, then it would make sense that so much gold was available in Deva SthAnAs across India. One could even speculate that the importers of Indian products having been under pressure of producing more gold to buy Indian imports would resort to raiding Indian temples for gold as a way for them to then being able to buy Indian products once again.
All of these ways of social and economic behavior (including especially the non-responses) that I have described above makes sense from within the Hindu culture, which teaches us to act as Karma yogins – produce and consume minimally, and celebrate the Divya ShAktis opulently in their Deva SthAnAs. This may come across as a harmonious stable perspective. However, it leaves the Hindu sanghaTanA vulnerable to attack from non-Hindu sanghaTanAs and to dynamic changes in RtA. To non-Hindu materialist outsiders (the MlechhAs) such practices may come across as infantile, of a people needing to be civilized.
[i]https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/234631058.pdf The origin of double entry bookkeeping is generally associated with Luca Pacioli. As a matter of fact, the history of accounting cannot be complete without highlighting the wonderful work of Luca Pacioli. His book “Suma de Arithmetia, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita” which was published in 1491 had two chapters – de Computis et Scripturis – describing double entry bookkeeping. His idea reflected the business activities of the Venice at as that time, especially the way they recorded financial transactions. This is to say that even before Pacioli published his book, the Merchants of Venice actually maintained accounting records which of course, they did in a particular way. So in his book, Pacioli simply described this peculiar method used by the early merchants to keep their records. This method was referred to as “the Method of Venice” or “the Italian Method”. This is to say that Luca Pacioli did not invent the double entry system of accounting. He only described the method of accounting practiced at that time.
[ii] “VAsco Da GAmA, for example, might never even have reached India had he not been guided there from the Adrican coast by an experience Arab pilot. And when, after an epic voyage of more than 12,000 miles, he and his men finally did arrive in the subcontinent, they were astonished to be met in the harbour of Calicut by two North African Muslims, both of whom could understand Portuguese” Pp 16-17, Casale, Giancarlo, The Ottoman Age of Exploration, Oxford University Press, 2020.
[iii] The Indian and Arab vessels carried gunpowder weapons, but even the largest dhows, built shell‑first with flexible hulls, were too weakly constructed to mount heavy guns. The Portuguese seized the weather gauge at the start of the engagement, testimony to their ships’ sailing qualities; this enabled them to engage or disengage at will. The Portuguese squadrons apparently fought in line ahead using broadside fire to systematically devastate the more lightly constructed, heavily manned Arab and Indian craft.87 The victory was clearly decisive. Further resistance to the Portuguese at sea was either sporadic or dependent on external support.
The next serious challenge to the Portuguese came in 1508 in the form of an expeditionary force mounted from the Red Sea under Mamluk direction with Ragusan and Venetian technical assistance and based on a hard core of Mediterranean war galleys. Reinforced with a large number of local vessels provided by the Sultan of Gudjerat, the force, under Hussein Pasha, caught a Portuguese squadron at anchor in the River Chaul and attacked with overwhelming numerical superiority. The Portuguese held out for three days before being overwhelmed, eloquent testimony to the defensive power of their vessels and the effectiveness of their ordnance. Of three naos and five caravels engaged, only two caravels got away a circumstance which suggests that the critical determinant of escape was handiness under sail and that the Portuguese could defend the low-lying caravels as well as the tall naos. Whether because of a lack of direction or heavy losses and the need for repairs, Hussein’s squadron retired to Diu where it was caught in port and annihilated the following year by a Portuguese squadron under Almeida. https://www.angelfire.com/ga4/guilmartin.com/Revolution.html
[iv] The core reason for Portuguese naval success, against the Arab-Turkish navy in the Arabian Sea, was superior naval technology emerging out of Europe: Carracks and Caravelles, long sailing ships designed to carry powerful (for that time) heavy cannons. Such development was made possible by funding for risky long term projects becoming available, enabled by double entry book keeping. The Vijayanagara as well as the Arab-Turkish navies used dhonis (powered by oars, rather than long sails) to carry armed infantry, ram the opponents ship, board them and take them over. That dhoni based naval strategy did not stand a chance against the sails and cannon combination, which bombed opposing ships from a distance. Source: Ibid
[v] The Ottoman’s, after the defeat in 1509 in the Arabian Sea, hired Venetian ship builders to build out its navy with the latest available technologies. There is evidence that such technology was available to Hindu kings. For example with Portuguese armada that arrived in 1503, to protect their trading post in Kozhikode, there are references showing that there were agents of weapons sellers from Venice on board that armada. After all, the armada was manned by privateers, mercenaries, in the pay of the King of Portugal dependent on loans funded by merchants. Some cannons were sold to the local Hindu kings, and with training, they were used against the Portuguese armada. That seems to indicate that Hindu kings could potentially have developed allies in Europe for selling their products directly to merchants in Europe, rather than through the trading posts that European kings were forced to send to India when the Ottomans cut off trading routes to India. Was that done? If not, what prevented Hindu kings from doing so?
[vi] Dalrymple, William, The Anarchy, Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2019, Pp 7-8 “the EIC was from the very first conceived as a joint stock corporation, open to all investors”. And “The idea of a joint stock company was one of Tudor England’s most brilliant and revolutionary inventions”.
[vii] There are a few exceptions of kings sending trade and dominion missions from the east coast of India going to south east Asia as well as east Asia. Kalinga was one of them – and that came to an end with the invasion by Emperor AshokA about 2300 years ago. The kings of Tamil Nadu also ventured forth in first millennia CE. What caused them to lose influence is a question that needs to be researched.
Aum sri MAtre NamahA Cover art by Jayant Kalawar 2018.
Three civilizational design principles in the VedA. Civilizational continuity in a changing world. A Perspective on Response of Hindu AchAryAs to Changing Patterns of RtA. The non-response to 15th century European incursions in the South of India. Continuing Non-Response to the 21st Century Globalism.
A Perspective on Response of Hindu AchAryAs to Changing Patterns of RtA
By Jayant Kalawar, August 24th 2023
In this section I present a perspective on the changes in patterns, the RtA, that humans experience (given limited human capacity for awareness and self-reflection) and see how the Hindu intellectual culture responded to the changes in the patterns.
The last ice age is supposed to have begun receding in the norther hemisphere of the Earth about 12000 years ago[i]. Perhaps that was the beginning of the 13000 year phase of the approximately 26000 year cycle of the Earth’s precession, when the climate in the northern hemisphere is relatively benign. Assuming the preceding 13000 years was an extended ice age on the Eurasian landmass, one would expect mass migration of those who could move down south – and BhArat becomes one of the most hospitable areas for this period of time. Then beginning about 12000 years reverse migration out of India into northern parts of the Eurasian land mass could have started. Even within those 12000 years, there have been mini ice ages. These mini ice ages may bring mass migrations from the north to down south, often manifesting form of violent raids. Similarly, current research findings seem to point to extended periods of drought between 1500 BCE and 500 BCE, leading to mass migrations – leading to end of Bronze age civilizations, which after many centuries arose again as Iron age civilization. Civilizations built by mAnav sanghatanA over multiple millennia, within these 13000 year phases of the Earth’s precession, may come to an end due to such extended broad and deep events. There are many threads that extend out of such a frame that may lead to ग्लानि of DharmA and responses to such decay and need to be researched[ii]. This paper takes up one response from the Hindu mAnav sanghatanA to such continual destructive war raids on the fertile settled community of the Punjab, by nomadic pastoralists from the North West flying the flag of IslAm: the response of Guru Nanak and the rise of the Sikh Panth.
The frequent raids for plunder, as a means of production for their own mAnav sanghatanA seem to have begun with the well documented raids (at least 17) led by Mohammed Ghaznavi between 1005 CE to 1030 CE. This was followed by even more violent plundering invasion by Timur (the first Mughal) in 1398, ending with the sacking of Delhi after the defeat of the Delhi Sultan at Panipat. A little over a century later, Timur’s great grandson Babur, launched a series of raids on the Punjab and surrounding areas, beginning about 1519 and until 1529. Guru Nanak’s Babur-vaNi articulates the senseless carnage of Babur[iii].
the B ̄abar-v ̄an. ̄ı verses elucidate how Guru Nanak encountered Babur at Saidpur, singing a hymn in Persian language to the tune of a wartime melody, and exposing the greedy tendencies of the aggressor in a most intimate way.
In the last 20 years of his life (to 1539), Guru Nanak developed a response to these frequent plundering raids, through pratyaskha pramAnA (empirical observation) of the desh-kaal-paristhiti, using the lens of the VedA.
How is it that it took Hindu sanghaTanA about 400 years of plundering raids and depredations from the North West to eventually come up with dynamic application of the VedA in response to the threat to DharmA? To get a glimpse of the intellectual landscape of that time in BhArat, I point to the Sarva Darshana SangrahA of Acharya VidyAraNya[iv] (late 13th to late 14th century CE) of Sringeri MathA. The sangrahA covers 16 different darshanAs from CarvAka, Bauddha, JainA, PratibhijnA (with a special respectful mention of AchArya AbhinaguptA’s prolific work) to Sri Adi SamkaraCAryA’s VedAnta. The two darshanAs that were also in play in BhArat at that time, Christianity (in Kerala) and Islam (in Kerala and all along the west coast), are not included in the sangrahA. Clearly those two were not part of BhArat’s intellectual lineage. So they may not make it into the darshana sangrahA. Perhaps there were other documents with critical reviews of these two darshanAs that were made so that their potential threat to the Hindu mAnav sanghtanA could be analyzed through the lens of VedA? If so, the MathAs may be able to provide these documents so that we may learn and benefit from them.
During AchAryA VidyAraNyA’s time Arabs flying the flag of Islam were active on the west coast and especially in Kerala) does not include a critique of the IslAmic darshanA both for understanding their own assumptions and perspective and then applying the lens of the VedA to describe how, under what circumstances, such a Darshana may arise among a mAnav sanghatanA. That would enable formulation of a response. Perhaps the singular focus on personal liberation with de-valuation of samsArA as nothing but suffering through endless re-births, left no room for desire among the highest level of Hindu AchAryAs to invoke the IchA shakti[v] for restabilizing and defending the Hindu sanghatanA. Perhaps such desire and focused intention to re-build DharmA, as a vibrant renewing combination Kama Shastra, Artha ShAstra and Moksha Shastra, have been largely absent among Hindu AchAryA lineages in the last 2500 years?[vi] Does the focus on MimAmsA (interpretation of the VedA), VyAkaraNA (PaNini’s grammar with its logic) and TarkA (debating skills) used to train Hindu AchAryAs lead to dis-association with ability to describe and explain non-VedA based knowledge systems and how they arise in the world, in terms of the VedA? Calling out non-VedA based knowledge systems as either NAstikA or MllechA leads to denial and therefore to vulnerability to attacks.
[i] “Twelve thousand years ago, the great ice sheets retreated at the beginning of the latest interglacial – the Flandrian – allowing humans to return to northern latitudes. This period has been relatively warm, and the climate relatively stable, although it has been slightly colder than the last interglacial, the Eemian, and sea levels are currently at least 3 metres lower – differences that are being closely scrutinised by researchers keen to understand how our climate will develop.” https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18949-the-history-of-ice-on-earth/
But this respite from the ice is likely to prove short-lived, at least in geological terms. Human effects on the climate notwithstanding, the cycle will continue to turn, the hothouse period will some day come to an end – and the ice sheets will descend again.
[ii] For example nomadic pastoralists have been a mAnav sanghatanA that is not rooted to a geographic locale. Islam played a key role in building a code a conduct among these nomadic pastoralists, so that they could identify as a community, Umma. When times were harsh for these pastoralists, they raid mAnav sanghatanA settled for a long time in specific geographic locale and flourishing – the Hindus of BhArat for example.
[v] Guru Nanak’s MahA VAkya Ik AumkAra Sat NAm is his foundational link to the VedA. The assertion of the MahA VAkya is that there is only one (Ik) Sat (the unchanging),and it is known by the name (Nam) of Aum (AumKAra). The implication is that everything else, other than, Aum, that humans experience is Asat, changing. The rest of Guru NAnak’s VaNis are about drawing in people to come together and chant and do YajnyA. The chanting of the Guru Vanis and acting out the sacrifices are resonant of the Rig VedA verses I quoted at the beginning of this paper.
Guru NAnak guided this yajnyA performed by his community through mantras that he composed and led the sacrifices in tune with the particular desh-kaal-paristhiti that his community found itself in.
[vi] Perhaps it has something to do with the structuring of the AchArya intellectual process mostly involving renunciates since the time of Siddhartha GautamA, who do not have pratyaksha pramAna of the grihastAshrama in general and more importantly in the dynamically changing RtA with desh-kAl-paristhiti? Guru NAnak, a grihastA, accomplished a veritable transformation in his community from within the teachings and guidance of the VedA. Perhaps the Sringeri MathA, to which AchArya VidyAraNya belonged, had published multiple revised versions of the Sarva Darshana SangrahA over the last 600 years? If yes, does it include a closely argued review of the Sikh Panth, followed by debates and discussions to explore and learn and assimilate the learnings of Hindu communities under immense stress responded? If yes, how can those be accessed, discussed publicly and extended to the present times?
The Devi Waiting For Her Children (c) Jayant Kalawar 2019
Three civilizational design principles in the VedA. Civilizational continuity in a changing world. A Perspective on Response of Hindu AchAryAs to Changing Patterns of RtA. The non-response to 15th century European incursions in the South of India. Continuing Non-Response to the 21st Century Globalism.
About 3500 to 2500 years before now, there seems to have been a phase when DharmA in BhArat, was in a long period of decay especially in its political economy (governed by Artha ShAstra) and social formations (governed by KAma shAstra). Research and analysis may be required to understand how the decay in the network of bronze age civilizations[i], beginning about 3500 years before now, played into such decay of DharmA in BhArat. In the meanwhile, the contradictions in the Dharma SutrAs of GautamA for example, provide us a glimpse of how DharmA was applied during that range of time. The SutrAs describe how large masses of the mAnav sanghatanA were to be treated with an iron hand. On the other hand, those entrusted with understanding the changing nature of RtA and use of the over-arching principles given by the Rishis to adapt DharmA to desh-kaal-paristhiti, did not seem to be active. As a reaction to such prevailing decay of DharmA, there seems to have emerged an energetic reaction among the mAnav sanghatanA, around about 2500 years ago there began emerging multiple intellectual responses to this civilizational slide. KautilyA in India. Aristotle in Greece. Han Fei in China. All three intellectual responses were focused on humans as social and political beings – thus the formulations were in terms of KAma and Artha shAstrAs[ii]
At around the same time, BhArat also experienced a different response to this crisis: that of Siddharth Gautama (about 5th century BCE) was one manifestation. Siddhartha Gautama not only gave up his Kingship role (Raj DharmA) but also his role as GrihastashramA. He seems to have articulated the challenge that Hindu AchAryAs had failed to provide guidance on how DharmA practices should adapt to changing in RtA. However, instead of working on re-building VedA based DharmA, Siddhartha Gautama chose a different path: of an assertion that samsArA was full of suffering with personal liberation (NirvANa) the only way out of that suffering of endless births.
Siddhartha GautamA’s response with his pivot to personal liberation as the only path to release from samsArA was mainstreamed by Emperor AshokA about 2300 years ago. Subsequent to this pivot, intellectual conversation on social technologies based on VedAngAs (which form the basis for Artha and Kama shastras, including state building) seems to have come to a stand-still among Hindu AchAryAs[iii]. The capacity on the Hindu civilization to respond to changing dynamic nature of RtA declined. Hindu civilization became vulnerable to attacks from non-Hindu mAnav sanghatanA.
To understand this point of dynamic nature of RtA better, let me take a short diversion. Humans are able to observe certain (very limited) bandwidth of cosmic rhythms (the major part of RtA). For example the rhythm of the Moon that is correlated with the tides, Sun’s annual (solar year, which is how humans broadly share and manage time globally in this epoch) north-south pulsation giving rise to seasons. There are other pulsations of much lower frequency: consider the axial precession of the Earth, which apparently has a frequency of about 25,800 solar years. Our ancestors were cognizant of this. Shastras based on Vedanga Jyotish were an attempt to research and regenerate a more subtle human understanding of RtA. The HC has not tended to researching and developing of this area of knowledge for at least more than a millennia. Consider for example, the possibility that annual solar cycles undergo small changes which accumulate and result in climate changes in the hemispheres, through the progression of precession of the equinox[iv]:
Axial precession makes seasonal contrasts more extreme in one hemisphere and less extreme in the other. Currently perihelion occurs during winter in the Northern Hemisphere and in summer in the Southern Hemisphere. This makes Southern Hemisphere summers hotter and moderates Northern Hemisphere seasonal variations. But in about 13,000 years, axial precession will cause these conditions to flip, with the Northern Hemisphere seeing more extremes in solar radiation and the Southern Hemisphere experiencing more moderate seasonal variations.
There have been variations in seasons even within the 13000 years, which then have given rise to changes in rhythm for humans. This may have lead to seasonal migrations from the steppes to the plains, with annual raids as a means of production against the settled agricultural societies. Not only is RtA dynamic, its patterns reflect the entire range of short and long term spandanA of the cosmos.
The question that arises, if we were to assume dynamic nature of RtA, is: How can mAnav jAti shape and maintain DharmA by continually aligning with dynamic RtA?
Hindu DharmA may have seen diminished capacity to provide the protection (physical security) and abundance (economic security) due to the intellectual pivot away from focus on supporting Grihastashrama and towards aspiring for moksha as the solution to suffering of samsarA, about 2500 years ago. I would like to offer a more contemporary perspective on the challenge that Hindu AchAryAs face if they wish to be responsive and adaptive to dynamic nature of RtA in the 21st century.
As many of you know, there are broadly two types of Artificial Intelligence (AI – neural network programmed big data computing) models. One is classificatory AI model that can be trained once and then used for ever to select cat images from among a large collection of random images. The basic building block for this type of classificatory modeling is the subject-predicate-object model. Same as the core of the VyAkaraNa rules laid down by Maharishi PANini[v] about 2500 years ago for Samskrit. These classificatory models can then begin generating sentences with meaning as well (see for example Open AI GPT-3). Flourishing of Samskrit literature post PANini did that as well.[vi]
The other broad type of AI model is time series based, where it keeps learning and training itself, based on new data it actively looks for. For example Alpha Go. The reinforcement learning method enables opening up new areas that humans have not thought of. The latest example, at this time of writing, is successful use of Alpha Tensor to develop a more efficient way to do matrix multiplications, which are core to AI and require considerable computing power and therefore energy[vii]. Cultures which have this capability to learn from changing environmental patterns may have a better chance of adapting and of being resilient to protect and sustain their Grihastashrama configuration. Hindu AchAryAs due to their focus on personal liberation[viii] (Moksha Shastra) led by non-Grishastas (Brahmacharis, Swamis, renunciates from KAma and Artha) in about the last 2500 years, may have under-cut its cultural intellectual capacity to monitor, learn and respond to changing patterns of RtA. For example, consider how the following popular verse from the Bhagavad Gita was interpreted by most (and perhaps all) SAmpradAyA Gurus[ix] from the Moksha shastra lens (and I then offer an interpretation through my Artha Shastra lens):
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन। मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि।।2.47।।[x]
Sri RAmAnujAchAryA’s commentary is helpful in providing perspective for this verse through the Moksha ShAstra lens: “As for obligatory, occasional and desiderative acts taught in the Vedas and associated with some result or other, you, an aspirant established in Sattva, have the right only to perform them”[xi]. First, the AchArYA narrows down the actions to KarmAs (actions) prescribed in the Karma Kanda of the VedAs. He further narrows it down to say the guidance is being given to those already established in Sattva (thus being devoid of Rajas and Tamas). And the guidance is that such individuals should perform actions set forth in the VedAs without asking for anything in return and without expecting any fruits from performing the VedA prescribed Karma KAnda actions.
More recent pracharaks and commentators of the Bhagavad Gita, while recognizing the Gita as a Moksha Shastra, no longer nuance that the actions it references are Karma Kanda actions and applicable only to those established in Sattva (hence free of Rajas and Tamas). The exhortation of doing work without expectations of fruit is made applicable to all actions and to all individuals[xii]. How does such guidance, provided through the Moksha shastra lens, impact functioning of GrihastashramA in a rapidly changing material world that most Hindus experience? From their commentary it is clear that Hindu AchAryAs approach the Bhagavad Gita as a Moksha Shastra. How does that help with encouraging curiosity and initiative required to monitor, learn and adapt to be resilient in a dynamic RtA? How does it assist in applying the desh-kaal-paristhiti principle to enable robust GrihastashramA?
Now let us see how an alternative perspective of the first line of the Bhagavad Gita verse 2-47 from an ArthA perspective may provide different guidance:
You may act (karmaNye) to the best of your competence (the adhikAra you have acquired). However, the fruits from your actions (phaleshu) are not (mA) certain (kadAchana).
Introducing the sense of certainty / uncertainty may enable exploration of the dynamic nature of RtA in particular desh-kaal-paristhiti states. It may open up curiosity for ways of collaborating in the rapidly moving theater of the Devi. An integral part of the script in the Devi’s theater for mAnav sanghatanA is playing out of GrihastAshramA. The backdrop in the theater and other actors and scripts (whether climate, natural environment, multiple mAnav sanghatanA each with its own culture) they speak may keep changing. But the core RtA, enduring pattern, for mAnav sanghatanA is an effective and enduring GrihastAshramA process. So what may help Hindu Civilizational renaissance is VedA based DharmA that is dynamic and cognizant of the changes in RtA to enable flourishing of Hindu GrihastashramA.
MAnav sanghatanA experiences changes in RtA from two broadly different sources: a) the change in patterns of natural environment and b) the change in patterns due to human produced technologies. Given the rapid development of human constructed technologies in the last two hundred years, this source of changing patterns needs to be recognized while considering DharmA configurations to support Grihastashrama in the 21st century. These pattern changes have been introduced by technologies developed mostly by non-Hindu mAnav sanghatanA. Have Hindu grihastAs adapted to these technology driven pattern changes through ad hoc imitation, rather than thoughtful DharmA based adaptation? That is explored in the next section.
[v] In turn based on the core model of human cognition given by the VedAs: prameta-pramANa-prameya.
[vi] Hindu culture is well accomplished in this classificatory model, with its major regional languages adopting PANini’s VyAkaraNa as their grammar, beginning sometime in the 8th-9th century CE (Kannada language is said to be the first regional language to have accomplished this through the RashtrakutA court).
[viii] Hindu AchAryAs use the tools they gain from study of MimAsA (structured interpretation) based on VyAkaraNA (grammar of MaharishI PANinI) and TarkA (logic again based on VyAkaraNA). These are tools help generate abstract mental models that are internally consistent in their logic. They do not support modeling and production of systematized knowledge of the vibrant pulsating cosmos that humans experience with their every breath.
Background: What makes for Hindu Civilization now?
By Jayant Kalawar, August 22nd 2023
This paper describes a futures perspective on VedA based Hindu Civilization, Manav DharmA, in the context of the general angst among many Hindus that Hindu Civilization[i] (HC) may be under attack. I notice three types of responses to this angst. One is to defend HC as a 5000+ year old living civilization with interpretations of texts and cultural processes handed down through the generations as evidence. The second is to call for a renaissance of HC in the context of changing material paradigms. I see Sri Aurobindo’s and Veer Savarkar’s writing in this second approach. The third is the modern secular Indian approach of saying HC belongs to the museum. This paper may be seen as a mix of the first two responses: a search for what led to stagnation and vulnerability of DharmA in the last 2500 years with focus on VedA based Hindu intellectual history, its impact on Hindu mAnav sanghaTanA, and speculation of futures with opportunities and challenges for possibility of renaissance of VedA based DharmA.
I begin by positing three VedA based over-arching architectural principles for designing and constructing flexible, practical, adaptive, resilient mAnav DharmA:
An over-arching VedA principle of cooperation to form mAnav sanghaTanA[ii].
The principle of aligning with RtA, the dynamic patterns of cosmic pulsations at all levels from micro to macro.
The principle of desh-kaal-paristhiti (space-time-circumstance) to ensure responsive flexibility and resilience to ensure aligning with the dynamic unfolding of RtA.
Much of my thinking in this paper is an extension of what I have already presented in my blog post titled Aligning Human Time Cycles with the RtA of the VedA[iii] .
I end that post by quoting what I notice as the over-arching principle of mAnav sanghatanA in the Rig Veda, the last two verses of RV 191.10:
“May all chant the same mantrAs, may they aspire to the same goals, through shared purpose and desire. I will join in your mantra chanting, I will offer the same sacrifices as you so that we may achieve our shared goals.”
“May all have the same intention and desires in their hearts, may all have similar thoughts so that we may connect and work in unison”
The Rishi is guiding us step by step in the process of how mAnav sanghatanA emerges: a) having shared goals b) with shared desires and purpose. The success of this process of accomplishing shared purpose and desires requires c) offering to give up on individual desires (sacrifices, elsewhere known as yagnya) that are inimical to the shared purpose and desires. The pre-requisite of entering into working together, as a mAnav sanghatanA, through individual sacrifice, the Rishi goes on to say, begins with us as individuals generating the same sankalpa, same intentions and therefore the same desires in our hearts. It is this sankalpa, the shared intention and desire, that is open to agency and will, not only in individuals, but as a sanghatanA.
Let’s examine three recent practical examples of Hindu mAnav sanghatanA accomplishing shared purpose and desires to better understand what the Rishi is saying: the Indian struggle for freedom from the British Empire in late 19th and first half of the 20th century[iv], Lokmanya Tilak inspired Ganesh Utsav to bring together Hindu community in early 20th century[v] and the rise of ISKCON over the last 50 years or so[vi].
Does the VedA provide guidance on what kind of shared goals are to be preferred and for what reasons, for mAnav sanghatanA to work in unison? For an answer to that question, let us turn to the second architectural principle of DhArmA: RtA.
My exploration of the theme of RtA in the VedA, which I have covered in my blog post[vii], was focused on examining the role of coordinating individual and social action over time, to ensure social coordination. I described how the development of PanchAnga technology, with daily detailed measurements of time across geographical areas of BhArat, with methods described in VedAnga Jyotisha, was instrumental in enabling large scale actions of mAnav sanghatanA. The panchanga technology enables aligning of the spandanA associated with Earth’s fortnightly interaction with the Moon (which gives rise to tides and pulsation of underground water levels on Earth) and annual interaction with the Sun (which gives rise to the seasons on Earth). The capacity of Hindus to align with the RtA of the Moon and Sun enabled agricultural and market cycles, and therefore the emergence of a flourishing agriculture based civilization.
In this paper, I wish to posit a different, more macro, aspect of RtA for mAnav sanghatanA as a JAti. The manifestation of the jagat through Shristhi by the Shakti aspect of ShivA has an enduring capacity, even while it is ever changing. This enduring capacity we know of as Sthiti. In the current sthiti we find ourselves in, the mAnav jAti is one of the many inter-connected manifestations in the Devi’s jagat[viii]. Currently this mAnav jAti has an enduring quality of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of solar years. The enduring quality of the manifestation of the mAnav jAti is sustained through reproduction combined with long term nurturing of each generation. Such endurance has been made possible by the human capacity[ix] to produce social organizations as well as supporting technologies. The core organizational process, developed based on insight and guidance from the Rishis of the VedA, that ensures long term endurance of mAnav jAti is GrihastashramA.
That takes us to the last of the three over-arching architectural principles for DharmA design: desh-kaal-paristhiti.
The repetition यदा यदा seem to point to events of DharmA collapsing that have happened in the past and expected to happen many times in the future. The repetition of युगे युगे points to such collapse and subsequent rejuventation is to be expected in many different epochs. In the ItihAsAs we notice descriptions of some deshAs being at peak of practice of DharmA, while others were in a state of DhArmik collapse. Thus at the same time in different spaces, the emergent state of DharmA is seen to be quite different. Similarly in the ItihAsAs we notice that in particular paristhitis (situational contexts) Sri RAma and Sri KrishNa act in ways that may not be considered DhArmic. Hence consideration of the dynamic of paristhiti in DharmA articulation appears to be valid. The proposed over-arching architectural principle of desh-kaal-paristhiti, therefore, appears to be known, in Hindu traditions.
I posit that Rishis of the VedA were aware of that DharmA processes and structures have to keep pace with changing of RtA. They were also aware that RtA of the VedA, a complex dynamic interaction between myriad spandanA of Shakti, would undergo change. There would have to be many updated versions of articulations DharmA SutrAs. It is my understanding[xi] that Gautama’s and Baudhayana’s Dharma sutra treatises themselves reference many previous versions of articulations of DharmA. The Sutras themselves are to be seen as ‘rochak jhanki’[xii], an appreciative snap shot of how DharmA principles were interpreted and applied at a particular time and place, based on interpretation of smritis.There are modern examples which point to capacity of mAnav sanghatanA to develop knowledge to manage and control complex processes that change rapidly over time[xiii]
Should one expect social processes of mAnav sanghatanA to change as the patterns in the environment change, while ensuring that the underlying physics and over-arching architectural principles from the VedA continue to be the foundational building blocks? If so, how is it that we, in the Hindu sanghaTanA, continue to go back and reference operational and user manuals[xiv] for social processes from 2500 years ago, with no new versions generated? That is the question I begin addressing in rest of this paper.
[i] Civilizational angst may have become a global phenomena with the publication of Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations in 1996. A precursor was Arnold Toynbee’s 1948 Civilization on Trial. Both these reflect the civilizational themes of European Enlightenment as articulated in the 17th (Hobbes) and 18th (Rousseau) centuries. I have provided a perspective of the civilization that has emerged from the European Enlightenment in my bookhttps://www.amazon.com/OUTSIDER-DECONSTRUCTING-EUROPEAN-ENLIGHTENMENT-Death-ebook/dp/B07RHVRV7V
[iv] Indian freedom fighters[iv] shared the goal of SwarAjya. They took up the sankalpa to work towards that goal, while sacrificing their livelihood, and in many cases, their lives. To inspire the mAnav sanghatanA they arose from, they came up with mantras to be chanted together by everyone in that mAnav sanghatanA: Vande MAtaram and Jana Gana Mana. The momentum from this process I just described, in such thread bare outline, manifested the desired result of SwarAjya. The sacrifices and the joint chanting of the mantrAs by the hundreds of millions in the BhArat’s mAnav sanghatanA continues to be felt to be necessary to sustain that desired goal of sustaining SwarAjya. The guidance from the insight of the Rishi of the Rig Veda is so deeply ingrained, in the practitioners of the processes of Hindu culture, that book reading and scholarly knowledge are not a necessary pre-requisite for it to be activated.
[v] LokmAnya Tilak inspired the celebration of Ganesh Utsav in early 20th century as a way of bringing out Hindus visibly into the colonized public square. The celebration became an integral part of LokmAnya. Hundreds of thousands of local community leaders have (and continue to) volunteer their time and funding, as they have over more than a hundred years, to make the shared goal of bringing Hindu practitioners into the public square, by celebration of Ganesh Utsav, an annual success in MahArAshtra. The common shared mantra that is chanted together by the mAnav sanghatanA at the Ganesh Utsav is Jai Dev Jai Dev Jai Mangal Murti[v]. The success of Ganesh Utsav reflects the insight and guidance of the Rishi of the Rig Veda that I have referenced above.
[vi] ISKCON is an international Hindu community institution that evolved out of a shared goal of extending the VaishNava teachings and practice of Chaitanya MahAprabhu of the 15th century globally. Thousands of followers sacrificed their livelihood and way of life and dedicated themselves to this sankalpa. Their common shared mantra that is chanted together by the mAnav sanghatanA of ISKCON throughout the world is Hare KrishNA Hare KrishNA Hare Hare[vi]. ISKCON may be considered as one more successful application of the Rishi’s of insight and guidance on how mAnav sanghatanA come together to work together to bring about change to enable flourishing of the collective.
[viii] VedAnta practitioners may be more familiar with IshwarA’s jagat.
[ix] Humans have a capacity (albeit limited) of self-awareness (emergence of a combination of sAkshi bhAvA and ahamkAra) and self-reflection (pratibhijnA, cognition of objects, including mind, body and sensate world) which gives rise to human language, logic and meaning making, which are then used by the species to attempt to create technologies to shape the objective environment they cognize and at the same time attempt to develop stable structures of social processes, which we name as DharmA, to align with the RtA.
[xi] Based on my reading of Gautama Dharma Sutra by Pandey, Umesh Chandra, 1966 as downloaded from https://ia601600.us.archive.org/13/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.429882/2015.429882.gautama-dharma.pdf , Yaska in his writing circa 7th – 5th century BCE references ancient DharmashastrAs. The book also point out that an especially important aspect (vishesha mahatva) of Dharma SutrAs is that they provide “SAmAjik Jeevan kI rochak jhAnkI”. See Pp 6 – 7 of the publication in the linked document.
[xiii] An example of how mAnav sanghatanA respond to changing situations comes to mind from my vantage point of having some knowledge of development of complex computer systems from mid-20th century into the second decade of the 21st century. The operating, maintenance, training and user manuals for IBM 1620 (card reading) computing machine of the 1950s and 60s was very different from the IBM mainframe computing machines in the 1970 and 80s. There have been many more changes in the supporting operational and maintenance procedures as client-server (including PC based client) systems architectures emerged in the 1990s, and by 2007 began morphing to cloud based mass server side computing, with internet and satellite connectivity enabling a global network of client side devices. I cannot imagine reading up an IBM 1620 card reading computing operations manual and then advising someone on how to operate in a cloud based global environment. On the other hand, the underlying physics and mathematics of how computing machines run, as well as the over arching architectural principles (of reliability, flexibility and responsiveness) have not changed over this times. The point to be made from this diversion is that there is underlying continuity due to factors I just stated. At the same time, due to changes in the connectivity environment (with communications technologies also undergoing generational changes based again on the same physics, maths and overarching architectural principles), the application of these technologies changed the way they were used by mAnav sanghatanA globally. And with that, has changed the operating, maintenance and user manuals for the computing machines that we use.
[xiv] I am pointing to e.g. the Dharma Sutras which are chronicles, ‘rochak jhanki’. I see the Samhitas, Upanishads, Smritis and Vedangas, are sources from which we can glean the physics and the over-arching architectural principles of the Hindu civilization.
ॐ श्री मात्रे नमः (Photo by Soumik Dey on Unsplash)
By Jayant Kalawar, June 19th 2023
I was invited to participate in an online panel discussion on the institution of marriage in contemporary times that took place on April 17th 2023[i]. The panel discussion was moderated by Professors Dr Jayanti P. Sahoo[ii] and Dr. Aparna Dhir-Khandelwal[iii]. The moderators focused on how women’s roles have changed in contemporary times through their work in business, professions and academia. They contrasted these changing roles with an overall lack of change in roles in marriage, where women continue to shoulder disproportionate responsibility in carrying out child nurturing and household maintenance activities. If marriage is to be an equal partnership among spouses in what they contribute into the marriage, then it seems that modern women are getting the short end of the stick.
In this post I am exploring a big picture approach on how to think of the institution of marriage using selected principles from Hindu ShastrAs (from darshanas and agamas). I hope to inquire (this post is just a beginning) how such principles may help in understanding different frameworks for marriage that have emerged in different parts of the world, at different times over many millennia[iv].
I am making this exploration of how the explanatory power of concepts from Hindu ShastrAs can help us understand changes in core human social organization, household and marriage, that we are witnessing in recent times. I hope to describe what I see through the lens I am constructing. Not to prescribe, not to moralize. The aim is to open up thoughtful conversations on the practical matter of marriage as a social institution, using a lens constructed from Hindu ShAstrAs. Conversations which do not devolve rapidly into prescriptive sermonizing and hopefully instead open up more than one intellectual spring from the deep and broad glacial wisdom of Hindu ShAstrAs.
I am somewhat familiar with social and cultural flows in India and the USA. So the examples of a range of forms of marriage I present, in the course of my exploratory inquiry here, are from these two countries.
For example, in India there currently (in 2023) are three different recognized legal frameworks for marriage: Muslim Personal Law (1937), Special Marriage Act (1954) and Hindu Marriage Act (1955). The emergence of these three laws of marriage over the last hundred years reflects the reality of multiple streams of Indian cultural and social histories converging in the modern Indian nation-state. In March of 2023, the Supreme Court in India took up the matter of whether marriage between individuals of same sex would be legal under the Special Marriage Act. This may be seen as a reflection of the currents of globalization crisscrossing India. Much of such currents emerge from the USA at the present time.
In the USA, institution of marriage has been contested in different ways. In the mid-19th century there was a contest between monogamy and polygamy when Utah was incorporated into the United States, with monogamy, as a result, becoming the established law across all states[v]. In the late 19th and early 20th century, social and legal status of women in USA changed, giving women property rights, followed by political rights of voting. In the mid to late 20th century opportunities opened up for women to work outside of home, to earn independent incomes, especially post World War II. Through these steps women gained autonomy, which then reflected in changes in the form of the monogamous marriage. Divorce laws emerged in different states, along with child custody and community property related legislations[vi]. Marriage in practice became dependent on continuing agreement between two adults of opposite sex to co-habit, have and nurture children. Marriage thus became subject to continued agreement between the two adults and resulted in no-fault divorce legislations emerging in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In late 20th to early 21st century question began being raised whether two individuals same sex can get married. Same-sex marriage was ruled to be legal in 2015 by the US Supreme Court.[vii]
So what drives different human communities to develop different norms for the institution of marriage at different times? I am not presenting a ground up cultural anthropology perspective[viii]. I am presenting a top down first principles based perspective from within Hindu ShAstrAs. My hope is to re-discover explanatory power of Hindu ShAstrAs to address seemingly complex questions that humans face, such as how the institution of marriage undergoes change depending on desh-kAl-paristhiti.
Here are a few concepts from my understanding of Hindu SHAstrAs that I will bring into play in this initial exploration into the institution of marriage.
One is the concept of svAtantrya, freedom, autonomy, as articulated in the PratibhijnA branch of Advaita by AchArya UtpaladevA, Somananda and Abhinavagupta in the 10th and 11th century CE. This is a shruti concept articulated by rishis.
A second concept is that of LeelA, the myriad dynamic manifestations of the Devi. LeelA is playful expression of desires, the acting out of svAtantrya.
SvAtantrya and LeelA may be seen as seamless process concepts to describe the principle of sat-chit-ananda-iccha-jnana-kriya.
A third subsequent concept is a particular manifestation of LeelA as Manav Jati, with the desire to sustain and grow it. How is the Manav JAti to sustain and grow? As a response to this desire of the Devi Hindu ShAstrAs propound AshramAs of a life cycle of the human physical body, with grihasta AshramA being the central phase in a human life span. As we know, this has been spoken of in smritis and dharma sutrAs, constructed by Shastrajna’s based on empirical observations of different roles played by humans in different phases of their life cycle in the context of specific desh-kAla-paristhti.
I propose that we understand these concepts by viewing the human in a sharira-traya frame of sthula-sukshma-karana sharira.
SvAtantrya is the essence of freedom expressed by ShAkti and drives myriad manifestations reflecting playful desires of Shiva-Shakti. In the individual human, this Svantantrya principle manifests as AhamkArA. The desires of AhamkArA play out at as individuality at the level of Sukshma sharira through the Jnanendriyas. In turn, the desires of the AhamkArA are channeled as actions by the JanendriyAs through KarmendriyAs in every day interactions with other humans and the in the natural environment – with the intention of satisfying desires. The five tatwas, essences, that undergird SvAtantrya are chit-Ananda-iccha-jnana-kriya[ix].
Manifestation of SvAtantrya as human species on Earth: through the play of the Devi’s Iccha-Jnana-Kriya shaktis the five bhuaktika tatwas arise: earth-water-fire-air and sky. In parallel, arise jnanendriyas and karmendriyas. One such configuration of jnanendriyas and karmendriyas when it interact with the earth-water-fire-air-sky manifests as the human species. One of the Icchas of the human species so manifested is to sustain and grow itself. That leads to the play of grihasta AshramA, the householder.
The concept of grihasta AshramA has been central to procreation and sustenance of the physical body, the sthula sharira, of the human species. The sustenance of the sthula sharira of the human species is an expression of the playful desire of Shakti to enjoy the panch tan mAtrAs. While svatantrya concept promotes individuality in humans, the grihasta Ashrama concept promotes cooperation and collaboration, to enable sustenance and growth of the species.
With this background I begin my exploration of the current state of the institution of marriage which is a core human social construct within the Devi’s LeelA, play, of grihasta Ashrama.
The two concepts of SvatantryA and Grihasta AshramA may be seen to be orthogonal to each other. When an individual human is fully committed to grihasta AshramA, let’s say a 100, the svatantrya principle is at zero. When svantantrya is at 100, grihasta ashrama is at zero.
The role of marriage in grihasta ashrama being central, its form and unfolding in a social milieu will reflect the balance struck between the two principles. What drives such a balance between svatantra principle and the grihasta ashrama principle? I suggest it is a combination of the three sources of disturbances that humans experience as propounded in SAmkhyA: adibhauktika, adidaivika and adhyatmaka.
Adibhautika may be taken as socio-economic, often technology driven, and environmental flows in a society over which humans may have control over.
Adidaivika may be seen as great natural forces over which humans have no control over for example ice ages, many decades of droughts and consequent famines.
Adhyatmaka may be seen as the capacity to cognize and become aware of dynamic changes in adibhauktika and adidaivika. SAmkhya shows there is considerable scope of misapprehension of such experiences by humans. When such misapprehensions are multiplied over many humans, it results in sustained confusion. I suggest that this tendency towards confusion, arising due to limitations in the human cognitive process as described in SAmkhyA, leads to loss of capacity to strike a balance between svantantra and grihasta Ashrama principles, when such balance is disturbed from Adibhauktika and Adidaivika sources. Human groups then work towards bringing balance back. As marriage is a core engine of balanced human flourishing, success of the re-balancing process of the form and dynamic of marriage becomes one of the drivers for sustaining and growing human groups.
So now let’s look at applying these concepts to get a sense of current state of marriage in the USA and India. First here is some high level background:
The Respect for Marriage Act (RMA) of 2022 passed by the US Congress made civil unions among any two human individuals legal. This not only allows two individuals of opposite genders to enter into a civil union, even if that is not recognized or sanctified by one or more religions, it also enables same sex partners to enter into legal civil unions. In turn, such same sex couples can legally adopt and raise children, just as opposite sex couples can.
The RMA of 2022 also specifically made interracial marriages legal. Until 1960s, there were a number of states in USA that had laws declaring interracial marriages unlawful. The US Supreme Court ruled in 1967 that such state laws were unconstitutional. However, it was not until 2022 that US Congress positively recognized interracial marriages as legal.
The RMA also excludes civil unions among more than two individuals, thus declaring polygamous unions continue to be illegal.
In India, as listed earlier there are three major laws governing marriage (as listed earlier). Under one of them, Muslim Personal Law(1937), polygamous marriage is legal, marriage is contractual and between individuals of opposite sex. Divorce is relatively easy. Property division is according to contract entered into at time of marriage. The Hindu Marriage Act (1955) enables marriage of two individuals of opposite sex. Divorce is not easy. Property matters are subject to laws governing Hindu joint families. The Special Marriage Act (1954) enables two consenting adults of opposite sex to enter into marriage. Divorce is possible. Property division can be contentious in case of divorce. Inheritance laws under each of these acts differ, reflecting custom and history of the constituent community that is supported by each act.
The current conversation among younger generations in India seems to be around live-in relationships[x]. Hearings by the Indian Supreme Court about legality of same sex marriage has also made for headlines in India recently (May 2023)[xi]. The Court directed that the Union Ministry of Law and Justice to have its Law Commission to seek views and ideas from civil and religious groups to develop a Uniform Civil Code (as of June 14th 2023) for marriages, divorces, child custody, property division and inheritance.
So how to explain the apparent difference in trajectory of the institution of marriage in the USA and India using the conceptual tools I have identified above?
Of the three sources of change (Adibhauktika, Adidaivika and Adhyatmika), American socio-economic frame responds to the Adibhauktika the most (changes to human made material technology and social constructs). It secondarily focuses on changes in Adidaivika (large scale natural events such as hurricanes, floods, droughts, wild fires). Relatively, it focuses least on Adhyatmika (the self-aware cognitive process, which in humans is prone to mis-apprehension as SAmkhyA elegantly articulates). The technologies it has developed leads to enabling svantantrya, individuality / autonomy (and to remind ourselves, svantantrya in humans manifests as ahamkAra). As individuals are more able to sustain themselves with less cooperation and collaboration with other individuals, the need for households decreases. So if over all economic and health wellbeing of the individual is less dependent on group collaboration, then size of households is likely to decrease, including rise of single households. We see that happening in the USA. Along with this, as reproductive technology gains traction (freezing eggs and semen, in-vitro fertilization, surrogate pregnancies and more), the need for marriage may change and along with that its form. In other words, if the desire to sustain and grow the human species can be satisfied utilizing technologies that require less collaboration and cooperation, social constructs of households and marriages may change to adapt so that individuals can express their individuality more.
Recent US history supports such analysis. The combination of two factors stand out vis a vis the svAtantrya principle. One is women in the work force outside of the home beginning with industrialization and accelerating in late 1940s, after World War 2. The second is technology to manage reproductive process. As a combination of these two factors, the svAntantrya principle has acquired higher value in recent decades relative to previous socio-economic-technology epochs. In turn, it has promoted individuality, thus leading to challenge to structure of grihastashrama in general and marriage in particular. Thus single parent household, as well marriage of same sex partners, may be seen as a viable option to raise children.
Of the three streams of marriage frames that currently flow in parallel in India (Hindu Marriages Act (1955), Special Marriages Act (1954) and Muslim Personal Law (1937), I have some familiarity of the Hindu Marriages Act.
The Hindu Marriages Act in India is based on traditional norms practiced by Hindus over many millennia, with some changes to suit the current paristhiti as perceived in mid-20th century: marriageable age for females was set at 16 (previously in many Hindu communities the practice was marriageable age for females to be at puberty, which could mean age as low as 9 in some cases). Another change was to uniformly enforce monogamy (previously some Hindu communities practiced males having two wives under certain circumstances). The inheritance laws of the unified Hindu joint family were carried forward, especially for example the male child’s mother and sisters having claim over inheritance along with the widow. Rules for division of property in case of divorce is also not clearly defined ,as divorce was assumed to be an exception than the rule.
The norms of Hindu marriage and accompanying grihastashrama (householder) roles in Hindu joint families were practiced by learning them through repetitive performance of specific rituals. As one illustrative example, the ritual of Gauri Puja (also called Hartalika in northern India) in Karnataka teaches how the wife goes to her mother’s house due to a tiff with her husband. The son is sent to persuade her to come back home, in the process showing great respect and admiration for his mother and the husband for his wife. The rituals are still performed, but the desh-kAl-paristhiti has changed. Such practices have now become more performative and less learning and action paradigms that may have been the original intention.
As the gusts of technology and finance driven globalization course through Indian socio-economic and cultural framework, one key outcome has been increase in sense of svAntantrya, especially economic freedom, among a fair number of Hindu women, especially in urban areas. Those gusts of globalization are Adibhauktika. They are to be expected. Resilience in the face of these gusts is to sharpen Adhyatmika, to go back to first principles and redesign norms in context of desh-kAl-paristhiti. Not through doubling down on norms designed and articulated in specific desh-kAl-paristhiti about 2500 years ago.
In my estimation, at present stage of my self-study and research, Hindu ShAstrAs have the capacity to not only explain the challenges that the frames of marriage and householder (grihastashrama) may be currently facing in India. They can also provide guidance on how to redesign these social frames so that they are more resilient to and enduring in the face of the current technological and financial forces that are at play. It opens up the possibility to do so in a transparent manner with critical thinking based on philosophical principles, that can involve youth in the conversations in collaborating in the redesign.
Let’s take up some edge cases to test the explanatory power of the beginnings of the philosophical conceptual framework I am positing. For, it is the edge cases that challenge the mainstream core. When we recognize the edge cases as an integral part of Devi’s LeelA, then we can begin to gain an understanding of how the edge cases can co-exist with the mainstream core. The nucleus of a human cell is where all the action may take place within the cell. But its sustainability and capacity to multiply depends on how secure the cell borders are. For social constructs such as the institution of marriage, those borders, I posit, are the edge cases.
The edge cases I will very briefly take up here, in the context of the institution of marriage are: of widows, widowers, divorcees, single parents as well as individuals who do not fit neatly into the binary of male and female categories. For purposes of this already long post I will set up questions for each of these edge cases, which may open doors to further inquiry in subsequent writings.
Are widowers better able to form new households or expand their existing households as they have better income and asset potential in the USA? Are they better able to do so among Hindus due to inheritance laws and relatively higher social status? Conceptually, the economic leg up gives more svAtantrya, the play of ahamkara.
Do widows, especially relatively younger ones, face more challenges to sustain their household roles due to relatively lower income and asset levels in the USA (which may have improved in the last few decades)? Are inheritance laws and social status concerns a challenge to Hindu widows? As global technology and financial changes give Hindu women more capacity to act on their svantantrya, will they challenge current Hindu grihastAshrama, household and its core building block, marriage along with inheritance norms?
Similar questions can be raised for the divorcee edge case, for males and females. As Adibhauktika changes manifest as socio-economic theater, the scripts for various roles of the humans play in the LeelA of sustaining and growing a flourishing human species on Earth will change. Does the svAntantrya principle seem to have a feedback loop in the Adibhauktika theater manifestation – to enable more play? Is this something that manifests through roles of human females?
The edge case of single parent household begins to bring the question of whether and how human children can be nurtured to healthy flourishing adults outside of marriage. Can humans begin to cognize nurturing and raising children as a separate function from conceiving and birthing them? Can we consider emergence of a social organization (the notion of the state), with supporting technology and finance, driven by the human svatantrya impulse for individuality and autonomy as Adibhauktika? Perhaps whether the single parent household will grow depends upon whether the twin IcchA, the desires of the Devi, of individual svantantrya and of sustaining and growing human species on the other, are satisfied? If through social organization of technology and finance these twin desires are met, will it make marriage an optional way of conceiving, birthing and nurturing children to adulthood?
The questions raised in context of single parent household sets us up to inquire about the last edge case we will consider here. Can two individuals of same sex live together and nurture children to healthy flourishing adulthood? If so, would that be considered marriage?
The questions posed in the context of the edge cases require research and discussion. That in turn may lead to better understanding of how grihastashrama, households, and marriage as a core central institution may evolve with changes in Adibhauktika and Adidaivika.
The twin Indic philosophical concepts of Svantantrya and LeelA may enable one to deconstruct the institution of marriage and household (grihastashrama) for the current desh-kAla-paristhiti in two different social milieus, USA and India. There may be potential to do so without having to depend solely on authority of what the practices and institutional designs were 2500 years ago when the desh-kAla-paristhiti were very different. That tells me that Hindu ShAstra concepts have the explanatory power that humans seek so that they can construct social organizations in consonance with Adibhauktika and Adidaivika. My sense is that such explanatory power arises due to concepts Hindu ShAstrAs being deeply rooted insights from AdhyAtmika perspective of Rishis.
So where do we go from here? I see opportunity for practical redesign conversations among Hindu constituents using concepts from the Hindu ShAstrAs so that, for example, the Hindu Marriages Act can be amended to reflect current desh-Kal-paristhiti while retaining the Adhyatmika guidance from our Rishis, without having to depend (especially as sole authority) on Adibhauktika designs from 2500 years ago tailored for those times and places. In other words, we may have an opportunity here, through extended tapas, to rejuvenate multiple intellectual springs from the deep and broad glacial wisdom of the Hindu ShAstrAs, so that the springs come down to the plains of desh-kAl-paristhiti to nourish us all.
[iv] Over the at least the last 2500 years or so human households (group of humans identifying as a family, with different roles to support each other is how I see households) provide the platform for us to play out our life cycle, from conception, birth, nurturing, adulthood and old age. They were and are a key to inter-generational human flourishing. Marriage was and is the core foundational block in such human households. Human groups across time and geography have come up with different ways of forming households. This is in turn reflected in different forms of marriage.
In the last hundred years or so, the emergence of the welfare state (consequent to emergence of the nation-state in Europe post the Enlightenment) in tandem with technology and financial organization, has offered a number of support functions that households provided in the past to the process of raising children to be healthy and flourishing adults. In turn, the form and function of households and marriage has undergone change.
Comparing that evolution to society’s views of gays and lesbians, Kennedy noted that for years, “a truthful declaration by same-sex couples of what was in their hearts had to remain unspoken.”
It depends. On phase of life cycle. On particular circumstances at a given time and so on. Desh-kAl-paristhiti.
That said, there is a way to expand the sense of time to live a more fulfilling life.
Living in the world of senses makes us seek sense gratification through pleasures. Sense pleasures are transitory. The demand for seeking out different ways of gratifying the senses keeps increasing. Time passes quickly in pursuit of sense pleasures.
Living in the world of buddhi, the intellect, slows down time. ShravaNa (interpret as study here) and manana (contemplation, through writing, repetitive performing) can help here. Study and writing slow down time, as your attention gets focused. Same happens with learning and performing music, dance, painting, sculpting. Focused attention slows down time, enabling the physical and emotional body a better chance to be in rhythm with its natural environment.
Living more and more in dhAraNA and dhyAnA slows down time even further. It expands the possibilities of living a more fulfilling life.
Hope some of you, after reading this you have curiosity to ask how to do this. That curiosity will make you a mumukshu, a seeker.
Sri GaNeshA MokshadAyakA, ChinmayA VrindAvan, Carnbury, New Jersey
By Jayant Kalawar, February 8th 2023, Sankashti Chaturthi
When I shared my previous post on rahasya of mUrtis, a friend asked how different DevatAs emerge, which then manifest – to us – as mUrtis, as well? What is the foundation of such process of emergence? I do not claim to have definitive answer to the question. I am offering my explorations on this topic.
Here I describe my explorations through example of one particular DevatA, Sri GaNeshA. I chant AtharvashirshA[i] daily, and numerous times on SankashTi Chaturthi (Chatur, the fourth, tithi, period during which the Moon is seen to travel 12 degrees away from the Sun, after PurNimA, the full Moon). That has given me some glimmer of an insight on the emergence of Sri GaNeshA through profound insights of the Rishi of AtharvashirshA.
Foundations
First, let me share with you my understanding, limited as it is, of the foundation of the process of emergence of DevatAs in Humans. Movement, expression, vAk, is considered an integral aspect of ShivA. ShivA’s nature is Chit, the potential to be aware, and Anand, the capacity to be without action, and with unlimited potential for action. That potential, when expressed, is vAk. ShivA as vAk is often given the name Devi. Devi is ShivA. ShivA is Devi. AchAryAs in the past have used the metaphor of the Ocean and the waves in the Ocean cannot be separated, they are congruent. ShivA and Devi cannot be separated. Devi’s nature is expression, movement, ucchAraNA through icchA – jnAna – kriyA. And, to repeat, ShivA’s nature is Chit-Ananda. The integral nature of ShivA and Devi is chit-Ananda-icchA-jnAna-kriyA.
The root of the word Devi (देवी)is considered to be div (दिव्). The interpretations of the noun Devi from the root div gives us the following ways to make sense (make it meaningful) and useful for us in our manifest world[ii]: to sport with the creative delight in Her capacity to manifest and be aware of Her myriad manifestations; the desire to overcome and surpass the stillness; to carry on the activities of life through knowledge, doubts, ascertainment (jnAnA); shining; the one who is adored; one who has access to all aspects across space and time. In summary, the VyAkaraNa based mimAmsA (interpretation) of Devi is: ‘sport, the desire to overcome or surpass all, all acts in day to day life, shining, adoration and movement’.
Notice that we, as humans, experience all these attributes in ourselves, even though to limited extent. The limitation is in our capacity to be self-aware. Especially, our capacity to become aware of our own reflection is constrained. When we do cognize our reflection, we are in a state of vismarA (forgetfulness). The human manifestation forgets that what we notice as ‘outside’ of us is a reflection of ourselves. And the we erroneously consider that reflection, space-time apparently populated with dynamic objects, as fundamental reality. The error of considering space-time as fundamental reality then leads us to being materialists, which constrains our ability to understand our own nature.
Humans manifest in the Devi’s space-time spandanA. Given our limitations, how can we cognize the Devi’s presence? One way to do so is through the MatrikAs, the 50 discrete spandanA, experienced as sounds, that the human sthula sharira is able to cognize[iii]. These specific discrete sounds are represented (there is more than one tradition on how many letters there are in the Sanskrit alphabet, this particular set of 50 letters is based on my learnings so far) in the 50 letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, with 16 avyaya (vowels) and 34 vyanjana (consonants).
The vyanjana are specific to location in the sthula sharira. The vyanjana ka, example, corresponds to the mooldhAra[iv]. The vyanjana ga also corresponds to the mooldhAra. The avayAs connect the vyanjans. This will suffice for now to go back to the purpose of this note, which is to begin to speak of the emergence of the devatA, Sri GaNapati (Sri being an indicator of the Devi; what follows Sri is recognized as being Her aumsha).
Emergence of Sri GaNapati: An interpretation of AtharvashirshA
Atharvashirsha has a total of 10 verses (and an additional 4 verses of phala shruti). The first verse is the Upanishat verse, which affirms that Sri GaNapati is integral to and one and the same as Brahman. The next 5 verses describe Sri GaNapati’s tatva Swaroopa, both in the sthula and sukshma form. The 7th verse describes the Swaroopa, the form, of the Sri GaNapati MantrA. The 8th verse is the Sri GaNapati Gayatri, which provides the meditative chant to begin manifesting the MUrti roopa. In the 8th verse describes the result of the Rishis’s prolonged tapasyA on Sri GaNapati Gayatri: the key features of the MUrti of Sri GaNapati.
The Atharvashirsha is a powerful step by step guide to pratyksha pramANa, the sAkshAtkAra, of Sri GaNapati. It is not amenable to dry discourse of logical deconstruction of text.
The Rishi of Atharvashirsha focused on the MAtrikA Ga ( ग ), one of the 34 vyanjanAs.
The sound Ga is actuated by the mAnav sthula sharira by the middle of the tongue pressing on the back portion of the upper palate, resulting in a tug to the bottom of the spinal cord. The Rishi points out that Ga is always in the MUlAdhAra ( tvam mUlAdhArsya SthitOsinityam) of our sukshma sharira, which to our lay minds is at the bottom of the spinal cord of our sthula sharira.
The mantra, Ga-Na-pa-ta-yayI na-ma-hA, is composed to enable, when chanted with visualization of movement, to move prANA from the mUldhAra up to the sahasrAra. Ga initiates the prANA movement in the mUldhAra. Na-pa-ta begins the movement towards maNipurA. The avayaya yayI gives power filled boost for movement all the way to shasrAra. The Na engages with sahasrAra. The ma-ha immerses and sublimates in the sahsrAra, initiating the blissful downward flow of blessings of Shiva-Shakti from the sahasrAra bathing the entire sukshma and sthula sharira with a sense of peace and contentment. The cycle begins anew.
An Outline of a Cognitive Framework for DevatA emergence
Above I have illustrated the DevatA emergence process through an example. Here I offer a brief high level outline of a cognitive framework that supports the process. This may help as a starting point helps us explore the rahasya a little more.
The outline of the cognitive framework: parA-pashyanti-madhyamA-vaikhari.
Most of us function in the madhyamA (analytic mind producing models of the world based on data delivered by sense functions) – vaikhari (expressions and capture of dynamic objects in the Devi’s space-time spandanA). Most of us are in amnesia that the apparent externality of vaikhari is a reflection of our self as ShivA.
The Rishi has been able to move out of the madhyamA-vaikhari loop, into pashyanti (a mode which enables partial glimpses of Devi’s expressions) of parA, the expression of the Devi. Partial glimpses, because in the human manifestation, even those in the pashyanti mode can cognize and make sense only within the constraints of madhyamA-vaikhari. To cognize something, is remembering. And remembering implies prior experience. The Rishi has previously experienced Ga sound and has been able to reproduce it using indriyas in the sukshma (corresponding to madhyamA)-sthula (corresponding to vaikhari) sharira. It is this remembering that leads to re-cognition of the Ga received in the pashyanti mode. Articulation of this re-cognition in pashyanti to the madhyamA-vaikari level results in Atharvashirsha. That capacity to articulate, connect from the pashyanti to the madhyamA-vaikhari, to generate Atharvashirsha, comes about due Devi’s AnugrahA, inexplicable to most humans.
Disclaimer
In the current desh-kAl-paristhiti, with internet being an integral dimension of human space-time (with Artificial Intelligence software currently (in early 2023) rapidly emerging as a major content producer and shaper of narratives for human societies – playing a potentially dominant role in the madhyamA-vaikhari loop), it is important to note that none of what has been said in this post should be used as guideline for personal practice, sAdhanA. The purpose of this article is to encourage readers to dive deeper into the rahasya of DevatA emergence. It is neccessary that guidelines for sadhanA be acquired individually from a seasoned UpAsakA. Each individual is differently configured and in different stages of life cycle requires guidance in different types of sAdhanA. There are no cookie-cutter solutions, to use a much used phrase.
[ii] Pp 10-11 Abhinavgupta, ParA-TrIshikA-VivaraNA, English translation with running notes by Jaideva Singh, Sanskrit text corrected, notes on technical points and charts dictated by Swami LaksmaNjee, Edited by Bettina Baumer, 2011, Motilal Banarasidass Publishers Private Limited.
[iii] What I describe here is based on my shravaNa (listening and reading highly accomplished upAsakAs, who are immersed in the Devi e.g. Sri RAmakrishNa Paramhamsa) and manana, followed by nidhidhyAsa (daily contemplative immersion). For those interested in more academic treatment of this topic, this reference may be a starting point: Judit Törzsök, hThe alphabet goddess Mātṛkā in some early śaiva Tantras, accessed at (on February 1st 2023) https://hal.science/hal-00710939/document
[iv] There are different sounds associated with chakrAs corresponding to each of the shariras and connections between them. For example, the sounds associated with chakrAs at the Sthula sharira level are: LaṀ for mUldhArA, VaṀ for svAdhithAna, RaṀ for MaNipurA, YaṀ for AnAhatA, HaṀ for Vishuddhi, AuṀ for AjnA. Chanting and meditation with these sounds focused on the chakrA locations are to enable shuddhi of the sthula sharira, which then enables the sAdhakA to focus on sukshma sharira. The kA and Ga as bijA for MUldhAra enable connection from the kAraNa sharira to the sukshma sharira.
In this post I am extending my thoughts from my last post on role of VyAkaraNA in our cognitive process . I want to explore how our ancestors embedded their insights into mUrtis and the role that plays in our upAsanA (the sitting in contemplation next to the Divya Shaktis). The mUrtis embed a subtle language to provide a reflection (pratibimba) of the self. What I offer here is my mimAmsA (interpretation) through a few examples.
As I have been chanting the Sri LalitA SahasranAma almost daily over more than a decade, I have noticed that some of the names spring up spontaneously as I go about on my long daily walk or during mundane chores like washing dishes or doing the laundry. Not only do the nAmAs arise as sound, they emerge as a visualization of the imagery being described. There is a contemplation, a soft churning in the mind, that seems to happen. And sometimes a small insight may emerge. Let me give you an example.
Consider the 17th nAmA of Sri LalitA: ashTami chandra vibhrAja daLika sthala shobhitA. Most of the thousand names, indeed thousand mantrAs, seem tongue twisting to start with. Chanting them with the rhythm of the anushThuba chandA helps us perform ucchAraNa to bring out the sounds – and the flower of the seed mantra begins to blossom. As I do SravaNa of the mantrA, manana follows. ashTami reminds me of the tithi on which we celebrate rising of Sri DurgA Devi during NavarAtri. I imagine looking up in the night sky on ashtami and visualizing a clear bright chandra, slightly greater than half. The mantrA helps me visualize that part of the sky as the Devi’s forehead. With just a slight cognitive shift, I visualize the mantrA’s message that space (the brilliantly lit forehead in the sky) and time (ashTami tithi) is one aspect of the Devi’s myriad spandanA. As that visualization arises, I stop breathing for a few moments. Stopping of the prANic connection, even momentarily, has the potential, when spurred by the mantra, of dissolving one into the ephemeral, beyond space-time.
This one mantra, describing the forehead of the Devi’s Murti, has the power to raise one to ephemeral heights!
The Four Hands, Chatur Bahu, of the Devi’s MUrti
Now let’s consider a more sanguine set of mantrAs, which describe another aspect of Sri LalitA Devi’s Murti: nAmAs 7 to 11.
The 7th nAma describes Sri LalitAmbA’s mUrti as one having four arms, chatur bAhu samanvitA. And then 8th to 11th go on to describe what each of the four arms hold.
In the lower left arm, the Devi Murti holds the noose. In the lower right arm, the goad. The upper right arm holds five long stemmed flowers described as arrows and the upper left arm holds a sugarcane stalk. Next time you contemplate Sri LalitAmbA’s MUrti notice the four arms and what they are holding. Our ancestors designed MUrtis meticulously embedding them with compressed insights.
It is an entire epic manifesting before you. Sri LalitA SahasranAma holds the keys to the treasure of knowledge embedded in the mUrti of Sri LalitAmbA.
The 8th nAmA, rAga-swarupa-pAshADyA, describes the noose in the lower left hand. The shape (swarupa) of the noose (pAshADyA) stands for hungry desire (rAgA) to consume. The hungry desire to consume material objects. Such desire becomes a noose around our neck. It is as if we are on a leash and the hungry desire leads us to consume mindlessly. Sri LalitAmbA’s mUrti is designed to enable introspection, as a reflection of ourselves (pratibimbA).
The 9th nAmA, krodha-AkArA-kushojjvalA, describes the elephant goad in the lower right hand. As a pratibimba of ourselves, the goad (kushojjvalA) is the drive that is made of AkArA (knowledge arising in forms, shapes in space-time) and passion (krodha). Thus, the desire (rAga, a form of IcchA shakti, the kAraNA) transforms into AkArA in space-time (a sukshma manifestation) and results in action in the sthula, through the channel of passion (krodha). As we know, each word in Sanskrit can be and has been interpreted differently (the MimamsA-TarkA process). Here I am using the pratibimba paradigm (a reflection of ourselves), while at the same time staying true to the Shruti: the Devi is IcchA shakti – JnAna shakti – KriyA shakti swaroopiNi (658th nAmA in the Sri LalitA SahasranAma).
The 10th nAmA, mano-rupekshu-kodandA, describes the sugarcane stalk in the upper right hand. The kodanda (bow, sugarcane stalk) indicates the potential to manifest the shapes, forms (rupa) in the mind (mana). The shapes, forms in space-time which are referred to as AkArA are acquired by this potential of kodanda to become rupa in the mind. The cognitive process of acquiring the object and transforming into nAma-rupa is represented by the upper right hand of the mUrti.
The 11th nAmA, panch-tan-mAtra-sAyakA, described the 5 arrows of flowers in the upper left hand. The five arrows represent the five senses, which are deployed to go out and acquire the AkArA, the object, to the manas, to transform it into rupa with an associated nAma. Through such nAma-rupa association, meanings begin to be created.
Thus, the four hands of the Devi’s mUrti are designed to reflect back to the upAsakA (the one who sits at the mUrti’s feet in contemplation), the upAsakA’s own nature. The Lalita SahasranAm is a guide to the upAsakA as she / he visualizes Sri Lalita’S mUrti within themselves and begins to become aware how the Devi’s shakti is manifesting within them.
In that sense LalitAmbA’s mUrti is a yantra, an artifact, embedded with language designed to help us contemplate and understand our cognitive processes as spandanA and how the mAnav spandanA is one of the myriad spandanA of the Devi. As I have shown here through a few examples, guides to open up the mystery, the rahasyA, of each mUrti, are accessible through sravaNa and manana of the corresponding sahasranAmAs[i].
[i] Those, among readers of this article, who wish to research more I would suggest LalitA-SahasranAmA with BhAskararAyA’s Commentary, English Translation (Translated by R. AnanthkrishNa Sastry), The Adyar Library and Research Center, Chennai, 600020, India, 2010. While it is titled as Commentary, it may be more appropriately described as a meticulous compilation of multiple interpretations of each nAmA by many mimamsakAs over millennia. It is a treasure trove of contemplation for upAsakAs.
With the Devi’s Blessings. Cover art by Jayant Kalawar 2018.
By Jayant Kalawar, January 4, 2023
The last few weeks (of 2022) has seen a great deal being written about VyAkaraNa in international media, including social media. VyakaraNa, the systematized knowledge of the grammar has been used to structure Samskrit bhAshA in at least the last 2500 years or so. That VyAkaraNa became a topic of popular conversation tells us more about how materialist vision of the world (“Employing this interpretation, he found the Panini’s “language machine” produced grammatically correct words with almost no exceptions”[i]), rooted in the so-called European Enlightenment of about 500 years ago, continues its movement to assimilate “pre-modern” knowledge produced by humans for millennia[ii]. Indian Samskrit academics raised objections that the research work by Mr Rishi Rajpopat, a graduate student at Cambridge Univeristy, UK, had not yet been peer reviewed[iii], but did not contest the description of PaNini’s “language machine” – a reductive materialist description of VyAkaraNa. It seems to me that the lens being used, in the current conversation on all sides, to describe MahArishi PaNini’s systematized knowledge (ShAstra), is a materialist one.
So how to notice VyAkaraNa with an integrated lens of the VedA, rather than the narrower materialist lens? The version of VyAkaraNa as described in MahArishi Panini’s AshthAdhAyi may be seen as an articulation of the bridge that humans use in their cognitive process, of perceiving the world, understanding it and responding to it. There were many versions of VyAkaraNa. The AshthAdhyAyi got traction and became standard usage.
Where does VyAkaraNa fit into the human cognitive process as the VedA teaches us, the process by which humans make sense of the world? At its root, human awareness capacity (Chaitanya) has a disinterested observer component (Sakshi). The Sakshi becomes AhamkArA, an interested player, one with skin in the worldly game, through a process of forgetting (vismarA), its true nature. The AhamkArA plays the role of the cognizer in the game, a pramAthA. PramAthA acquires data on the many objects in the world through IndriyAs (sense functions of seeing, hearing etc). To make sense of object data it has gathered it applies pramANa, structured ways of making meaning (one may call them algorithms in this particular desh-kAl-paristhiti in 2023). The manas is the platform used to process the acquired data. The challenge then is to be able to make meaning out of the processed data and communicate it out to fellow humans so that it makes sense to them as well. Sharing of the meaning produced in manas. That requires standardization. That is where the role of VyAkaraNa comes into play. It helps classify meanings of words produced in the manas in the form of structured sounds (shabda). Such shared classifications help us share common understandings of the world. And therefore act together in it.
Our ancestors developed many different interpretations (MimamsA) of each word of the VedA. They constructed different models, darshanAs, to explain the world, based on these many different interpretations. And they argued and synthesized and differed (tarkA). But one thing they all accepted was to use the standard VyAkaraNa so that they could have some chance of understanding each other.
So one such interpretation of the human cognitive process articulated, especially in Kashmir Shaivism, is ParA-Pashyanti-MadhyamA-Vaikhari. Where Vaikhari is the spoken word, uccharaNa. It is also where data on the objects is acquired by IndriyAs. MadhyamA is where the data is processed and meaningful images are generated. VyAkaraNa plays the role of bridging between MadhyamA and VyAkaraNa.
Another parallel interpretation is Sharira Traya: Sthula-Sukshma-KAraNa. VedAntins favor this interpretation (even as the Advaita VedAntins rush in to remind us that Sharira Traya is unAtma, asat!). One can map prameya (and vaikhari) to sthula, pramANa (and madhyamA) to sukshma and pramAtha-SAkshi (and ParA-Pashyanti) to KAraNa.
I will drop this one as I end my musings on VyAkaraNa: the beej AksharAs enable connection directly from Vaikhari (Sthula) to Pashyanti (Sakshi, KAraNa), by-passing madhyamA (manas). Mantras are designed using beej AksharAs for this purpose. That thought opens up the contemplation of Sthula Sharira in terms of chakrAs which emanate particular spandanA corresponding to beej AksharAs. Hence some AcharyAs may say that when it comes to mantrAs, do not look for meanings. Meanings are produced in the madhyAmA, which the mantrAs help us to avoid, while connecting directly to pashyanti (this by-passing helps to get us towards nir-vikalpa, madhyamA being the node which produces vikalpa).
I will leave this short note here for contemplation and conversation.
This note begins with how I think the sense of time arises in the human mind. I explore how it may have been different in the past in India by describing how time was measured in different ways. I then describe how sense of time changed in the 16th century, which led to massive changes across the globe. I begin by describing how the sense of time may be changing in the 21st century and how it may be negatively impacting human well-being.
Many of us are on social media every day. We notice changes of the view in our account with new entries, whether on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Each such change comes with a time stamp. We may not read the time stamp. But we register that the state has changed. What we are viewing on social media is a customized slice of data in massive data bases stored as bytes (of eight bits each). The state of bytes keep changing in fractions of seconds on such massive data bases. Socially we are now living in space where collectively we make changes to the state (of the data bases) at speeds which individual human minds cannot comprehend.
This lack of being able to comprehend rapid change of state (too much information?) seems to result in individuals not being able to make sense of the world they live in. Collectively it may lead humans to not being able to have a shared narrative to act out what may be a meaningful theater of life that gives a sense of human flourishing to most, if not all humans.
The breakdown in capacity to produce shared narratives may be based in humans not being able to be in rhythm with the accelerated speed of social time in the 21st century.
It may be helpful to start with a caveat that what I say is highly speculative, based on very limited information. And that limit is within the highly limited capacity of humans to know the Cosmos, most of which is beyond access to the 5 ways of sensing that the human species is endowed with.
I am presenting Rta as a different way of sensing time. It is a different way of sensing time, than the one we are used to in the 21st century. In the 21st century we sense time in terms of social contracts we have entered into. A contract to work, to attend school, to see a patient, get a haircut. These are all social contracts among humans. Time is sensed in terms of change of state of contracts among humans. If the work contract on an assembly line requires production of 3 widgets per muinute, time is sensed in terms of whether the contract was met or not.
This way of sensing time became the norm post this so-called European Enlightenment, when modern Humans became the de facto center of the Cosmos. Individual and group desires of modern Humans became the focus of our lives. The constitution of a nation-state is an example of a social contract franework, albeit among the elites who have drawn it up (sometimes called the Constituent Assembly) on behalf of the citizens of the nation. All the citizens then develop their own contracts amongst themselves within the overarching framework of this social contract framework called the Constitution. Since this “European Enlightenment” in the 16th century such Constituitional frameworks have been developed to be human centric and specifically disconnected from the Cosmos. Only humans seem to exist for purposes of the Constitution, which is supposed to be the foundation of the nation-state. Individual and groups of citizens then develop their own contracts amongst themselves within the overarching framework of this social contract framework called the Constitution.
Tracking each tiny movement towards or away from fruition of these desires became the obsession of these particular social contracts among individuals and groups. That is the sense of time that most Humans live in. Now in the 21st century, now down to micro seconds with a combination of computing and communication technologies. This level of time tracking is beyond comprehension by Human mental cycles. For example, fast paced gaming videos playing on virtual reality devices in what is now increasingly labeled the metaverse. It should not be a wonder that humans increasingly are not able to differentiate between reality and fiction.
The word Rta appears more than 390 times[i] in the Rig version of the VedA. As with any word, Rta has been interpreted in multiple ways. Here I am interpreting Rta as an articulation of a certain regularity of pattern of change in whatever it is that humans are perceiving. We experience time through these patterns of change that we notice.
The Insight-givers (Rishis) of the Rig Veda[ii] observed these patterns and guidance on how to align with these patterns of change, Rta, followed. The ‘how to align’ attempts to provide structure to align with time cycle pattern that Humans perceive at various levels. The intention was to provide guidance on how to live harmoniously with the Cosmos. Networks of such Rta aligning structures may be seen as DharmA: that which supports Humans to live harmoniously with the Cosmos.
Insights of the Rishis as given in the Veda (Rig, Saam, Yajur and Atharva) were distilled in the Upanishads. The Rig Veda has 10,600 verses. There is one Upanishad associated with Rig Veda: Aitereya Upanishad[iii], which has 33 verses. Such concentrated distillation of the wisdom of the VedA can make it challenging for many people to understand the gist
The Upanishads[iv] in turn became the basis for developing DarshanAs. Each DarshanA[v] presents a specific model of how Humans function in the Cosmos. One such DarshanA is Vedanta. And within Vedanta, there is Advaita VedAnta.
In this note I am using the (to the best of my limited knowledge) Advaita VedAnta DarshanA, as articulated by Adi ShankarAcharya, to first describe the place of Humans in the Cosmos. And then to describe the different types of Cosmic patterns, Rta, observed by Humans, to which they may attempt to align with. For these descriptions from within Advaita VedAnta teachings, I use the lens of pulsations, SpandanA from Kashmir Shaivism.
There is one singular Cosmic pulsation. A pulsation is a rhythmic pattern of expansion and contraction. The rhythmic pulsation gives rise to sense of time in the Human observer.
Desires arise within this one singular Cosmic pulsation.
One of these desires is to manifest and enjoy play as Human on the Cosmic playground of innumerable manifest desires as Human.
The singular Cosmic pulsation takes on a role of non-acting, non-judgemental Witness, the Sakshi, as this Human manifestation arises.
The desire to be Human gives rise to a Knowledge pulsation that is described as the Intellect.
The Knowledge pulsation arises out of the Sakshi, the Witness pulsation. It is dependent on the Witness pulsation, which is in turn an integral aspect of the singular Cosmic pulsation. Disturbances arise in the Knowledge pulsation. These disturbances are thoughts arising and receding withing the Knowledge pulsation. Thoughts are transient. Being transient, Knowledge based on transient thoughts are considered less real. They may have certain patterns. One of the key thought pattern that arises is the ‘I’ ness (Aham kArA), the ‘I am”. But the transient nature of these thought patterns makes the patterns less reliable as guide to understanding truths about the Cosmos (when compared to the complete unchanging steadiness of the Sakshi, the Witness). The ‘I am’ thought pattern also rises and recedes. But through memory capacity gives a false sense ofindependent continuity and hence a false sense of separate identity.
Out of the Knowledge Pulsation arise the five Sense pulsations, each with its specific limited functional capabilities to connect with a subset of the innumerable other manifestations, which we know of as objects outside of us, in the Cosmos.
Out of the collective of the five Sense pulsations arises the manifestation of pulsations of the physical body. The physical body pulsations have the capacity to inter-act with a certain narrow range of what Humans perceive as object manifestations in the Cosmos.
The Knowledge pulsation together with the Sense pulsations observe the patterns in the object manifestations. The patterns in the physical body manifestations are also observed. However, the Knowledge pulsation is unable to have knowledge of itself until and unless there is guidance to withdraw and observe its own thought patterns.
This is a very highly simplified[vi] description of the pulsation constituents of that makes for being Human. This background is the basis for the description of how Rta was observed and how actions of the physical body to align with these objective Cosmic patterns were designed and practiced within Indic traditions.
I present examples three of the patterns which were observed as time cycles in the Indian traditions and ways to align with Rta: 1. Astronomical patterns for managing social and economic movement in time: time keeping through movement of Sun and Moon in the background of Asterisms, including calendrical time. 2. Thought patterns to manage individual actions in time: The entanglement of breath patterns with thought patterns. 3. Patterns of hormonal cycles to manage individual physical body: example of menstrual cycle. For each of these examples we will explore how the Veda based Rta based Dharma actions worked and then note what is happening now in the 21st century.
Human in India pick up patterns of Sky movements of the Sun and the Moon in the background of the Stars. They notice patterns on Earth which apparently correlate to the patterns in the Sky.
Sun and the seasons. Moon and the tides.
Then they figure out that the patterns change from when they north to south, east to west.
They come up with a way to measure the movement of the Moon vis a vis the Sun. It takes 30 Sun rises for the Moon to be with the Sun, approximately. They figure Moon is going around in circles. That means the Moon moves ahead about 12 deg ahead of the Moon between 2 Sunrises. But the Moon has a wobble and it intersects the Sun’s apparent rotation around the Earth at about an angle of 5 deg twice a month. Once when it goes from South to North (they named in Rahu, the north node) and then when it goes from the North to South (they named in Ketu, the south node). How to keep track of all this on a daily basis and almost every village? They were also aware of the precession of the Earth and the nutation of the precession angle itself, based on their observation of how the apparently fixed North Star changed over millennia.
How was this complex time keeping accomplished? By having a disciplined group do the daily work of time keeping through observations of the sky at each big village in every area of human habitation in India. How was this done without building out monasteries and institutions which require state patronage? It was done by creating norms of having Brahmans, a group of people who committed themselves to being disciplined to be up every day to measure the number of degrees that the Moon had traveled since the previous Sunrise. They did this three times a day, every day: Sunrise, when the Sun was at the zenith in the sky and at Sunset. The procedure they followed was called SandhyA VandanA: connecting to the sky at the conjunctions of the Sun with particular positions of the sky. In modern terms Sandhya VandanA is called a ritual. It was a procedure designed to maintain time keeping operation on a daily basis across the geography of India. The Sandhya VandanA procedure and other such procedures were designed to help manage many time cycles. This particular procedure, SandhyA VandanA, was designed to enable social time keeping cycles through daily observation of the sky map. These daily observations were meticulously collated into PanchAng (roughly translated as almanac). Each geographical area had its own PanchAng, which was then shared and coordinated across the areas through the regional King’s court.
What were the social and economic benefits of such social time keeping? A shared social time keeping system is a central core to coordinating work and social interactions between working groups and families. PanchAng was used to inform people when to prepare the fields, sow, irrigate, harvest. It was used to set the local market days and times, to identify marriage seasons so that they would not overlap with work seasons. This social time keeping was one of the corner stones of India having been productive and socially and economically stable until the advent of “European Enlightenment”[vii].
The productive and socially and economically stable conditions in India were a reflection of the attempt at designing and implementing a way of living that would align with Rta, the Cosmic cycles. The Rig VedA promises that when Humans align with the Cosmic cycles, the Rta, they are rewarded with abundance, health and capacity to collaborate and minimize harm to each other and the environment[viii].
Brahmans were assigned the role of keeping time, which required strict daily discipline and austere life (including need for social distancing to minimize being ill), since they had to perform certain procedures and make key observations every day, beginning before dawn. Their cumulative services were required by all the people together and not just people local to a village. In return they were assured protection by the King from any harm, they were given a small allowance for their time keeping services. In addition, they were given the function of teaching in PathshAlAs, schools. Since they were trained to be keen observers, they also developed Ayurveda, using which they could also offer services as healers.
Brahmans passed on their knowledge generation to generation by practicing partial endogamy. Partial, because the norm was that the sons could go East to offer their services to Kings and villages which did not have time keepers. There they could marry a local woman and start a family. The norm was that Brahman women were married to Brahman men to the West. So the Vedic frontier expanded to the East beyond India through this process of Brahman sons going East to offer services and marrying locally. It was through such service based knowledge transfer that Vedic guidance that aligning with Rta would make for a harmonious way of life came to be in Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and other South East Asian countries[ix], without invasions or mass migrations out of India.
There may have been push backs within Indic traditions to the claim that attempting to living a life through alignment with Rta is sufficient to ensure harmonious life (that it is necessary was not challenged) makes for harmony by the Uttara Mimamsins more than 3 millennia ago and later during the time of the Buddha about 500 BCE. The series of Islamic invasions from about 1100 CE onwards caused many dislocations, but did not displace the Rta based time keeping processes in India. It was British colonization, which brought with it a highly centralized way of time keeping that finally put paid to the highly de-centralized process of Brahmans being the time keepers through daily observations wrapped in strict discipline of an austere life.
The Gregorian Calendar reform of 1582 by the Roman Catholic Church was a key factor in displacing the central time keeping role of Brahmans in India. Jesuits who led the calendar reform committee on behalf of the Church went to Kerala in India[x], to be trained in Vedanga Jyotisha, which form the basis of forming sky maps and measuring and developing accurate almanacs.
With the Gregorian Calendar reform of 1582, Europe had the timekeeping corner stone required for social and material abundance that India had enjoyed for many millennia prior. That followed in 1600 the establishment of the British East India Company. By about 1800, the British Greenwich Meant Time became the central time keeper for the global commercial world. The Human centered world of social contracts was firmly in control. The world of the Rta, the process of alignment with Rta, the Cosmic patterns, the way of life for a large fraction of humans, under the guidance of the VedA, faded into the foggy past. As if to make sure that this way of life of alignment with Cosmic cycles would not re-emerge, Brahmans were and continue to be vilified as the evil ones. But for the British East India Company’s benign exploitation of India and it people to a level of poverty and famine unseen before (by moving them into opium cultivation in Bengal and Bihar and cotton cultivation in Gujarat for example), India would still have been a backward degenerate dark hole of humanity, if we are to believe western scholars.
From then on Time arose from social contracts with Humans as center of the Cosmos. No longer in sync with the Cosmic cycles.
The global impact of the disconnection from the Cosmic cycles, the Rta, through social contract driven Time, has been death in three acts of ecocide, fratricide (from the Mother Divine’s perspective we are all Her children, hence fratricide rather than genocide seems more appropriate) and suicide[xi].
As the process of attempting to align with Cosmic time cycles receded into the fog of social memory, the time cycles spawned by social contracts, with a human centered cosmos, led to increased disturbance in individual and group physical and mental health.
Civilization arising out of the VedA not only speaks to the Cosmic time cycles as observed by the sense pulsations in space, it also speaks to the Cosmic time cycles in the physical human body and the human mind. For Cosmic time cycles permeate every pulsation. These different Cosmic time cycles are entangled with each other.
The time cycles of the human mind are experienced as thought patterns. Thoughts cycles are closely connected breath cycles. As breath cycles slow down, so do thought cycles. As the frequency of breath cycles slows down and their amplitude grows (deeper in and out breaths), the frequency of thought cycles slows down and the amplitude of thought increases (enabling keener observation with deeper insights).
As first two steps, of the Sandhya Vandana procedure to monitor the Cosmic time cycles that the Brahmans performed three times every day, were Surya Namaskar (a physical movement to align the physical body cycles) and then praNAyAma, exercises to slow down frequency of thoughts, while increasing amplitude (insight depth) of individual thought.
Surya Namaskar is a series of postures from the discipline of the Indic tradition of Hatha Yoga. As are the particular PrAnAyam steps that are integrated into the Sandhya VandanA procedure.
As malaise rose in the social contracts based human centric world, there have been attempts to graft Hatha Yoga based procedures on to modern lifestyles. They fail to deliver. The intention of performing the procedures is not to align with Cosmic cycles. In the modern usage, it is an attempt to perform better in the world of human centric social contracts time cycles which is alienated / disassociated from the Cosmic cycles.
The guidance in the VedA is that for blessings of abundant flourishing to be showered, alignment with Cosmic time cycles is required. Offering / giving up / sacrificing of human desires that are obstacles in the way of such alignment with Cosmic time cycles is required to prepare and enable humans to align with the Cosmic time cycles. This process of offering / giving up / sacrificing of obstacle making desires is Yajnya. Yajnya thus becomes a pre-requisite to attempting to function in consonance with Rta, the Cosmic time cycles.
In the globalized modern world we are far away from even having the intention to align with Cosmic time cycles, Rta. We are even farther away from even beginning to contemplate on which of our desires, ably accelerated by the time cycles of the human centric social contracts world, we may want to offer as sacrifice so that the intention to align with Rta may arise.
In the meanwhile, we have high thought frequencies at shallow amplitudes. The Knowledge pulsation in almost all humans is not able to deliver wisdom. It gives rise to dissonance from Rta and the widespread malaise which we are quite familiar with.
I wrote the foreword for Rtu Vidya: Ancient Science behind Menstrual Practices[xii] in 2020. Here is an extract from it:
“I do not mean that as an empty flourish. The female human plays a most critical role in the flourishing of the human manifestation. Yet, modernity completely subsumes woman’s roe as the creatrix and mother, by putting gross material flourishing on the pedestal. All metrics which govern our modern way of life, whether in terms of time or effort (think productivity, efficiency, effectiveness etc.) makes us focus on exploitation of what modernity deems to be resources for material production and consumption. Menstruation plays a central role in a woman’s life cycle. The technology to manage and suppress menstrual cycles so that women’s bodies are free to shift the focus on increasing material productivity (marketed as economic freedom) is a central toxic hallmark of modernity. And we are all participants in sustaining these modern processes. Many of us are actively subverting any opposition to modernity (and how it shapes women, whether through the stance of ‘conservative’ modernity or ‘progressive’ modernity) that may arise from competing cultural paradigms that describe creative roles women play in human flourishing. Rtu Vidya offers a competing vision of humans and women to the one offered up by the modern paradigm. As the book gets traction and attention, it is likely to attract vehement opposition from many moderns who see freedom only in narrow economic terms and in effect as the unbounded opportunity to bond ourselves to the treadmill of ever increasing material efficiency demanded as sacrifice at the altar of Capital.”
As the reader may have noticed, Civilization based on VedA provides guidance on aligning with Cosmic time cycles at thought, sensory, hormonal and physical levels. One of the key time cycles for Humans are the endocrine (hormonal) cycles. We know of the Circadian rhythm, the 24 hour time cycle in Humans (and most mammals) which is aligned with the Earth’s rotation and the apparent revolution of the Sun around the Earth. Disruption of that key alignment is known to cause “decreased cognitive performance and increased propensity to develop obesity, diabetes, and cancer. Many hormonal factors show robust diurnal secretion rhythms, some of which are involved in mediating clock output from the brain to peripheral tissues.”[xiii] We are also aware of that the human centric social contracts based time cycle has disregarded alignments with all Cosmic cycles. While there have been research on impact of disruption of Circadian rhythms on humans, the research of impact of disruption of menstrual cycles on women is not done. Research is done on how best to regulate and / or suppress menstrual cycles and therefore disrupt the hormonal cycles in women, so that they become available to provide labor to the social contracts focused time cycles.
The book Rtu Vidya describes practices based on principles of Rta alignment from the VedA that were designed to ensure menstrual health. While women from living Indic cultures are likely to benefit most from this book, I would suggest women from other cultures may see this book as a way to critique and change menstrual practices in their own cultures to align them better with the Cosmic cycles and ensure better menstrual health.
We are where we are. Perhaps we are at a fork in the road: lets imagine there are three alternate routes to choose from: one is to keep muddling along as we are, do nothing. Second may be to hope techno financiers will lead us into a techno utopia and we can build ourselves an artificial world and make ourselves into transhumans (half human half machine) to adapt into the artificial world with its artificial time cycles[xiv]. The third may be to attempt to renew the effort to align with the Cosmic time cycles.
Here I will address the third alternative.
We cannot go back to a point a couple of millennia ago, when there seems to have been a serious attempt made to socially organize to be in consonance with Rta. We can learn from that experience. We can see where we are today. And then begin with the intention that we want to once again begin to focus on being aligned with the Cosmic cycles at all levels. And be open to judiciously using current technology to do so.
A practical way to begin in this direction may be to fully restore alignment with the circadian rhythm for all humans (will require substantial change in current economic structure, which functions 24/7/365), along with metabolic cycles (implying nutritious food available to all, but would imply substantial change to the current food growing, prep and delivery system) and support for menstrual health for women through alignment with their cycles (would require substantial changes in work and career related expectations for women).
At the individual level one may begin with aligning breathing pattern with thought pattern, with low frequency and high amplitude.
My take away from this note is that the chances for social harmony among humans may be enhanced by human individuals and groups sacrificing their desires that conflict with the effort required to align with Cosmic time cycles. The guidance on how to align with Rta is all down to earth and practical suggestions. They are neither esoteric nor mystical. Also, while may be a partial solution, based on historical experience, it may be the most helpful steps to take towards a new global renaissance.
The Rig Veda says that when Humans align with Rta, they are blessed with abundance at all levels. Humans aligned with Rta cooperate with each other and in unison work together to achieve their shared goal. That leads me to close this note this note with the (very practical down to earth) the last two verses of the Rig Veda (10th Mandala, 191 Sukta, 3&4th verse)[xv] :
“May all chant the same mantrAs, may they aspire to the same goals, through shared purpose and desire. I will join in your mantra chanting, I will offer the same sacrifices as you so that we may achieve our shared goals.”
“May all have the same intention and desires in their hearts, may all have similar thoughts so that we may connect and work in unison”
[i]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%B9%9Ata “In the Rigveda, the term Ṛta appears as many as 390 times, and has been characterized as “the one concept which pervades the whole of Ṛgvedic thought”.[16] The cosmic order, Ṛta, has three features:[17]
Gati, the continuous movement or change.
Samghatna, a system based on interdependent parts.
Niyati, an inherent order of interdependence and movement.”
[ii] The NAsadiya Sukta of the Rig VedA ( click on this link and scroll down to Text and translation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasadiya_Sukta ) is often quoted as deepest insight of the VedA. Each of its verses is a contemplative ocean. Deep dives into these oceans resulted in the insights embedded in the Upanishads and subsequent development of the TantrAs.
[iii]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aitareya_Upanishad Aitareya Upanishad discusses three philosophical themes: first, that the world and man is the creation of the Atman (Universal Self); second, the theory that the Atman undergoes threefold birth; third, that Consciousness is the essence of Atman.[2]
[vii] I use quote marks for “European Enlightenment” to signify that as an outsider I see it as a fountain of epistemic violence unleashed against all outsider cultures, which continues to destroy many millennia of knowledge that human cultures generated. One of the favored epistemic weapons used is to deconstruct, label and analyze those cultures as degenerate, while at the same time be sweetly condescending and patronizing. This is a common weapon in the arsenal of all those practicing currently in Western academia, without exception. Marx’s 1850s formulation of the Asiatic mode of production, his view of the “hereditary village republics” was based on his reading of the British History of India by James Mill. It completely ignored the conceptual world view of the Cosmos based on the VedA that formed the basis of attempting to design a way of life that aligns with Rta, the entangled Cosmic cycles that we dimly observe with the limited cognitive capacity that we as Humans have. After all the Philosopher, Hegel, in 1830, had declared Europe had nothing to learn from Asia. That henceforth it is Europe that is going to teach the world.
[viii] Those who wish to deep dive into Rig VedA, this Hindi translation may be a useful starting point: https://vedicheritage.gov.in/flipbook/Rigveda_Subodh_Bhasya_Vol_IV/#book/9 . English translations lose the substance and context due to the Western lens used in the translation, which misses out on understanding Vedic view of the Cosmos. See the English translation by H.H. Wilson here (free online) and notice how it interpolates words such as worshippers and gods which are not there in the Rig Veda (use of such words change the meaning of the VedA to fit into Western Theology and dependent ideologies, including those spawned by European Enlightenment).
[x] Pp 331 Raju, C.K. The Eleven Pictures of Time, The Physics, Philosophy, and Politics of Time Belief, SAGE Publications, 2003. “The Jesuit Christoph Clavius who eventually headed the calendar reform committee had studied at Cimbra under Pedro Nunes, the most famous European navigational theorist of the time. Clavius reformed the curriculum of Jesuit priests at Collegio Romano , to introduce (practical) methematics into it, as noted earlier, and himself wrote a text on practical mathematics. From among the first batch of Jesuits, so trained in mathematics and navigation, the most capable , like Matteo Ricci, were sent to collect information about timekeeping from India, to help in Clavius’s reform of the Gregorian calendar.”
The Destroyer of Ignorance and Confusion – Aum Namo KAlarAtreya NamAhA (Source: Wikipedia, Devi Kalratri, Sanghasri, Kalighat, Kolkata, 2010)
By Jayant Kalawar, January 4th 2021
From Jyotish perspective, December 31st is an arbitrary date to end one phase and begin another. But then we are living in the Anthropocene age, disconnected and alienated from the great planetary energies that are coursing through us and all around us. We are lost in the ignorance of our disconnections.
So, we will pause for a bit on this January 4th 2021 and take a brief look at where we are. I am speaking of the USA here, which is where I am based.
First let’s look at what is happening with Covid-19 pandemic. It seems to be tracking pretty much along the lines of what I had predicted in my post of April 22nd 2020: second wave to begin mid October 2020, peak in December 2020 and recede beginning February 2021. It may be somewhat more impactful than the first wave of spring-summer 2020, it will be nowhere near the extreme death laden second wave of the Spanish flu of the Fall of 1918.
In that article I also predicted that there may likely be no third wave of Covid-19 in the spring-summer of 2021 (unlike the 3rd wave of the Spanish Flu in the spring-summer of 1919). With vaccines being administered, it would seem that the third leg of the pandemic may be subdued, if at all.
When you go back and read the article you will notice that I had put a caveat: “IF at all there is a second wave….”. The reason for such caveats is two fold:
– Personally I do not wish to predict potential for deeply negative futures using Jyotish modeling tools.
– When I do, I do so in context of what can be done to overcome or surmount such negative scenarios. This is possible with individuals who are open to counseling, not for large social groups.
The rationale for making the prediction of the pandemic waves was to document the power of Jyotish in making such predictions involving complex social processes. And in this case, I think it may be seen to be perhaps better than other prediction models that have been used to predict the breadth and depth of pandemic waves in 2020-2021.
So that was about Covid-19, the pandemic caused by the virus which is said to have originated from Wuhan, China.
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The other aspect I will briefly touch on in this post is the political situation in the USA as I write and post this on January 4th 2021.
I had predicted that Trump may win on November 3rd 2020. I had based it on his birth chart (based on a birth certificate), when compared to Biden’s (tentative, his birth date / time are available only from memory of relatives, not on a birth certificate). That has not turned out to be a correct prediction. If December 14th was taken as the decisive election date (when electoral certifications were finalized), his chart predicts a most severe set-back. And that is indeed what happened.
Meanwhile, USA is going through a transformative Ketu sub-period spanning December 10th 2020 to about mid April 2021. The Ketu property of unexpected separativeness in current structures may likely to course through public institutions of the USA during this period. The mists will clear after April 15th 2021. I have begun writing drafts in more detail about modeling USA political history from a Jyotish perspective, but that will take time to think through and then present in ways that make sense for non-astrologers. So, I decided in the meanwhile I should post this short term view today to give some pointers for the next few months.
So, in summary, the pandemic situation in USA may seem to be pretty much in control after early February 2021. The political climate in USA may likely begin stabilizing after mid-April 2021.
Most of us may likely have a sense of something weird going on this second half of October 2020, as Sun beams begin reaching the Earth from the Libra zone between mid October and mid November every year. This is the time of the year when the Sun is the farthest away from the Earth (as it revolves on an elliptical path). And this year it is also simultaneously getting closer to a gravitational energy disturbance being formed in the Scorpio zone, which it will enter in mid-November, after it crosses Libra (all this is per sidereal Jyotish almanac, which matches with what NASA observes in the sky. The western almanac does not match with the sidereal almanac). Many of us have begun to feel the first winds from that storm and hence the sense of weirdness. Get in touch with this weirdness and breathe it out. The peak of this gravitational disturbance will be when Sun beams have to come thru the eye of this disturbance – which will be between December 3rd and 14th, 2020. That will be the peak of the storm. The gravitational disturbance starts abating and planetary skies clearing in early Feb 2021. Then we may be taking stock of all that happened during the planetary storm. Picking up the pieces may take us up to two months – to mid-April 2021.
This is my first (of what I hope will be many such) short post in the category of demystifying Jyotish. So you begin to get a sense that we are indeed the children of the Earth, Sun and Moon. The complexity of their interactions gives rise to waves in gravitational fields. We are always floating in those gravitational fields. We see the impact of the Moon in the tides, it moves the mighty ocean so!! Wow!! We see the impact of the Sun in the seasons!! And Earth gives us day and night as it circumambulates the Sun every day (remember how we mimic that at the end of the puja – the circumambulation is a reminder. Every step of the puja is a reminder of how integrated we are in cosmic cycles). For humans the Earth’s rotation in the presence of the mighty Sun gives us metabolic and circadian cycles. The Sun-Moon interactions gives us the hormonal cycles. Jyotish is the method of mapping of these mighty gravitational waves caused by planetary interactions (and I have not even brought in Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn in this first post). Jyotish observes and is able to accurately predict timing of regular planetary storms arising in the gravitational fields and due to interactions between Earth, Sun and Moon -and calls them Rahu and Ketu. It takes about 6 weeks for the disturbance to form and another 6 weeks for it to dissipate. Somewhere in between those 12 weeks we get to see physical sign of this disturbance in the form of solar and lunar eclipses. But physical eclipses are only one small signal that our sense organs can pick up. Just as we can only see the tides moving in and out. But we do not actually sense the tremendous energy of the gravitational waves that are making the mighty ocean dance to their tune.
This time the 12 week storm in the gravitational field (described as stationary phase of nodal axis of Rahu-Ketu per Systems Approach to Vedic Astrology[2]) begins in about the first week of November 2020 and goes on to about the first week of February 2021, with peak in the first two weeks of December 2020. This time the Rahu-Ketu planetary storm may likely be somewhat more impactful than the usual.
It’s a late August morning in New Jersey, in 2020. It has started cooling already. Nights are touching 60 deg F and a bit of windchill is making its presence felt. I just finished listening to Vishnu Sahasranaam. I listen to Bharat Ratna MS Subbulakshmi. When it is not raining, a morning walk helps to energize oneself and let the Sahasranaam percolate through.
I often wonder whether this particular Sahasranaam was composed during the Mahabharata War and then refined and finalized. I imagine there were wise men and women who were aghast as the best of people of those times decided to go to war, with deathly destructive consequences all around.
But then we always seem to be living in the field of confusion and conflict at so many levels. As I write this the Republican National Convention is its 3rd day. The media is focusing on polarization. And the political leaders seem to be stoking the fires. Perhaps they gain warmth from those fires. On the ground, that can turn deadly. Not only in terms of the fires that have been rampaging in Northern California last week or the monster Hurricane Laura that just made landfall in Louisiana. But especially in terms of polarization of communities, with one more incident in Kenosha, Wisconsin, of police killing a Black man. The centuries of frustration of the Black community showing through reaction on the streets, as it sees no systemic way to ensure its protection, gain redress and have a path for flourishing and well-being.
I contemplate on the Sahasranaam to remind myself once again of how this state of being in continual confusion and conflict can begin to make sense. The cosmology that the Sahasranaam helps visualize is certainly uplifting and calming. It does help to begin focusing on how to best act in the material theater of the day that I find myself in.
And to help understand the configuration of my current kshetra, field of activity, I use Jyotisha (and specifically Systems Approach to Vedic Astrology[2] ). The USA SAMVA[3] chart reliably gives me a map of the astro weather that is unfolding in the USA: what pleasant sunny days and rough weather to expect. As you know, a map is not the territory. It is a guide to help us get through the day and make some sense of it, so to speak. Currently in the last week of August 2020, I see one of the peaks in the state of communal disharmony in the USA. I say one of the peaks, because communal disharmony is an inherent ongoing characteristic in the space-time map for USA that the USA SAMVA chart provides us. For the Cancer rising USA SAMVA chart, Venus rules the 4th house of domestic well-being. It is placed in the 6th house of conflicts, debt and disease (which for USA is ruled by the expansive Jupiter). The flip side of conflict is competition (a bedrock of how Americans go about through their life), flip side of debt is financial engineering systems (aka Wall Street) and of disease is large scale efforts to discover ways of managing it (giving rise the pharmaceutical research and manufacturing industry along with the ways of managing and delivering its products). As you will note, you start to see a wide swath of US social and economic domestic territory mapped here – and being ruled by expansive Jupiter, makes them assume large spectacular proportions, which seem to continually surprise the rest of the world. Predicting these peaks in communal disharmony in the USA becomes quite routine for someone practicing Systems Approach to Mundane Vedic Astrology consistently over time. As of August 2020, for example, tr Jupiter, ruling the 6th house is stationed at about 24 degrees in Sagittarius (you can confirm this if you have access to NASA ephemeris database, for example, and search for specific dates). In this position, Jupiter is giving its energy to natal Venus and generally pumping up all aspects of the domestic components that I described here: communal disharmony appears to be at one of its peaks, Wall Street is around its peak and the pharma industry is getting major funding and attention in its quest to manage Covid-19 (called the China Virus by quite a few in America).
What can one do to change these inherent characteristics on the US space-time map shown to us by Jyotish? That hopefully is something I can write about some time in the future. My sense now is that I have to contemplate and write about Jyotish as a way of helping us design our futures. Perhaps through that process I may get some insights. My first attempt at doing that has been by constructing a Covid 19 prediction model . The intention of such attempts is to find ways that make Jyotish an integral tool in the tool set of many Americans to navigate their life as they aspire for liberty and happiness. By doing so, they will begin to pay attention to astro weather, just as they do to meteorological weather. People then will be able to figure out strategies (just as they board up and evacuate in advance of a hurricane warning) on how to best manage oncoming astro weather peaks that may potentially impact their emotional and rational functioning. I hope to share these with you if, as and when, I get such insights.
Similar to the domestic social and economic characteristics that are baked into the USA Jyotish map represented by Venus, there are characteristics of playing politics in America that are also baked into its map. A combination of Rahu in the 10th house ruled by Mars, which is placed in the 5th house of creativity makes for US political scene to have a tendency for alternate narratives to be produced (Rahu), which are then expressed passionately and creatively (Mars). Rahu and Ketu point to the two interplanetary spaces where the flow of Sun’s energies to Earth are disturbed due to the orbiting Moon. The Rahu disturbance space appears to amplify and distort Sun’s energies (like when you see your face in a concave mirror) and the Ketu disturbance space appears to minimize the transmission of Sun’s energies. I hope to keep bringing up the roles of these different flag posts in the US Jyotish map – including those of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn in future blog posts.
But for now I want to focus on the role of Rahu and Mars in the context of how US politics is unfolding at the time of this writing in late August 2020 – as we head towards the November 2020 elections (I first predicted the following, in December 2019, about the November 2020 elections: So, my bet would be that if Senator Elizabeth Warren is the Democratic nominee (which seems most likely among the slate of Democratic candidates at the moment), then the chances are that President Trump is likely to be re-elected on November 3, 2020. On the other hand, perhaps the Democratic Party may come up with a nominee that is not one of the four I have discussed in some detail above, who may stand a better chance to win the November elections. I will re-visit the November 2020 election possibilities in June-July 2020, if that is the case.)
The USA Jyotish stage setting for the November 2020 Elections
In the next ten weeks (from late August) leading up to the November 2020 elections, the USA Jyotish stage is set in Sun major period with Mercury sub period. Which means two key actors in this upcoming drama are going to be Mercury mostly and then the Sun. Sun is shining bright in Leo right now and will continue to do so until mid-September[4], giving its positive energy towards stabilizing and trying to revive the US economy. From then on to mid-October, Sun will travel through Virgo. That is positive too. Mercury, meanwhile will be traveling through Leo until early September and then through September 22nd. Mercury then moves into Libra and until about October 3rd it may continue to be positive. So, about until October 3rd there may be a general sense of well-being and optimism (Sun) and the financial markets stable (Mercury). That is one part of the stage.
Then there is the dark part of the stage setting that is being played out at this time. Enter Jupiter as key stage background in the next few months. It is currently is stationed at about 24 deg in Sagittarius. On the US Jyotish map you will find that Venus is located at the same degree. Jupiter will begin moving, from that Venus degree, very slowly and take up to November 5th to reach about 27 deg (so a 3 deg movement). So, in the Fall of 2020 all the way to the November elections and beyond, Jupiter may likely keep triggering expansive communal disharmony (which we have already seen in action through the summer of 2020).
Another dark stage setting for the theater unfolding over the next 10 weeks is Mars being closely aspected by Ketu from mid-August, all the way to December 25th. This stage setting brings forth potential for engagement and losses for armed forces all over the world. This includes police forces domestically and whole range of armed forces internationally. This sets the stage for potential for armed tensions and skirmishes between USA, China, India and Iran, for example.
And then a key Astral stage component will slide into place on to the US Jyotish stage to play a major role. On September 20th the Rahu-Ketu axis will move from Gemini-Sagittarius to Taurus- Scorpio. Rahu will be exalted in Taurus. It will refract (some say distort) Sun’s energies, creating an amplified sense of alternative realities. On the US Jyotish Map Rahu will be in the 11th house of aspirations: calls to move voters to high aspirations may be heard after September 20th, even in the midst of the ongoing communal disharmony.
This stage setting works well until October 17th. Then there is a change in the lighting effect on the stage, so to speak. October 17th onwards Sun debilitated. October 23rd onwards Venus debilitated. Which means Mercury gets weak as well. So from October 17th and especially from October 23rd, the chances are that the signals from the economy and financial markets (which were stable to positive so far) may turn negative. That will add to the background noise of sound and light. At the same time, Jupiter will begin distancing itself from Venus starting mid-October, so there may be some relief in the manifestation of communal disharmony. By the time November 3rd arrives, the voters may have a challenging time to make out constructive signals from the confusing cross between communal and financial noise that may be reaching them.
So visualize this. When the curtain rises in the week of September 21st, there will be loud confusion and noise in the background as a full throated (and sometimes physical) arguments are going on. There may be news (and arguments) about confrontations with police domestically and between armed forces internationally (“are we now at war, or about to get into a war” arguments). And along the way, the stock market in particular, and the economy in general, may be posting stable to positive news up to about mid-October. Overall, as the curtain rises, it is a pretty raucous stage that you are looking at. And then past October 17th, there may be added noise and uncertainty from the economy and financial markets.
Ok, so that is the Jyotish stage setting we have. We are now ready to bring in the 4 main actors on to the stage: Donald Trump & Mike Spence and Joe Biden & Kamala Harris. Let’s see what personal Jyotish scripts they may perform on this USA Jyotish stage setting we are visualizing. And how this scene may end for each of them early November (we will come back with the sequel to this after the November elections).
On the USA Jyotish Stage: Election Season 2020
Donald Trump
Donald Trump brings a strong set of cards on to the stage with his birth chart. He was born with strong Mercury and Jupiter, giving him analytical and communication ability with big picture capacity, as well as support from his children. He also brings along luck with his Mars. He also carries with him exalted Rahu and Ketu on 10th / 4th axis – gives him high ability to spin narratives and make great deals, that help him in his career and gain social status (Rahu in 10th). His Ketu in 4th allows him to give up his assets, especially real estate (Ketu in 4th) which he would have gained through his Rahu deal making. Those are all the positive cards that Trump brings with him on to the stage.
He also brings his share of weak cards, with their potential vulnerabilities. Trump’s weak cards include Sun, Saturn, Venus and Moon. The weak Sun, which rules his ascendant, gives him an overall weak moral in the eyes of those around him, which he balances by his Rahu strength of narratives spinning. Weak Saturn makes having loyal advisers a big challenge for Trump. Weak Venus translates into less ability to have a trusting long term relationship marriage and with women in general. His weak Moon shows up in losses in real estate, but also in another way: wanting to separate from current estate and establishment, even though he is from it. It is this characteristic of the Moon that drives him towards the narrative of “cleaning the swamp” in Washington DC, for example.
So the current scenario post September 20th, as Trump walks on to the stage, you will recognize and visualize, fits him quite well. While he may be bereft of loyal advisers around him, the strong Jupiter (which while being inimical on USA stage setting acts positively for him) and Mercury in the next 2 months gives him mental stamina of combining intuitive analysis with big picture views, to get through a tough campaign, supported by his children. And the Rahu-Ketu axis moving into exaltation and his 10th / 4th axis gives him much ability to spin positive aspirational narratives that the American voters may be looking for. This positive unfolding is the first part of the Election scene that is likely to unfold for Trump from September 20th to October 17th. O! So then what happens after October 17th to November 3rd?
Remember from October 17th onwards Sun is debilitated as it enters Libra. And after October 23rd Venus is debilitated, as it enters Virgo. Which means Mercury gets weak as well. May maintain ability to spin aspirational narratives and be anti-establishment – but may be increasingly seen as being less trustworthy (weak Sun) and not able to deliver his narrative in a coherent manner due to weak Mercury. Jupiter will go from being strong to moderately strong by late October , which means his grasp of big picture may be a little less firm and his children’s support, while still very much there, may be a little less valuable.
We will come back to what all this means to the possible outcomes of the November 3rd election. Lets go on to the next player we will bring on our Jyotish stage, Joe Biden.
Joe Biden
Unlike Donald Trump, for whom we have a birth date and time from birth records, Joe Biden’s birth details are available from family memory. There are two versions of his birth chart available for the same date (November 11, 1942) but two different times. One makes his chart Scorpio rising and the other makes it Libra rising. Here I will use the 22 degree Libra rising chart. Biden does not have any strong cards to bring to the stage. His 10th L (of career and status) Moon in 7th directly afflicted by Rahu enables him to come across as a friendly empathetic person to the general public. It is this attribute that may be his main career driver. This chart does not show strengths in connecting to intuitive big picture or in communicating the big picture.
When Biden comes on stage, we will see him being perform better until September 20th, while Rahu is still in his 9th house, giving a sense of good fortune, which is really temporary. When Rahu moves into Taurus, which is 8th house for Biden’s Libra rising chart, on September 20th it may begin impacting his health. Ketu moving in tandem on September 20th to Scorpio, his second house, may impact his career possibilities. His health challenges may further come to the fore once ascendant ruler Venus moves into debilitation in Virgo after October 23rd.
Overall, this chart does not show the vitality that may be required to get the signal through high levels of noise that we will be observing on the USA Jyotish stage in the last two weeks to November 3rd.
Mike Pence
We do not have a birth records based birth chart for Mike Pence. There are three alternate charts on offer for the birth date of June 7, 1959 in Columbus, Indiana. I am using one of them: a 4 deg Libra rising chart for Columbus, Indiana (suggested for exploration by Cosmologer). Pence comes on stage with a strong 10th L Moon in 9th and moderately strong 1st L Venus and 7th L Mars in 10th H of career and status. This has given Pence a rise in career, with support from his wife. 3rd L Jupiter in second house gives him an inclination to explore religion. 5th L Saturn in 3rd H positively aspected by 10th L Moon gives him ability to communicate as a way to support career.
Pence has been in his Mars major period and Rahu sub-period since late August 2019 and will be there up to March 2022. When he comes on stage after September 20th, he will have his sub-period lord Rahu moving into his 8th house. The indications are that he may potentially experience obstructions and health challenges. Ketu would have moved into his second may give difficulties in communicating Trump’s aspirational narratives in this key period. November 3rd sees his Ascendant Lord debilitated in 12th house of losses.
We bring in one more actor on to the stage before we sum it all together for November 3rd. So bear with me.
Kamala Harris
We have a birth record based chart for Kamala Harris. A Gemini rising with Rahu on her ascendant degree. That gives Harris capacity to position in different roles for different situations. Harris’s also has strong 9th L (of good fortune) Saturn aspecting strong 2nd L (of family well-being, career and communications) Moon in the 11th H. This indicates natural support and good fortune flowing to Harris from established older individuals. So Harris comes to the stage equipped well for the role of raising funds and developing and communicating aspirational narratives to different audiences.
However, the stage setting for Harris post September 20th does not bode well. Saturn is weak in 8th, so is unable to give the level of support it has in the past. Rahu will be in 12th and her aspirational articulations may become loss making. Ketu in her 6th may give her health issues and financial difficulties. The last two weeks to November 3rd sees her Asc L (Sun for Gemini) being debilitated in 5th H Libra, while 5th L Venus is debilitated in Virgo. Creativity and ability to project a positive image may not be easy for Harris in the last few weeks.
The Finale on November 3rd
On November 3rd we have all the four actors on the stage waiting to see how the audience will be voting for them. They would have given their best in propagating a range of aspirational narratives, amplified on the stage by an exalted Rahu post September 20th . It will be up to the voters to try and sift through a rising cacophony of noise caused by communal disharmony domestically (including attacks on police) and signals of potential armed conflict internationally. And the last few weeks may potentially see signals of rising uncertainty from the economy in general and the financial markets in particular.
Jyotish perspective tells me that the actor best positioned to provide the strongest aspirational signals, by far in this very noisy stage setting, is Trump – especially between September 20th and October 17th.
So, from a Jyotish perspective, my guess is that voters may likely respond to the signals from Trump and vote Trump back in.
It is possible that the noise levels are so high that the voters are unable to resonate with any aspirational signal coming out of this stage. In which case we may be left with an episode ending that is divisive and waiting for a sequel to bring to a resolution.
From Jyotish perspective, there are signs of a period of intensifying difficulties discord period from first week of November all the way through April 2021, with peak from mid-November 2020 to early February 2021. I hope to write a sequel to this post after November 3rd. In the meanwhile, you may can visit this post specifically raising the question of whether there will be a COVID-19 wave in the November 2020 to February 2021 time period.
Closing thoughts for this post
I started out with Vishnu Sahasranaam at the top of this post. That was almost a week ago. As I read through the post and cleaned it up a bit, I began to think about the kshetra, the field of action and conflict, that is described in the Mahabharata. Many questions come to mind about how best to act in this present field of conflict. And I begin to remind myself of the Bhagavad Gita, also emerging out of the Mahabharata, with many similar questions. I remind myself specifically of one guidance given in the Bhagavad Gita: that I have the capacity to act intentionally. But that the results of those actions are uncertain at best. So do not have expectations of what may come back of the seeds I sow through my actions.
In 21st century terms I interpret it as follows: I am in a highly complex environment. My well thought out intentional actions will enter that highly complex environment. How my action may change that environment and how it may impact me is something I cannot realistically assess. However, I can make use of some of the tools that my ancestors have used for millennia to begin to understand some contours of this highly complex environment that I find myself in. Jyotish is one such tool. And it is in that spirit on inquiry to begin to understand this complex environment that I offer this post. Hope you enjoy it.
[4] Note that positions of Sun, Moon and the planets in the background sky referenced here are according to NASA ephemeris, not Western Tropical Almanac used by many Western Astrologers.
Hot humid summer days open up opportunities for early morning walks. There are some days, though, when early morning hours are hot and humid and the body and the mind resist and find excuses to stay within air conditioned comfort. In 2020, there are added reasons with Covid-19 and social distancing. In New Jersey, at the time of this writing in mid-July, it is generally accepted to be prudent and wear a mask or face covering even while out on a solitary walk, with runners and joggers, many young of age with a sense of immortality, who may run past you breathing heavily.
On one such early hot and humid Thursday morning, instead of walking I found myself sitting in air-conditioned comfort in front of my laptop, logged into Zoom and waiting to be connected to an ongoing discourse on Suresvara Ācārya’s NaiṣkarmyaSiddhi by Swami Shantanandaji[1]. Thursdays are Guruvāra, Guru’s day and a good day to listen and reflect on Vedanta teachings from Adi Shankaracharya. While waiting for Swamiji to connect, I wondered what light would be shown to us through the discourse this morning.
Swami Shantanandaji is no more than 2 miles from where I am sitting and, in these Covid 19 days, we connect only online for the early morning discourse. This Thursday, Swamiji expanded on two key terms: cidābhāṣa and vṛtti which while not new in my many decades of study of Vedanta, are quite elusive to grasp and immerse and revel in for their full import. In the process of writing this post I am hoping to root these subtle concepts a bit deeper in myself.
Cidābhāṣa points at once to the human capacity to be self-aware (cit) and to the ability to experience a limited structured world(bhāṣa). For instance, I have the capacity to say “I am” to myself and, going further, I can also sense my own presence without using any language. That is what happens in my meditation seat: as I focus inwards, languaging drops away and, with it, thoughts disappear. There are moments when I only have a sense of being present. This sense of being present, without any thoughts, is cit, the capacity to be self-aware, presenting itself.
Such a sense of presence is momentary, fleeting, for me. Because, in the very next moment, the body intrudes and signals that it is thirsty or hungry. And like a mother reaching out to a child, this capacity of cit, to be aware, flows out to be entangled between solving the problem of overcoming the thirst or hunger and negotiation of the urgency of these signals with reveling in and extending the moments of being self-aware in meditation. In this moment, Cit energy (Cit śakti) flows away into the body and only the body and its particular problems exist. There is a limited sense (bhāṣa) that arises for those moments, that the body is all that exists and this limitation is false. But in that flow of Cit to the body, in these moments, the capacity to even explore the possibility that I am not limited to the body is not available.
The possibility of limitlessness, that I am not limited to my body, is what I am not capable of fully immersing, like water to a fish. The fish does not have knowledge of the vastness of the waters it is in; it may not even be aware that it is in something like water. The fish is an extension, and integral part, of the water ecosystem (before I do the ‘so also’ let me say I am alert to the limitations of this ‘fish in the water’ metaphor and use it only to help visualize what I share next). Like the fish, the human lives in an ocean, one of cosmic vibration which manifests itself as Cit śakti in the human body. In the process of manifestation, the property of connection with the ocean appears to be lost. So, Cit śakti gives us the capacity to be self-aware and also be aware, in a limited way, of the human body in which it manifests. But this dynamic awareness enabling energy, Cit śakti, that manifests does not allow for an easy connection back to its source, the ocean of cosmic vibrations.
What is this ocean of cosmic vibrations? One way is to describe it in terms of its properties: Sat-Cit-Ānanda. Sat is the property of being always and everywhere. One of the properties of satcitānanda is manifestation outside of space and time; it is not bound by space and time. We can, however, begin to sense its presence through certain of its properties. Just as we can sense the presence of water in the ocean, through its properties of wetness and its liquid flow, so also, can we sense the presence of Satcitānanda through two of its properties: the property of self-awareness, which is Cit, and the property of contentment, which is Ānanda. Our awareness capacity, Cit, is limited. We experience sukha (happiness) and duḥkha (sorrow), but rarely contentment, Ānanda. And because we are bound by space and time – we are a-sat (not sat). Here, in my meditation seat, in my own little personal reservoir of awareness, cit, is fed by a trickle from satcitānanda, but I cannot sense that connection. How do I get to this place, where I can begin to sense a connection with satcitānanda and, then, actually connect? This is where mokṣaśāstra comes into play, and to have a Guru guide you through the systemized process (śāstra) to connect with and immerse (mokṣa) in satcitānanda.
This is a good place to ask: what keeps us from beginning to focus our energies to seek this connection to Satcitānanda? Because of Vṛtti.
Vṛtti, the other keyword Swami Shantanandaji raised in his discourse that summer Thursday morning, is disturbance; a disturbance that causes ripples or a storm in the tranquility of the reservoir of Cit śakti in us. Much of the time, most of us have a disturbed Cit śakti.
The key Vṛtti generating factors are our desires to play in this material world. And at this particular period on Earth, in 2020, we have a pandemic triggering particular desires: to survive now and to continue to do so in the longer run, while we consume an overload of information on how to survive. Much, if not all, of our Cit śakti is spent on this so we can take precautions to be safe and healthy while anxiously worrying about our financial future. The opportunity, even momentarily, to use some of our Cit śakti to recall and reconnect with the Satcitānanda, is near zero. Unless, and this is a Big Unless, we are blessed with the opportunity to be in satsang with ācāryas who tirelessly and with complete focus, because of their sustained focus on Satcitānanda, we are effortlessly guided to re-focus on our interior self. That is what happens every time I have the opportunity to attend Swami Shantanandaji’s discourse on these Thursday mornings.
I will hazard a guess that the pandemic has helped many of us focus on a few things. In fact, in pre-pandemic times, many who may have been continually distracted pursuing the narrative of materialist modernity which shaped almost every waking moment of our lives, and in our dream are beginning to avail of the opportunity to seek satsang and become aware of ourselves.[2]
Ācāryas in the past have spoken of many veils that cloud our view of Satcitānanda. What materialist modernity has constructed over the past 400 years is not a veil but a reinforced fortress wall. Any attempt to scale this wall and turn inward is met with ignorance, since the language of modernity does not have embedded within guidance on Satcitānanda. Any sensibility that is not a part of the modern narrative is denigrated and without guidance to search inward, we are pulled relentlessly, by modern logic, narrative and theories, to find happiness by continually playing win-lose games in the material world of our senses and keep us engaged in this material endeavor.
In this context, I see Covid-19 as an opportunity to turn inward and find satsang, as these distractions have been temporarily brought to a standstill, to guide us to dismantle brick by brick, the wall that modernity has erected within us. That is what Advaita Vedānta can do: gently help deconstruct the modern logic and narrative that is holding us prisoner.
May many of us find our satsang soon. And at that satsang, may we find an Ācārya to begin guiding us to focus our Cit śakti, to begin connecting to Satcitānanda.
And just to close the loop, next time I go for a morning walk and a young person barrels down past me without a mask, I hope to be less fearful as I meditate on this connection, while taking precautions myself. I will think positive thoughts for the young runners and wish them well.
[1] Swami Shantanandaji is President of Chinmaya Mission West and resident Ācārya of Chinmaya Vrindavan, Cranbury, New Jersey.
WIth the Devi’s Blessings. Cover art by Jayant Kalawar 2018.
I posted a tentative Jyotish based model to predict and track the Covid-19 Pandemic in the USA on April 6th 2020. I titled it the memetic pandemic. I wanted to convey that the pandemic that we were experiencing was not only at the biological level of the virus. It was also at the mental level of language – in terms of incessant flow of torrents of information of the disease and its manifestation in deaths around the globe.
I ended that post with the following summary prediction:
So, what I would be looking for is whether the actuals begin to slope downwards as per prediction based on my Jyotish based model, between April 18th and April 25th and then slope downwards even further after between April 25th – May 2nd and accelerate downwards between May 2nd – May 9th. And whether total number of deaths stabilize around April 25th on wards. Let’s see.
Here is a representation of numbers of daily new deaths:
What I see, in the chart above, is that the number of new deaths (7 day moving average for the United States) did peak somewhere between April 15th and 20th and then began to decline around April 25th 2020. as predicted. And, again on track with the prediction, the numbers began to go down sharply in the week of May 2nd. My model predicted up to May 9th.The model did pretty good in terms of predicting the slopes back in the April – May 2020 time frame. Not too bad for a first time Jyotish based model for a complex phenomenon of Covid 19 pandemic.
For Jyotishis, here is a brief description of how I arrived at the slopes (i.e. change in level of new deaths). I used a combination of 8th Lord (both natal and transit) aspect and 8th House placement on both transit and natal planets. In the case of USA SAMVA chart[1], the 8th Lord is Saturn and the 8th House is Aquarius, along with natal and transit Rahu / Ketu aspect on natal and transit planets.
Symbolically the function may be represented as:
Change in Level of New Deaths = f(f(8th L (NandTr), X), f(8th H, X), f(Ra/Ke(NandTr), X))
The potential for change in level of new deaths is measured in degrees of separation of planet X from the 8th and / or Rahu / Ketu.
My sense is that I have been able to at least directionally predict a complex biological-social phenomenon in the USA, which epidemiologists and other experts have been trying to get their arms around. With such a directional prediction, I was able to say to myself and my family and friends that with proper safety precautions the pandemic is likely to decrease in its lethality by mid-May. This helped in managing down the level of anxiety and therefore have better sense of hope and well-being. I am also somewhat more encouraged now that there is potential to use Jyotish based models to predict large scale complex social phenomena. Of course, there will have to be many, many trial and error iterations before the Jyotish approach of large scale social phenomena begins to be helpful in designing prevention and mitigation strategies as appropriate.
But then what about predictions for after mid-May 2020? After all, the pandemic phenomena is still continuing as I write this on July 7th 2020.
Well, I extended my prediction on April 22nd to cover the time period between mid-May and late July by saying:
There is a chance that there may be a mild second wave of Wuhan Virus in USA during this period of mid May 2020 to end July 2020, which may be seen as a continuance of the current wave. The indicators point to more of a chance of potential for civil and political disharmony and economic hardship in USA in May and June 2020, but that is from a different set of planetary drivers, which I may cover in a separate post (in this post I am focusing on the pandemic concerns).
As you would notice, the prediction of civil and political disharmony and economic hardship in USA in the May – June 2020 time frame was quite accurate (beginning with protests after the death in police custody of George Floyd on May 25th 2020 and peaking out in the second half of June).
Before I go on to give you my predictions for USA for rest of 2020, there is one key point I would like to make – why did I title my first post on this Covid 19 pandemic, as a memetic pandemic? : the above model representation focuses on predicting sickness (driven by 6th H and 6th L Jupiter) and death (driven by 8th H and 8th L Saturn). How the information about such sickness and death (and also communal disharmony – affliction of 4th H and 4th L Venus), I governed by strength of 3rd H and 3rd L Mercury.
So, I was pointing to how memetic pandemics overlay biological pandemics: when tr Mercury was transiting through 8th H from January 30th to April 7th (and then from April 7th to May 8th through its debilitation sign in Pisces followed by Aries afflicted by tr Ketu and natal Rahu), the media (both main stream and social) were continually channeling information about deaths from Covid-19. Then there was a very brief respite between May 8th and May 24th, when there was at least some neutral to positive news as Mercury transited through Taurus pretty strong and without affliction. Then on May 25th it transited into the 12th H of the USA SAMVA chart (Gemini) and its been there since, as of this writing in the first half of July. The media began reporting potential for losses, which is the hallmark of 12th H. It has kept stressing how new cases of Covid-19 are rising. But it did not convert to either hospitals being filled up, nor to sharp increases in deaths, which are to be expected as new cases rise (according to expert epidemiologists). I was able to confidently predict that this would not be so, that there may be a sense of a mild extension of the first wave up to the end of July. Hospitals did not fill up as tr Jupiter was no longer afflicted by Saturn since second week of May and moved back into its safe house Sagittarius in early July. Deaths did not rise because tr Saturn was no longer afflicted nor afflicting tr Jupiter or any other tr / natal planet or houses in the USA SAMVA chart. This has again helped me and my family and friends to manage anxieties down and have more of a sense of control. Learning and practicing the Systems Approach to Vedic Astrology (SATVA) over the last 14 years or so has really begun to pay off. I would encourage more and more folks to invest time and effort to learn and practice SATVA[2].
Well, if you have read through here and you reading this in July 2020, this may find this useful for you to navigate the next 6 to 8 months.
So here are my predictions for the rest of 2020:
US economy will see an upswing from July to early November (tr Jupiter in its own house Sagittarius).
The political and community scene in the US will be divisive (which may as may be expected in an election year 2020) between mid-July and early November (tr Jupiter aspects natal Venus).
From November 5th 2020 to early February 2021 there may be rise in sickness / deaths and intensity of civil and economic disharmony, as tr Jupiter and tr Saturn come into close conjunction, while the nodal axis stations at approximately 26 deg in exaltation in Taurus and Scorpio.
So, that’s it for now. Stay safe, enjoy and take care.
The Destroyer of Ignorance and Confusion – Aum Namo KAlarAtreya NamAhA (Source: Wikipedia, Devi Kalratri, Sanghasri, Kalighat, Kolkata, 2010)
Background to this post
As I was observing how actuals for the current (April 2020) Wuhan Virus pandemic in USA were tracking quite well to the slope (not the levels) in the graphics produced by my Jyotish based model (posted on April 6th), I received a suggestion[i] that it may be helpful to assess what Jyotish factors drove the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 – 1919 in USA.
So in this post I am looking at how the planetary patterns played out in the three waves of the 1918-1919 pandemic in USA. I then compare the 1918-1919 planetary patterns to the planetary patterns that will be in play between now and summer of 2021, using the Systems Approach to Mundane Vedic Astrology[ii]. The conclusion, which you can read in more detail towards the end, is that there appears to be a potential for two waves of the Wuhan Virus to arise in the USA:
Jyotish indicators show that there is some potential for what may be a mild second wave of Wuhan Virus in USA during mid May 2020 to end July 2020. This second wave may be seen as a continuance of the current wave (as I write this in mid-April 2020). There is more of a potential for civil and political disharmony and economic hardship in USA in May and June 2020, but that is from a different set of planetary drivers, which I may cover in a separate post (in this post I am focusing on the pandemic concerns).
There are indications of a third wave of Wuhan Virus arising between mid-October 2020 and February 2021, with a peak in December 2020 (which happens to coincide with the typical seasonal flu period in USA, beginning with spread of contagion from the Thanksgiving Holiday, through to Christmas Holidays and the New Year). My analysis based on Systems Approach Jyotish indicates that if at all such a third Wuhan Virus pandemic wave arises in the Fall of 2020, it will not be anywhere near the severity of the devastating wave of the Fall of 1918 pandemic.
Many of you may find it helpful to use these broad predictions (with probabilities) to develop scenarios for your business and your personal lives. Keep in mind that even these threatening scenarios can be made into opportunities if applied keeping individual business and personal specifics in context and with safety in mind.
You can read more about the Spanish Flu Pandemic in USA of 1918-1919 in this article by the Center for Disease Control (USA)[iii]. I will focus on the three waves of the deadly pandemic in Spring of 1918, Fall of 1918 and Spring of 1919.
So in order to develop a meaningful understanding of the planetary patterns for the 1918 – 1919 pandemic in USA, I begin with noticing the following in the USA SAMVA 20 degree Cancer rising chart[iv]:
For 1918-1919 the USA chart shows a Rahu major period with a Rahu sub-period covering all three waves. Rahu is the north node created by intersection of the Moon with the Sun. The disturbed energy pattern created by the Moon-Sun intersections become fertile space-time areas for disease and deception.
Now let’s look at the transit configurations of:
Where the nodal axis (Rahu / Ketu) was stationed during each of the three 19189-1919 pandemic waves.
Where Jupiter, the ruler of the 6th House in the USA chart and which has potential to trigger disease, was transiting during each of these three waves of 1918-1919.
Where Saturn, the rules of the 8th House in the USA chart and which has the potential to trigger death and death like experiences and raise obstructions to attempts towards resolution, was transitioning during each of these three pandemic waves.
First Pandemic Wave (Spring 1918) Transit Positions:
Rahu was stationed at 29 deg in Scorpio, weak and debilitated in the 5th House of the USA chart, while Ketu was stationed at 29 deg in Taurus, debilitated in in the 11th House of the USA chart.
Jupiter, the disease trigger for USA chart was transiting over tr Ketu at that time. It was not stationed over it. Nor was it impacting any of the critical points in the chart. It did trigger disease, but at a relatively low level in the first wave.
Saturn, the giver of death and death like experiences in the USA chart (Saturn can be a positive force in most charts for most of the time. In the USA chart it has this negative potential as well) was stationing at near the ascendant point of the chart, in Cancer, during this time and impacted 7th house of faraway lands as well. It gave death like experiences not only due to the disease at home (1st house), but also in far away lands (WW 1 had ended, but death like experiences were continuing among those who had not yet returned back to USA at this time).
Second Pandemic Wave (Fall 1918) Positions:
Rahu at 20 degrees Scorpio, debilitated and stationed on the most effective point and afflicting the Ascendant point with its 9th Ketu at 20 degrees Taurus, debilitated, stationed on the most effective point of 11th house.
Jupiter at 20 deg Gemini, stationed on the most effective point of 12th House and afflicting most effective points of 4th, 6th and 8th
Saturn at 5 degrees Leo, 2nd House, but not afflicting.
The combination of prolonged affliction of debilitated Rahu-Ketu to the ascendant and of Jupiter from 12th House of separation afflicting 6th House, may have triggered this deadliest of the three waves in the Spanish Flu pandemic.
Third Pandemic Wave (Summer 1919) Positions:
Rahu at 11 degrees Scorpio, debilitated and stationed but not afflicting. Ketu at 11 degrees Taurus, debilitated and stationed but not afflicting.
Jupiter was afflicted by 9th aspect of natal Ketu at 16 degrees in Gemini much of April and May.
Saturn was afflicted by 10th aspect of natal Saturn at 26 degrees in Leo in the April – May time frame.
All three afflictions during the summer of 1919 were relatively mild. The relatively lower number of cases and deaths in the third wave reflect that.
My main take away from review of the three 1918 – 1919 Spanish Flu pandemic waves, through a Systems Approach Jyotish lens, is that combinations of direct affliction of and by the nodes and 6th and 8th rulers (in the case of the USA chart, Jupiter and Saturn) during a Rahu major / Rahu sub-period (the amplification by Rahu of the negativity introduced by the influenza virus played a major role back in 1918-1919 pandemic) and stationing of debilitated Rahu-Ketu, led to the immense death laden 2nd wave in the Fall of 1918, which took about half a million human lives in the USA in a few months.
So what does that mean for the Wuhan Virus Pandemic USA in 2020 – 2021?
Will there be repeat waves of Wuhan virus pandemic? Yes, I do see (from a Jyotish lens perspective) the potential for this to happen.
Will such repeat waves be substantially deadlier than the pandemic wave we are experiencing right now in April 2020? No, I do not see that to be so.
Here is why.
First, we note the major and sub-period in the SAMVA USA chart in the 2020-2021 period:
January 26th 2020 to November 30th 2020: Sun major period with Mercury sub-period. Both Sun and Mercury ensure positive benefits to the USA. Mercury plays a role in bringing communities together in mitigating negativities, including viruses.
December 1st 2020 to April 6th 2021: Sun major period with Ketu sub-period. This Ketu sub-period, channeling the disturbed energy of the intersection of the Moon with the Sun, could potentially provide the space-time area for a second wave of Wuhan Virus infection in the USA.
April 7th 2021 to April 8th 2022: Sun major period with Venus sub-period. Venus, along with Sun, provides positive benefits for the USA. A post-pandemic coming together of America (signified by Venus as fourth House ruler and also generally as signifier of prosperity), may be expected in this period.
To assess what chances there are for future waves of Wuhan Virus pandemic in 2020 – 2021, we will examine the next three Rahu-Ketu stations between now (April 2020) and the summer of 2021.
First Rahu-Ketu stationing from mid May 2020 to July 31st 2020
Rahu stationing at 5 degrees in 12th House Gemini and Ketu at 5 degrees in 6th House Sagittarius. However they are not applying any prolonged affliction during this period. Saturn and Jupiter are in 7th House Capricorn mildly afflicting each other from a distance of over 3 degrees. There is a chance that there may be a mild second wave of Wuhan Virus in USA during this period of mid May 2020 to end July 2020, which may be seen as a continuance of the current wave. The indicators point to more of a chance of potential for civil and political disharmony and economic hardship in USA in May and June 2020, but that is from a different set of planetary drivers, which I may cover in a separate post (in this post I am focusing on the pandemic concerns).
Second, is the Rahu-Ketu Stationing mid October 2020 to January 31st 2021
Exalted Rahu will station at 25 degrees in 11th House Scorpio. Exalted Ketu will station at 25 degrees 5th House Taurus. They will be directly afflicting and be afflicted by natal Saturn (death like experiences) at 26 deg 11th House Scorpio.
At the same time debilitated transit Jupiter and transit Saturn will be conjunct in 7th House Capricorn for all of December 2020. This conjunction will play out when the Ketu sub-period is the driver in the SAMVA USA chart from December 1st 2020 to April 7th 2021. IF at all there is a second wave of the Wuhan Virus pandemic, it is likely to begin somewhere in USA in the second half of October, will peak in December 2020 and then recede at the beginning of February 2021. The impact of this second wave, while it has the potential of being somewhat more than the first wave in USA in the February to May 2020 time frame, is not likely to be anywhere near the second wave of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic.
This time the major period driver is the Sun, which protects and blesses the USA chart (the major period driver was the malefic Rahu a 102 years ago). Also, this Rahu-Ketu in transit in 2020-2021 are exalted and therefore give relatively fewer negative results, compared to the debilitated Rahu-Ketu stationing of 102 years ago. Both these factors (of Sun major period and the exalted Rahu-Ketu transit) will provide cover in the Mid October 2020- February 2021 period, even though the Ketu sub-period may play the negative catalyst role for spread of disease and of death during this period.
Perhaps one way of minimizing the impact, of even a relatively (compared to 102 years ago) weak second pandemic wave in USA in the Mid October 2020 – February 2021 period, is to practice social distance and wear masks and wash hands frequently, which many of us in the USA may have done effectively from March 2020 onwards.
The third transit Rahu-Ketu station to notice is the one occurring at 16 degrees of Taurus, between April 2021 and June 2022. This station is happening in the Sun / Venus positive period of the USA chart. During this period, the 6th house ruler Jupiter (of disease and debt) will be in the 8th house, Aquarius (between 2 deg and 8 deg), but not afflicting nor being afflicted. At the same time, 8th house ruler transit Saturn (of death like experiences and obstructions in this case) is stationing at 19 deg Capricorn (7th house). It will afflict 7th, 9th, 1st and 4th houses of the USA chart. My take away from these configuration is that while there is not a likelihood of the 3rd wave of Wuhan Virus pandemic, there may likely be some negative experiences, including violence leading to injury and deaths of Americans in distant lands (7th house), at Colleges (9th house) and domestically across communities (1st and 4th houses).
Conclusion
When looking through a Jyotish lens I see potential for a mild wave (which may be seen as a continuance of the current wave (as of April 2020)) of the Wuhan Virus pandemic in USA until the end of June 2020. There is somewhat higher potential for a second wave in the Fall of 2020, with peak in December 2020, which may extend into February 2021. These broad predictions may be useful for many of you as you do your scenario planning of your specifics in your business and individual lives. Such an exercise may uncover ways in which to minimize loss and find ways of continuing to do business in a different and safe way.
I may post separately on what the economic scenarios look like for USA from a Jyotish lens in 2020-2021.
[i] Suggestion was made by the master astrologer who goes by the name of Cosmologer, whose mastery of Systems Approach to Mundane Vedic Astrology, especially as it applies to nation-states, is legendary among practicing astrologers. You can access his writings at http://cosmologer.blogspot.com/
[ii] See the Mundane Astrology site http://yournetastrologer.com/mundane_astrology.htm as propounded by the Late Professor V.K. Chaudhary and now being practiced by eminent astrologers Mr. Rajesh Chaudhary and Cosmologer.
From April 8th to April 25th, Mercury transits Pisces, the 9th house of good fortune and openness to direction from advanced research. We may likely see a different set of memes arise in this period. They are, however, likely to be over all weakly positive (and especially so up to August 14th): the memes in this period will likely begin giving information about how the pandemic is being mitigated and calling to action and getting back to work.
Mercury enters Aries on April 26th 2020. It will be able to manifest positive memes especially up to May 6th. Memes calling for action to get the economy moving may get stronger in this period.
Here are two news items that surfaced in this context on April 16th, which are aligned with the above predictions:
Early peek at data on Gilead coronavirus drug suggests patients are responding to treatment.
The potential of Systems Approach to Vedic Astrology to play a role in planning our lives has not been tapped. There is quite a bit of research that needs to be done to make this happen, to make the heuristics developed by ancient Rishis adapt to the 21st century to make them relevant and practical. One way is to incorporate the Jyotish factor into modeling, which is what I have done here and therefore test whether and how it helps us all to navigate uncertainty in life a little bit better.
Of course, the main question on everyone’s mind right now, as I write this on April 17th, is what direction Covid-19 epidemic take, in terms of new cases and new deaths. You will see my prediction in the linked post (at the top of this post) which speaks of leveling of new cases after August 18th and leveling of new deaths somewhere between April 25th and May 6th. A new planetary configuration opens up from May 5th on wards, as Mars moves into Aquarius and Venus slows down and stations itself in late Taurus. I hope to contemplate and write about that soon in a separate post.
The memes in social media may begin to see some positive shoots after April 7th and a little more after April 14th, but we may have to wait until after April 25th for clarity on how and when people would be able to go back to work and school.
The active Wuhan Virus cases in USA may likely peak between April 18th and 25th. Sharp declines may follow between April 25th and May 9th.
Wuhan Virus related deaths in USA are likely to peak some time between April 25th and May 7th.
In this update I am posting graphics showing Jyotish Model projections for Active USA cases and total USA Deaths (first two graphics), followed by actuals up to April 13th (next two graphics). If you go back to my April 6th post and compare to what I have posted here, you will notice I have not tweaked my model projections at all. I am not looking to track levels / numbers of Active cases with my Jyotish model. What I am interested in tracking is how well this Jyotish based model is able to predict when the Active cases peak and when the declines start in Active Cases in USA. I notice a beginning of a slow down in the Active cases graph. Your constructive comments and suggestions are welcome on this post are welcome.
Jyotish Model Predicted Current Active Wuhan Virus Cases in USA March – May 2020
Jyotish Model Predicted Total Wuhan Virus Deaths in USA March – May 2020
Actual Active Wuhan Virus Cases USA to April 13th 2020
Actual Total Wuhan Virus Deaths in USA to April 13th 2020
WIth the Devi’s Blessings. Cover art by Jayant Kalawar 2018.
Most of us are already familiar with the genetic pandemic that is sweeping through USA, at the time of this writing, in 2020. It is known variously as the Wuhan Virus, Covid – 19 and Corona Virus pandemic. I call it the Wuhan Virus RNA genetic pandemic, since it is driven by RNA, a basic genetic component of living cells. That way I can more clearly articulate the proposition that in parallel a memetic pandemic took place in USA in the February to April 2020 time frame. This memetic pandemic worked its way through the Global Social Mind that I began referring to in my previous post. The impact of this memetic pandemic may have been to temporarily amplify fears and cause confusion, and therefore lower the ability to effectively to respond to the genetic pandemic. From Jyotish perspective, the memetic pandemic is set to begin abating from April 7th 2020 on wards. And with that the Global Social Mind is likely to begin coming together to positively resolve the genetic pandemic.
Living in New Jersey I am currently experiencing (again at the time of this writing) the isolation and fears that arises from this Wuhan Virus pandemic. I know of people in my friends and family network who have been impacted from mild to critical to the ultimate price that this virus extracts. I write this analytical essay keeping those in mind. I hope I have nuanced it, so that it does not come across as cold and calculating. Hopefully the short term nature and order of magnitude lower numbers that this Jyotish based model projects comes true.
Viewing the 2020 USA Memetic Pandemic from the Jyotish Lens
On January 31st 2020, President Trump placed severe restrictions on airplane flights from China to USA. That was the beginning of USA memetic pandemic around the Wuhan Virus. It was the day that transit Mercury, which especially for USA governs analysis, communication, initiatives and short-term travel (Mercury thus ends up being a key significator of memes generated in USA), entered Aquarius, which happens to be the 8th House of death like experiences for USA according to SAMVA chart. This particular transit of Mercury through 30 degrees of Aquarius was longer than usual. Mercury went from 0 degrees Aquarius to almost 30 degrees, slowed down and came back to about 4 deg Aquarius and then trudged back to 30 deg by April 7th. Mercury usually crosses a zodiac sign in 18 to 21 days. This time it stayed in Aquarius for 68 days[i]. Additionally, both natal Ketu and transit Ketu aspects were present in Aquarius at about 10 degrees and 16 degrees. Ketu gives isolation, distance and general material loss (and spiritual gain).
Thus, this transit of Mercury from January 31st to April 7th , manifested as memes of death like behavior, woven in with memes of isolation and distance. The Global Social Mind which has come into existence in the last 25 years, amplifies these memes and motivates individuals to according to the memes it propagates. We experienced the push towards social distancing and isolation after February 15th when Mercury began to slow down and retrace back from 20 deg Aquarius, in the shadow of natal Ketu. The Wuhan virus outbreak in Kirkland, Washington, had begun to unfold then and the first of the deaths in USA began to be counted.
From April 8th to April 25th, Mercury transits Pisces, the 9th house of good fortune and openness to direction from advanced research. We may likely see a different set of memes arise in this period. They are, however, likely to be over all weakly positive (and especially so up to August 14th): the memes in this period will likely begin giving information about how the pandemic is being mitigated and calling to action and getting back to work.
Mercury enters Aries on April 26th 2020. It will be able to manifest positive memes especially up to May 6th. Memes calling for action to get the economy moving may get stronger in this period. This may potentially effectively move the Global Social Mind out of the dark memetic pandemic, at least in the USA. May 8th on wards there are other Jyotish impacts seen from the political and economic frames that may not fully enable the positive memes trend to continue. We may talk about that in a later post.
Jyotish Perspective of Triggers for the RNA Pandemic in USA
In my continued attempts to make Jyotish a relevant tool in the modern world, I have used Jyotish based prediction as a driver of Covid-19 reproduction rate in US in the late March – early May time frame to forecast current cases, total deaths and total recoveries. I used actuals for March 21st as a starting point and then applied changing reproduction rates (using Excel spread sheet) as follows:
Jyotish Model Driving COVID 19 Reproduction Rate in USA March – May 2020 Using USA SAMVA CHART
Dates
March 31st
April 8th
April 14th
April 25th
Significant Astro Dates (Used as Drivers to change Reproduction Rate R in Table below)
USA SAMVA tr Mars afflicted by tr Saturn Peak March 31st Gives Peak R=4.5)
April 8th: tr Mars no longer afflicted. Tr 3rd L Mercury out of 8th H, but debilitated so only few openings for movement and communication opened up. Drives R down to 3.2 and then to 1.1)
April 14th: Tr 2nd L Sun exalted in Aries bringing leadership and sense of well being to country. Drives R to 0.7.
April 25th: Mercury moves into Aries. Movement, communication and innovation opens up. Drives R to 0.4 and lower in following weeks.
Following Charts present the Jyotish Model Forecasts and Actuals to Date (March 28th 2020)
Jyotish Model Predicted Current Wuhan Virus Cases
Jyotish Model Predicted Total Deaths
Actual Total Cases
Actual Total Deaths
I expect the numbers predicted will differ from actuals. My predictions are for total current cases net recoveries. Actuals are for total cases to date (not netted for recoveries). More important is when the actual cases and actual deaths peak and decelerate (and at what rate). So, what I would be looking for is whether the actuals begin to slope downwards as per prediction based on my Jyotish based model, between April 18th and April 25th and then slope downwards even further after between April 25th – May 2nd and accelerate downwards between May 2nd – May 9th. And whether total number of deaths stabilize around April 25th on wards. Lets see.
I use the Systems Approach To Vedic Astrology (SATVA) as propounded by Professor V. K. Chaudhry in the 1990s. Current SATVA practice is led by esteemed astrologer Mr. Rajesh K. Chaudhary. The USA chart that I refer to in this post was formulated after over a decade of detailed of historical research by Cosmologer.
[i] I hasten to add, that this description of Mercury’s travel through Aquarius is from a Earth positional astronomy perspective i.e. this is how we see Mercury’s motion in the sky from the Earth. Helio (Sun) centric astronomy teaches us that is not actually happens in space. Jyotish uses sidereal positional astronomy, with positions of planets and stars as they are seen from a point on Earth to cast sky maps (charts) and then interpret them using heuristics developed over millennia of observations.
What do I want to keep? What to let go? What do I want to build anew?
Well, actually if I could, I would like to keep just a few specific positive memories from 2019 and let go of the rest, both positive and negative.
I don’t think it is possible to let go of memories. But maybe be they can be moved to some faraway distant storage?! That way they are not lurking around to trigger us every day into doing or saying things that we then regret.
So I begin by thinking backwards from December to January of 2019. Month by month.
For each month I try to remember things that happened that gave me a feeling of well-being and of unease. I think of my health and in my late 60s I have some aches and pains that routinely spring to life. Remembering specific things helps to contemplate on what I should have done differently to manage these little friends that keep springing up. This way I begin to make a ‘lessons learned’ list! I have been able to add a new 3 minute daily exercise for my knees, for example. So I can move my memories of knee pain and weakness away into deep storage and instead add this new exercise segment into my daily activity.
I do the same, to remember the times I may have been upset with my dear and near ones, as I go back in the year, month by month. What could I have done differently so that I would not get so upset? And repeatedly so. The pattern becomes more obvious when I go through such a contemplative exercise for each of the 12 months. Beginning of a new year is a good time to do this, quietly by one self. I learn from it. It is one thing to say I should be more patient. Another to learn for one self how to say something differently, not jump to conclusions for example. Or come up with solutions. Asking more open ended questions in a way that would be less irritating, perhaps. So again, to let go of the memories of the pattern of upsets and hopefully to learn how not to repeat that pattern in 2020.
And then there is problem-solving we all do every day. Whether at home or at work or at play. This is something I particularly like to contemplate on. To see what problem solving was difficult for me. What caused anxiety and how was it resolved. How could I have done that problem solving differently. Much of the problem solving we do is collaborative. Going to buy or sell a car for example. To solve that problem requires many different players and many different factors coming into play. I have to come up to speed on who does what and so on in the car buying or selling process. Lots of prep work needs to be done before going in and engaging to solve the problem of buying or selling a car. Same thing with investing: buying or selling stocks or bonds for example. Or buying or selling a house. Same rules apply: contemplate on specific problem solving events backwards month by month in 2019. What could I have done differently to have better outcomes? What can I learn from that and how can I change how I solve problems in 2020? More research, patience, asking questions, being pro-active are some general things. All this take more time. So giving more time up front in how I plan the problem solving process is something that I hope to build in to the way I solve complex problems in 2020.
Hope you get some idea from these examples of my own step by step attempts to learn from 2019, so I can move most of the memories into far away distant storage while keeping most of the lessons learned. And so, hopefully, become a somewhat better person in 2020 (my new year’s resolution). Perhaps you may try some of this for yourself. Especially if you believe there is room for you to be a somewhat better person in 2020.
We are at the beginning of a new year and a new decade. In this post, I cover what 2020 may look like.
For those who may have missed it, I posted my 2019 retrospective a few weeks ago. So the context is set for jumping into forecasting for the decade of the 20s! In this Part 1 of a two part post, I will cover the year 2020 may bring for US politics, presidential election, economy, culture war, technology. In the next (Part 2) post, a few weeks from now in about mid-January 2020, I will (bravely) speculate on the decade.
For those who read my posts, you already know of this, so skip to the next paragraph, if you would like. I post on a range of topics, from strategy in the modern world using the lens of science and technology, to spiritual quest using the lens of India traditions. Jyotish is one technique from Indian traditions that is reviled by most educated modern people and, on the other hand, is used extensively by many people who include the ways of Indian traditions in their day to day life. In this and other posts I apply Systems Approach to Vedic Astrology[2] to the dense information, analysis and forecasts that are already available to us through corporate, government and social media. I find Jyotish gives me a way of examining the world and making a somewhat better practical sense of it, than what the modern media pundits would have us believe. Over the years, I have found it is helpful in managing the ups and downs in life. Jyotish indeed shines a beam of light, which can be used to bridge between the material and the spiritual. Those of you who have made (or would like to make) the cognitive shift to experience the Devas as real and active in this world are best able to make use of the Jyotish lens. I think 2020 has the hallmark of being a positive year, compared to 2019, which may have been stressful in different ways for most of us. Let’s talk politics, economics and culture, to see whether we can get a sense of what to expect in 2020, so that we may have some sense of how to navigate it.
US Politics 2020
First, lets cover politics (as many of you may know already, I cover mostly US and sometimes India and then, once in a while, the ageing original colonizer country, the UK).
In the US, 2020 is an election year.
As I write this in mid to late December 2019, the US politicians in the capital are embroiled in the impeachment proceedings against President Trump. At the same time, the Democrats are playing out the 2020 primary drama. So, the three questions for US politics in 2020 are set: will President Trump be acquitted or removed by the US Senate in the early months of the year? Who is likely to be the Democratic candidate to win the primaries and contest the presidential elections? Who will be sworn in as president of the US in 2021?
US Politics up to June 2020
Let’s look at the first six months of 2020. With Republicans controlling the US Senate, will there be an acquittal or removal of the sitting president? In this post I assume President Trump will be acquitted of the impeachment charges. The rest of the post reflects that impeachment acquittal scenario. However, his birth chart indicates that he may be in conflict with quite a few close advisors soon after such an acquittal. The major indicator here is Saturn, which moves into Capricorn in the last week of January 2020 and remains in his 6th house of conflict, Capricorn, for the next 3 years. President Trump’s birth chart has a very weak natal 7th L Saturn placed in his 12th of losses in his natal chart, which implies he has not had much support from his advisors and partners in his life, in any case. That in turn implies that President Trump is used to working things through major crises in his life without much guidance or help from his advisors or partners. So the three year post January 2020 phase of his 7th L Saturn transiting in his 6th house of conflict, while it may give rise to conflicts, may not have much of a negative impact on his career track. But there is something else that might: transit Jupiter will be in his 6th house for 3 months from April to June of 2020. He is likely to have some losses potentially driven by actions by his close family involved in his career: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. At this time, they appear to be leading the trade talks with China. At the same time, the nodal (Rahu-Ketu) axis will be slowing and afflicting his 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th houses in June – and that may contribute to potential set-backs in the trade-talks area and also increase tensions with foreign powers. To sum an answer to the first question: yes, President Trump may likely be acquitted of the impeachment charges, but his ability to maneuver may be weakened in the first six months of 2020.
Democratic Nominee?
On to the second question: who will be the Democratic nominee? There are so many factors that are likely to play out in the crowded Democratic primaries, at the time of this writing in mid- December. So what I write here is speculative, more directional than a pinpoint prediction. Based on available birth charts and estimate of their accuracy, I am giving a low to high probability for who may be the democratic nominee as things stand in late 2019:
Mr. Michael Bloomberg (MB): high quality birth chart based on birth certificate (February 14, 1942, 3:40 pm, Brighton, MA). Cancer rising at 3 deg. Currently in Ketu/Sun from December 21st 2019 to April 27th 2020 and then followed by Ketu/Moon up to Nov 26th 2020, with natal Sun at 2 deg in 8thand natal Ketu at 20 deg also in 8th. MB may get a boost in the primary race between now and mid-April and then may not make much headway, as 1st L Moon (combust and slightly afflicted by 10th aspect of natal 8th L Saturn does not enable very positive projection of self-image required for a winning presidential candidate) bhukti sets in, while in Ketu mahadasha. I give MB a low probability of being nominee.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (EW): low quality birth chart (date, without time. June 22, 1949, Oklahoma City). Based on EW’s key life events as described in her Wikipedia bio, I have estimated a 2 deg Leo rising chart, with Ascendant lord Sun at 7 deg in the 11th. This chart shows Saturn / Venus period running up to November 25th 2021. Natal Saturn is at 8 deg in the 1st and Venus at 25 deg in the 11th. Both natal Saturn and Venus may be seen to be weak due to their mooltrikona houses being weakened by the natal Rahu-Ketu nodal axis. EW has a strong 2nd L Mercury, the prime determinant of her career, in the 10th house, alongside Mars the 9th L of good fortune (which is weak due to 9th H being afflicted by natal nodal axis). Her Jupiter, planet of creative intelligence, is badly placed in the 6th and its mooltrikona house is afflicted making it weak. Overall, the chart shows a strong career with keen analytical abilities, marred by not having good fortune. If I come across a better rectification of EW’s chart, I will revisit EW’s chances. With the estimated chart that I currently have, I give EW a moderate chance of being the nominee.
Mr. Andrew Yang (AY): We have a date and time from memory for AY’s birth chart (January 13, 1975, 6:20 am, Schenectady, NY). Rising at 11 deg in Sagittarius, it has natal Jupiter strong and un-afflicted at 22 deg in 3rd H, with dispositor Saturn at 25 deg in 1st H. The chart is currently running Jupiter / Venus until Feb 8th 2020 and thereafter Jupiter / Sun up to Nov 26th 2020. Natal Venus at 15 deg in 2nd H is directly afflicted by debilitated natal Ketu from the 6th, with its 9th aspect. Natal Sun is very weak in 1st H at 29 deg. Jupiter dasha gives AY push in his new endeavors (he is stepping into politics at a presidential level without any political experience is an entirely new endeavor). However, bhuktis of afflicted Venus and then weak Sun are likely not allow fruition of AY’s endeavors in 2020. I give AY a low probability of being a nominee.
Vice President Joseph Biden (JB): We have a date and time from memory of JB’s birth chart (November 20, 1942, 8:30 am, Scranton, PA). Rising at 10 deg in Scorpio, it has 10th L natal Sun in 1st and directly afflicted by natal 12th L Venus. Natal 9th L Moon is directly afflicted by 9th aspect of natal Rahu. Natal 2nd L Jupiter at 2 deg in 9th is rendered weak due to dispositor natal Moon being weak and afflicted. Natal 11th L Mercury is weak in the 12th at 28 deg. All these natal positions indicate that JB may have communication challenges especially in the context of Global Social Mind (which I have described in my 2019 retrospective post). JB is currently running Jupiter/Mars until April 30th and thereafter Jupiter / Rahu until September 30th 2023. This combination of dasha and bhuktis and an overall weak chart lead me to give JB a low probability of being a Democratic Party nominee for the November 2020 elections.
I do not have enough birth details and life events to construct rectified charts for Senator Bernie Sanders, Mayor Peter Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar.
Of the four candidates in the Democratic primaries I have analyzed above, only Senator Elizabeth Warren rises above low probability level in my view. Additionally let’s say Senator Bernie Sanders (I do not have enough information to have a view) may be her top competitor, based on current surveys. However, politics at the ground level may favor Senator Warren over Senator Sanders as a better bet as Democratic nominee to attract centrist independents and therefore to have a close contest with President Trump in November 2020. So overall, EW rises to the top as potential Democratic Party nominee.
US Politics in November 2020
So, let’s say President Trump gets past the impeachment trial in the US Senate with an acquittal. The first six to seven months of the year are not likely to be favorable for him, with his advisors distancing themselves for a range of reasons. However, there is a shift in September 2020. The nodal axis moves into Taurus-Scorpio where it is exalted. The transit nodal axis will now aspect President Trump’s natal Sun and natal nodal axis, especially in October-November at between 29 deg and 25 deg Taurus-Scorpio. This transit nodal axis configuration may further enable President Trump to be even more effective than usual in influencing the Global Social Mind and therefore the elections.
During the last two months leading to the elections on November 3rd 2020, President Trump appears to have the following pluses on his side:
Jupiter, his planet of creative intelligence will be strong in its own house especially from August through to mid-November,
Mercury will be in its own sign Virgo most of September giving him keen analytical ability post Labor day as the election campaign gathers momentum,
Mars, his planet of good fortune, will be in Aries from mid-August to beginning of October and
Exalted Rahu will be aspecting his natal Sun from September 20th through to December, enabling his ability to accomplish his goals in the material world.
At the same time for the USA SAMVA chart, transit 6th L Jupiter will be hovering around natal Venus in Sagittarius from August through to end of October 2020. This is likely to show in intense divisiveness of the US polity as it heads into the November 3rd presidential election.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (my assumed Democratic nominee) does have a strong 2nd L natal Mercury, which reflects in her strong communication and analytical ability. But a weak, debilitated 5th L Jupiter in 6th may not enable the strong influencer role that this age of the Global Social Mind seems to require as a key success factor for winning US presidential elections.
So, my bet would be that if Senator Elizabeth Warren is the Democratic nominee (which seems most likely among the slate of Democratic candidates at the moment), then the chances are that PresidentTrump is likely to be re-elected on November 3, 2020. On the other hand, perhaps the Democratic Party may come up with a nominee that is not one of the four I have discussed in some detail above, who may stand a better chance to win the November elections. I will re-visit the November 2020 election possibilities in June-July 2020, if that is the case.
US Culture and Society in 2020
I did not talk about the topic of US culture and society in my 2019 retrospective. It was a divisive year in the US, a culmination some may say of a divisive decade. There were divisions in politics for sure, with the House being controlled by Democrats after their win in November 2018 and Senate remaining in firm Republican control with an increased majority. The gender divisiveness seemed to widen with the #MeToo movement, bringing down multiple media and corporate personalities in its wake. The culture wars took to the streets, with Neo Nazis and Confederate supporters going head to head with Anti-Fa supporters. There were many reports of divide even within families driven by such culture war factors. All this divisiveness was in line with the SMAVA USA 4th Lord natal Venus in 6th, the planet signifying communal harmony for the US[3], being almost continually being afflicted from April onwards by the transit nodal axis and by the transit 8th L Saturn. While the nodal axis affliction abated after September, the 8th L Saturn transit affliction of natal Venus continues until January 14th 2020 (given that the 4th Lord Venus of communal harmony is in the 6th house of conflict in the USA chart indicates that there is always an underlying tension within and among US communities. It is a question of higher degree of such conflicts and their outcomes at times of malefic afflictions that become interesting to note from year to year).
In most of 2020, transit Venus will coast through without major afflictions, except for a brief time in August. Natal Venus will be afflicted by transit 6th L Jupiter in the August-October 2020 time frame, which we already noted above.
Compared to 2019, however, the divisiveness in the US may wind down when transit 8th L Saturn moves to 7th H in the last week of January, followed by US SAMVA chart running the Sun / Mercury period beginning first week of February 2020, which lasts all the way to December 10th 2020. There is a chance that this a period when communication and media interests (signified by Mercury) may be less provocative in their reporting, than in the recent past.
US Economy 2020
The US economy seems to have been well managed and stabilized by the US Federal Reserve, through a difficult period in 2019. Some say the Fed has achieved a soft landing and steered the US economy away from a recession. Potential for growth in 2020 appears to depend on how the trade war with China is resolved. There appears to be no clear map charted out at this stage (in late 2019) in the negotiations between US and China.
The SAMVA USA chart, however, provides clearer guidance for the US economy. Currently running the Sun dasha giving general economic well-being (from 2016), with the Mercury bhukti giving positive interactions with Canada and Mexico, from February to December 2020, the SAMVA USA chart is signaling a positive time for US economy. Foreign trade signified by its 10th H L Mars is also giving positive signals for 2020. Mars transits in Aries and Pisces (10th and 9 th houses) most of the second half of 2020. August through October may see positive movement in trade agreements.
US Tech 2020
Technology has been the great disruptive change agent in the US over the last 30 years. It has brought about rapid productivity gains and growth on one hand. At the same time digital technology has increased inequality both in terms of income and wealth distribution.
The current Sun dasha running in the USA SAMVA chart since 2016 has begun changing that direction, providing more attention to raising employment and income for the masses. That will continue in 2020. There may be more moves towards regulating the large tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple.
Mars plays a key role as the 10th L strongly placed in the creative 5th house in the USA SAMVA chart. This gives US the creative tech drive that ends up leading the world. In 2020 Mars will be in 9th house of academia and research from June 18th to August 15th and then again from October 4th to December 23rd. News of research breakthroughs from Universities and research labs may be expected during these periods. Mars will be in its own house Aries (and therefore stronger) from August 16th to October 3rd . News about new tech initiatives launched in commercial and defense arena may be likely during this time period. Second half of 2020 may see a few major new tech announcements in the US, after a 2019 that had raised doubts about whether tech world had reached a plateau with the big tech monopolies and non-transparency no longer enabling innovation.
Summing Up
The probability of Senator Elizabeth Warren being the Democratic Party nominee is high.
The probability of President Trump being re-elected, with Senator Elizabeth Warren as his competitor in November 2020, is high.
Social-cultural divisiveness / tensions in the US may tone down (relative to 2019) in 2020, except for the August-November time frame.
US economy is likely to do better in 2020 than in 2019, which is saying a lot.
US Tech is likely to make new breakthroughs in research as well as commercial and defense applications in the second half of 2020.
Have an enjoyable 2020 and may you achieve whatever you set out to achieve during the course of the year!!
That’s it for now. As you may have noted, in these posts I write about the general world we interact with. If you would like to have a personal reading for 2020, connect with me at jayantkalawar@gmail.com . I also give one on one tutorials on set up and interpret your own birth chart, so that you may begin to use it as one more ongoing tool to help you navigate your life’s journey.
The Devi Waiting For Her Children (c) Jayant Kalawar 2019
by Jayant Kalawar
Most areas of the globe seem to have gone through the ups and downs of 2019 quite nicely. The planets in 2019 were aligned to provide a theater for quite some fire and light show this year, but collectively we were able to hold back from the brink. What changed the direction? I speculate on a new dynamic that has arisen that may be helping balance negative global patterns triggered by planetary forces.
In the USA, the year started with the Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives. That laid the ground for a year-long theater of conflict between the President and the Speaker of the House. The Mueller report proved to be much milder than anticipated by the Democrats in implicating President Trump in any wrong doing. The report did point to key role of foreign powers, such as Russia, and of global digital platforms, such Facebook and Twitter, in the 2016 presidential election. This was seen by President Trump as an assault on the credibility of his victory in that election, adding fuel to the fire in the Trump-Pelosi script. The result is the impeachment process, which is continuing at the time of this writing, in early December 2019.
The trade war with China did not escalate to a physical war. And while negotiations with North Korea may be seen to have had a setback, they may have bought time in the potential escalation to war in the Korean peninsula. With Iran, the escalation of economic sanctions almost seemed to be on the brink of an all-out war mid-September 2019. But President Trump seems to have called it off at the last minute – and we may be all the better for it.
Venezuela went through some of the roughest times this year. Again the US held back from direct intervention and let Russia and China play into it as well.
I made two major macro level predictions in early 2019 based on a very rare long lasting conjunction of transit Saturn with transit Ketu in Sagittarius between April and October 2019.
One was that the US stock market may make a sharp downturn over 6 months between May and October 2019, before beginning to rise again. Well, it did not make a sharp down turn, instead it stagnated around DJI 26000. And then resumed its upward move in November 2019. The reason it held steady was intervention by the Fed, which began decreasing interest rates and increasing money supply beginning June, in anticipation of a downturn in the economy. The Fed had been increasing rates in the previous year and the expectation, based on past cycles, was that it would continue to do so in 2019 or at least hold it steady. It may have been due to President Trump’s direct and public call for the Fed to begin decreasing interest rates that the Fed responded.
The other major prediction was about general elections in India, earlier this year. The prediction was that the BJP government may lose their majority unless they moved rapidly to correct the negative impact of demonetization and GST implementations. BJP did move to overcome the impact of demonetization by providing welfare benefits directly to those who needed them, through electronic transfers. The GST implementation was also modified to decrease impact on small and medium sized businesses. The BJP returned to form a government with a bigger majority in the Lok Sabha, independent of any coalition partners.
What I notice, from the deviation of actual from the predicted, is that large public institutions in USA and India appear to be showing capacity to respond much faster to rapid feedback, when compared to the past. So what has changed? My guess is that it is the Internet: very deep and broad data with interactive capability of social media apps. With billions of people the world over interacting to continually refresh intelligence (=meaning making connected data), the Internet has become an active and very influential Global Social Mind (GSM). Each one of us who is active on the Internet influences the GSM in perhaps a very small way and is influenced by GSM greatly. The pulses, of tangled interweaving web of global connections between ever refreshing data, zaps us on the mental plane each time we interact on the Internet. World leaders, such as President Trump and PM Modi, are able to not only monitor these signals, but also respond to them and many times influence them. Some narratives and predictions made on the Internet gain traction. That gives an opportunity to these leaders to respond and try to influence the signals, coming out of GSM, to be in their favor.
So how do I see the impact of the GSM in terms of Jyotish[1] framework of Karma and PurushArtha? Let me take up a standard example first, to set the context. A birth chart gives us insight into Karma from past lives that we are born with: it points to different sets of potential actions that are most likely to be triggered through us at different times in our life cycle. This is described by Dashas and Bhuktis and the prevailing astral energies, at any given time, due to planetary configurations (aka transits in technical Astrologese). For example, if the astrologer notices that for an individual the transit ascendant lord is going to be stationary in 8th house while conjunct with stationary transit Rahu-Ketu, she / he may point out that the chances of an accident may increase during that time (= actions triggered by Karma). If the individual is in a city such as New Delhi, the recommendation may be to minimize being on the road as much as possible (= PurushArtha, action based on awareness of self in the environment of action, Karma Bhumi) to reduce chances of an accident.
While a busy city with challenging traffic patterns may pose risk to humans on a physical plane, GSM is likely to impact humans on the mental plane. General significations of Mercury, as well as the lords of the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 11th houses would need to be considered, while assessing the impact of GSM. In President Trump’s chart for example, 2nd L Mercury is strong, as is his 5th house Lord Jupiter. His native Sun and Moon are strongly influenced by exalted Rahu and Ketu respectively (he was born during a Lunar eclipse). This gives him sharp mental capability and hence an ability to navigate GSM (as well on TV, with shows such as the Apprentice) to his advantage. I do not have PM Modi’s chart (it is not publicly known). However his ability to perform well both on social media and on radio (Man Ki Baat), makes me believe that his chart may have a strong Mercury (which is not a du-sthAnA lord) and have at least one of 3rd, 5th, 11th H Ls strong.
Learnings from 2019
Making predictions and then reviewing them enables a learning loop. Reviewing my 2019 predictions point me to some interesting learnings, which I will continue to test through future predictions.
Global Social Mind is real and an integral part of our lives now. We are greatly influenced by it each time we touch it and in return we influence it a just a very tiny little bit. So if a prediction of dire straits is channeled to you through the GSM, you begin positioning and taking actions to remedy that potential situation. The GSM accelerates and amplifies PurushArtha potential so as to minimize Karma impact. Such PurushArtha acceleration and amplification potential may be strongly positive during those times when transit Mercury is strong and un-afflicted. The GSM may trigger strongly negative results when transit Mercury is very weak and directly afflicted (for example the Christchurch mosque massacre took place in New Zealand, on March 15th 2019, when tr Mercury was very weak at 29 deg in Aquarius, while being combust by tr Sun at 1 deg Pisces and directly afflicted by 5th aspect of tr Rahu at 0:44 deg Cancer).
In general, individuals with strong un-afflicted Mercury as a benefic and at least one of the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 11th house lords as un-afflicted and strong, in their chart, may be best positioned to be influencers on GSM. Those with weak and afflicted Mercury in their chart, with weak and / or afflicted 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 11th Lords may be prone to be triggered to act negatively due to their interaction with GSM.
To sum up, the rise of the GSM in the last two decades now has a presence in our world in which it plays a significant role in all our lives. On the positive side, it may be helping us to stabilize global society on the physical plane through rapid feedback loops which enable better strategic positioning and thus curb the need for large scale, mass physical aggression. On the mental plane, some may say the ability of individual human mind to think and act autonomously may be more circumscribed as the presence of GSM keeps growing and we become very tiny players in that amorphous every refreshing, ever present, intelligence. Jyotish may be in the unique position to provide tools to be able to step back and become aware of the larger dynamics that are playing in our lives in the age of the Global Social Mind. Perhaps more individuals may wish to take advantage of this powerful traditional framework as one of the tools to view and chart out their course in the world in the 2020s. Especially when the practicing Jyotishis are aware of the powerful tangled intelligent web that now girds the globe and are at least attempt to contextualize their readings and guidance.
[1]In my life coaching practice, I use Jyotish as only one of many modalities to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a client as they go about attempting to achieve life goals that they have set for themselves. Specifically, I follow Systems Approach to Vedic Astrology as propounded by Professor V.K. Choudhry.
At the MuldhArA: Lord Sastha with Purnakala and Pushkala, at Sori Muthaiyan Kovil (Image Courtesy: V. Aravind Subramanyam), Pp 56 of Digital Copy of the Book.
by Jayant Kalawar, November 21, 2019
Women and Sabarimala: The Science behind Restrictions. Sinu Joseph, Notion Press. First Published by Notion Press 2019, ISBN 978-1-64733-633-2 (The book is available directly from publisher at Notion Press and at Amazon India . It is also available on Kindle atAmazon.com. My review is based on a digital copy provided for review purposes).
The author, Sinu Joseph, opens up for us the amazingly beautiful complex weave of Sastha tradition (of which Sabarimala is an integral part) by taking us on a journey of six Sastha temples, across a geography of many hundreds of miles in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. When we go along with her on this pilgrimage, we get to sense of the process of subtle human connections with the Deities of each of the temples. Along the way, Sinu describes what that connection experience is like for those who identify themselves as female and how it is different from those who identify themselves as male.
Before embarking on the journey, the book gives us an orientation in the first two chapters. This may be especially helpful for those who, while born into Hindu families, may not have had the opportunity to understand the deeply thoughtful subtle framework of chakras, and their connections to the endocrinal system of the human body, that have been used to design this pilgrimage through these six temples, each with a uniquely powerful Deity residing in a specific temple architecture. The connection to the human endocrinal system lays open for us to see how the pilgrimage process generates different experiences in female and male bodies. Those who are already deep practitioners in the chakra based traditions may find the first chapter of the book to be a quick refresher (given there are multiple views of chakra framework within Hindu tradition, the one described in this book may be considered by some to be a beginners version). The second chapter (along with the preface) sets up the problem that arose when Sabarimala temple was viewed through the lens of modernity – the rest of the book being a response to the question: why are women between the ages of 10 and 50 not allowed to enter Sabarimala temple.
The pilgrimage of the six Sastha temples is described as journey from the muldhArA chakrA through swadisthAnA, maNipurA, anAhatA and vishuddhi chakrAs to the AjnA chakrA. Reading the first two chapters makes the descriptions of each of the temple Deities and the experiences easy to grasp. Each description is helpfully divided into sections describing the journey of the author’s travel party to the temple, their experiences in the temple, the Deity, the Chaitanyam, the ChakrA significance.
As the pilgrimage gains momentum, the descriptions of experiences build upon themselves and one becomes more and more curious about what comes next. That is a hallmark of an accomplished story teller. To show us this particular complex weave of Hindu tradition with such story telling prowess wants me to read more of Sinu Joseph’s writings in the future, as she deepens her insights by continuing her sAdhanA.
In the last but one chapter Sinu brings the mystery to a close by making a compelling case, which she has been building all along. We see how by the time we get to Sabarimala our endocrine systems may be activated through the pilgrimage and how this begins to impact male and female bodies differently. And especially how this may impact menstruating women differently.
The book ends with a conversation with women to begin exploring the answer to the question ‘but so, what should women who also want mukti do?”. I think such exploration is much needed to rejuvenate a knowledge base that would help us move towards a socially and culturally more balanced life.
The blessings of Lord Sastha flow into this book and upon its readers through the blessings of Shri V. Aravind Subramanyam, President, Shri Maha Sasthru Seva Sangam, Coimbatore, in his foreword to the book. I read it at the beginning and once again at the end of my reading. I highly recommend reading this book. May you be blessed by Lord Sastha.
Jayant Kalawar is the author of An Outsider Deconstructing European Enlightenment, in which he uses the Devi / ChakrA lens to describe Europe’s interaction with the world over the last 400 plus years.
WIth the Devi’s Blessings. Cover art by Jayant Kalawar 2018.
By Jayant Kalawar
When I wrote the essay Outsider Deconstructing European Enlightenment it was a way of describing what it means to be human, by telling a story of how some humans have done things with each other and with nature around them. Many of us call such descriptions history.
So these humans I describe have a quite a bit of potential to act in different ways. However, much of it has not been switched on (yet). Most of these humans seem to be very good at utilizing some of their potential, for example: to survive, reproduce, acquire material things and consume them.
That leaves out the potential for courage to be compassionate, to connect with all species on Earth and the Earth itself and to explore and connect with cosmic spiritual vibrations. Such potentials, in most humans, remain untapped. In my essay I talk about how each of these seven potentials (yes, if you go back and count you will see there are seven) are channeled through seven chakrAs. which I posit makes for being human, when you see humans through the Devi Lens (all that in the essay).
What switches on these potentials? The culture you live in and how you are nurtured plays a big role in throwing these switches on and off. It’s this cultural driver that I focus on in my Outsider essay, to show how it switches on some of our potentials and lets others remain dormant.
In current usage in our digital world, we all live in now, I think it is better to call this driver memetic complex, rather than culture. New memes are produced and old ones are morphed or die every day now in this relatively new digital age. So unlike the past, we have a real chance to develop many memetic complexes (is that the right plural? – but you get the point) that may switch on the entire range of potentials in humans.
I think there are two more drivers for switching on potentials in humans.
One of those drivers I think is the natural environment we interact with, including through breathing, consuming and generally our physical living conditions. I want to explore how this driver actually works within us at the cellular level, through gene expressions and protein pathways. I have barely begun learning about this. But at the moment, my sankalpA is to write my next essay on how natural environment and genetics drive the switching of human potentials on and off. It took me about 3 years to write and self-publish the Outsider essay, after almost 15 years of reading and research (not knowing where it would take me, if at all). So, I have no sense of what may emerge and when that may end up being an essay about this cellular / endocrine driver and how it is tied to the chakrAs. But the general broad intention is present.
The other driver is personal practices, sAdhanA leading to upAsanA. You will notice I am not translating when I drop Sanskrit words into what I write here. It is easy to find meanings with Google search these days. If you are really interested you will do so and in the process perhaps get more and more comfortable with living in a global memetic complex! That one is so personal that I am not sure it could even be an essay. Perhaps a short memoir, some distant time in the future, when some sense emerges that there is something worthwhile to share.
Notice the use of emerging. Rather than aspiring.
If you do download and read my Outsider essay on Kindle, I hope you write and post your comment here. Especially how it made you think differently about what it is to be human and how we go about doing things in this world.
WIth the Devi’s Blessings. Cover art by Jayant Kalawar 2018.
I recently published this essay on Amazon Kindle. Here is a brief summary:
From an outsider’s perspective, European Enlightenment was a brilliant social innovation, which emerged in the 17th century, as a response to the brutally destructive intra-religious wars in Europe. It led to the formation of national governments, financial markets and rapid growth of a certain kind of science and technology. However by the 21st century, that innovation, through its runaway success, has had unintended global consequences of ecocide, fratricide and suicide, particularly impacting those outside of the European sphere. This 60 page essay takes you briefly through the 3000 year history of monotheism in the West, before focusing on the 17th century and the path that has led to the current global systemic crises. The outsider, using the framework of his Devi traditions, offers a compass of hope, to navigate out of the global dystopian scenario charted by European Enlightenment, towards compassion, connection and immersion.
I am opening this page to comments and discussions. The comments posted on this page so far are quite insightful. You may want to browse through them as well. And please consider posting your comment here as well.
The Destroyer of Ignorance and Confusion – Aum Namo KAlarAtreya NamAhA (Source: Wikipedia, Devi Kalratri, Sanghasri, Kalighat, Kolkata, 2010)
By Jayant Kalawar March 23rd 2019
For those who have not followed my predictions for 2019, made back in September 2018, please consider going back and taking a look here and then the follow up post here . The rest of the post may make more sense with that background. Those who are not interested in the astrology analysis that I go through in this post, I have bolded out sections that may be more relevant.
As Ketu began afflicting Saturn transiting in Sagittarius at a little over 25 deg a few days ago (today at the time of this writing is March 23, 2019, Ketu transited into Sagittarius), warning signs of the economy suddenly began flashing in the USA and political turmoil was on the horizon with the submission of the Special Counsel report and President Trump verbally attacking the Late Senator John McCain. Before that the Dow Jones Index was merrily going along posting gains in early 2019. Many investors seemed to be like frogs in a slowly heating pot of water, unable to heed the signs of the approaching planetary storm. Now they ask, is 2019 going to be similar to the 1930s for the USA, when the Dow lost 90% of its value in a little over two and a half years (from October 1929 to June 1932)?
The short answer is no: the depression of the 1930s was a prolonged event, beginning with onset of Ketu Bhukti on October 16th 1929 during RAhu MAhAdashA in the USA SAMVA Chart.[1] Dow Jones Index peaked at 343 in September 1929, was at 286 in March 1930, down to 183 in October 1930 and then bottomed out at 42 in June 1932. RAhu MAhAdashA was followed by the 6th L Jupiter MahAdashA from 1937 to 1953, during which the USA was in two major conflicts (6th L signification): WW II and the Korean War. It was only after 1953 that the Dow recovered back to its peak of 342 in September 1929. While the 8th L Saturn MAhAdashA gave death like experiences (Cuban missile crisis for example and continual threat of nuclear war with Americans preparing for nuclear threat) from 1953 to 1972, it also gave relatively easy gains (another signification of the 8th L) to the USA in economic terms with the Dow crossing the 1000 mark in November 1972
To sum up: In 1930, transit Saturn was in 6th H Sagittarius of the USA SAMVA chart. However, it was not afflicted by transit Ketu which was in Libra at that time. Ketu affliction of Saturn was not the driver of the 1930s economic turmoil.
In 2019, the USA is in Sun MAhAdashA and Saturn Bhukti. The protection of the Sun will be cushion for the effect of the prolonged 7 month (April to October) conjunction of transit Ketu with transit Saturn in Sagittarius, the 6th house of conflict in the USA SAMVA chart. The transits of 8th L turn and Ketu will be in turn giving long periods of affliction to natal Venus, the 4th L of domestic prosperity and communal harmony.
What USA may experience in this particular planetary storm from April to October 2019 is 7 months of sharp economic down turn, physical losses through disasters whether natural or manmade and also communal disharmony. A slow recovery may begin in February 2020 when 3rd L Mercury Bhukti comes into play. The pace of such a recovery is likely to be contingent upon the degree of physical losses to infrastructure and life experienced in 2019.
So how to position to get through this 7 month long planetary storm? Those invested in the financial markets may consider moving to as much cash position as one can. Do not start any new initiatives. Slow down as much as you can and be careful and watchful on a daily basis. And most importantly, if you are culturally blessed to have access to your IshTa DevatA and to Sri GaneshA, connect with them daily through your practices. They can and do provide protection and blessings. Many more individuals practicing such connections may likely result in lowering the level of losses that this planetary storm can leave behind.
[1]Please note: I follow Systems Approach to Vedic Astrology propounded by the Late Professor V.K. Choudhry (www.yournetastrologer.com). In this article, I have used chart for USA developed using Systems Approach to Mundane Vedic Astrology (see http://yournetastrologer.com/mundane_astrology.htm ). I also follow the work done by Cosmologer, who discovered the SAMVA USA chart in 2006 with the help of J.T.W. Battalana. He developed the chart based on extensive historical research and predictions for over a decade based on the Systems’ Approach and with guidance from the late Professor Choudhry (see http://cosmologer.blogspot.com/2007/12/samva-usa-chart.html
ॐ श्री मात्रे नमः (Photo by Soumik Dey on Unsplash)
The terrorist attack in Kashmir on February 14th 2019 appears to have led to deep and widespread angst in India. One of the questions being asked is whether and when India may strike back with a military operation, as a response to the terror attack.
Here is my assessment in that context, based on Systems Approach to Mundane Vedic Astrology[1].
India Independence chart (August 15th 1947 12 am Delhi, India) is going through Jupiter (8th L) Bhukti currently. Transit Jupiter was at 25:59 on Jan 14th, afflicting within 2 deg with 9th aspect of natal Sun at 27:59 in Cancer, when the terror attack took place. Sun rules 4th house of domestic and communal harmony in the India Indep chart. natal Sun by the 8th L Jupiter gives death like experiences in domestic arena. This affliction will peak on Feb 27th, implying need for more caution for domestic events which may result in death like experiences, whether man made or natural, in the next 10 days. Let us hope no further violent loss of life is experienced.
Tr 6th L Venus transiting 8th H of obstructions and death will directly afflict Tr 10th L Saturn Feb 16th-18th, indicating potential for increased impact on emotional and physical well-being of the masses of people during those days.
Is there potential of a military response from India to the terrorist attack on February 14th? Tr 12th L in Mars is currently strong as it is transiting in its home base Aries and will be directly aspecting most effective points in 12th, 6th and 7th houses for the next 5 days. This indicates potential for military operations between now (Feb 15th) and Feb 20th. Operations launched within this date range from a distance from home base (12th H) e.g. air or sea borne may be carried out in a distant land (7th H) and have the potential for success in conflict situations (6th H).
NOT RECOMMENDED AT THIS TIME (Photo by Jeremy Dorrough on Unsplash)
January 14th 2019
By Jayant Kalawar
A few weeks ago I had pointed out in an article here that India could be headed for an anti-incumbency wave in a May 2019 election. There were two suggestions made at the end of that Vedic Astrology[1] based analysis on how to manage such a potential wave: one was to ease the GST burden on small businesses and the other was to provide relief for all the micro businesses and individuals in the unorganized sector who got really badly hit by the demonetization.
The government of India moved last week to exempt many small businesses from GST. That would be a welcome step for many.
Now to wait and see whether the government will put on the Chaiwaalaa hat to understand how the micro unorganized sector was hurt by demonetization. They are the ones who will come out to vote in numbers and that may feel like a big wave indeed.
Meanwhile, Tr 8th L Jupiter is at 20 deg Scorpio now. It is afflicting natal 10th L Saturn and natal 6th L Venus. The next few weeks may be tough as Tr 6th L Venus conjuncts with Tr Jupiter in Scorpio and Tr Mars comes into the 5th aspect affliction of Tr Jupiter. There may be financial impact in general and especially on FX reserves position. FX reserves have stabilized in the $395 bill range after reaching a high of $425 bill in early 2018. This may see some downward pressure in the next few weeks. The USD INR rate had improved as Tr Ju was relatively out of affliction / afflicting zones in the last few weeks. It has now begun slipping back into the 70s range.
The Devi Waiting For Her Children To Come Back Home (c) Jayant Kalawar 2019
Aum Sri MAtre NamahA
By Jayant Kalawar
The planetary patterns for 2019 beginning March and especially in the May – October 2019 period are quite rough.
Many of us have encountered such rough terrains before in our lives. Those of us who connect with their IshTa DevatA on a daily basis know that this connection gives them more chances to flourish through these rough terrains.
In a September 2018 article on my website, Calm Before the Storm, I had made the specific prediction that the November 6th 2018 mid-term election in USA may likely weaken the ability of the current president of the USA to provide leadership and implement his agenda and that it may likely translate into a sense of political weakness in the USA:
All this points to chances that the November 6th mid-term elections in USA may end up giving a weak result for the current US president.
On January 10th 2019 when the newly elected US Congress convenes the Rahu-Ketu field will be at its peak intensity. The result of the mid-term elections will likely be amplified and may likely begin impacting the ability of the current US president to carry out strong positive leadership actions in 2019.
So by end of January 2019 we may have a sense of how 2019 may likely unfold. Any sense of political weakness in the USA may translate into financial and economic weakness not only in the USA but throughout the globe.
As I write in this on January 11th 2019, these predictions are being borne out. The Democrats have taken over the House of Representatives with Nancy Pelosi as Speaker. President Trump has shut down parts of the United States government, in response to the US Congress not funding his agenda. While still early in January, this situation already signals political weakness in the US. Planetary patterns are pointing to the period between January 11th and 23rd as likely to be most vulnerable to misunderstandings and disputes between and among political parties in the US. So by the last week of January we may be better able to assess how well positioned USA is to respond to the disturbances that emerging planetary patterns are signaling for later in 2019.
The first signs of potential for physical and economic distress are likely to emerge from March 22nd on wards and become somewhat intensive after April 8th. The most intense period distress is likely to be between mid-May and mid-October 2019, with peak in July 2019. The source of the disturbances may be a combination of natural and man made triggers and likely impact both economic and physical areas of life.
Each of us may experience disturbances in different areas of life
The planetary patterns also give us indications of how they may impact each of us differently, within a range of possibilities. Approximately 15% of people may directly experience such impacts. That is about 1 in 6 of us. The rest of us will likely have one or more people in our family and friends circle going through some direct experience of distress and many of us may choose to step in to help them through their situations.
Here are likely high stress area for each of the ascendant signs between about mid-May to mid-October 2019:
Aries: Income, especially investment or rental income, may be stressed, which may have secondary impact on father figures, advanced studies and ability to travel long distance for business purposes.
Taurus: Career and social status areas may be stressed and that may impact intimate relationships.
Gemini: Health of father, performance in graduate or specialized studies and long distance business travel may be stressed and that may impact personal and business partnerships.
Cancer: Conjugal relationship may be stressed and that may give rise to disputes and trigger emotional and physical health issues.
Leo: Emotional and physical health of personal and business partners may be stressed and that may in turn stress children and creative activities.
Virgo: Work place stress and stress on physical and emotional health may have secondary impact on home life and mother.
Libra: Children and creative activities may be stressed and show up as impact on your initiatives, ventures and in the way you communicate.
Scorpio: Home life and mother’s emotional and physical health may be stressed and this may impact overall family well-being.
Sagittarius: New initiatives, ventures, younger siblings / colleagues, ability to communicate may be impacted and in turn result in stress on personal emotional and physical health.
Capricorn: Over all family well-being may be stressed and result in losses and separations.
Aquarius: Emotional and physical health may be stressed, resulting in losses in income and relationship with mentors.
Pisces: There may be losses and separations, which may in turn impact career and social status.
How to manage this potentially rough terrain and flourish
If you have reached this part of this article, I am assuming you have experienced the power of observing patterns presented by planetary configurations using Vedic Astrology and also know about the power of connecting with your IshTa DevatA.
For those who connect with their Ishta Devata on a daily basis, there may be a unique date and time on January 20th – 21st to connect and meditate, to seek guidance on how to navigate through this rough terrain. There will be a relatively long lunar eclipse between 9:36 pm on Sunday January 20th to 2:48 am Monday January 21st (New York time zone). The total eclipse is from 11:41 pm to 12:43 am. Sitting in a meditative pose and silently chanting your IshtA DevatA mantra from about 10:30 pm to 1:45 am may give you a channel to strengthen your connection with the DevetA to ask for blessings for yourself and your family, friends and community to help go through the rough planetary terrain forming between late March and late October of 2019.
Aum Sri MAtre NamahA
Please note: I follow Systems Approach to Vedic Astrology propounded by the Late Professor V.K. Choudhry (www.yournetastrologer.com). In this article, I have used chart for USA developed using Systems Approach to Mundane Vedic Astrology (see http://yournetastrologer.com/mundane_astrology.htm ). I also follow the work done by Cosmologer, who discovered the SAMVA USA chart in 2006 with the help of J.T.W. Battalana. He developed the chart based on extensive historical research and predictions for over a decade based on the Systems’ Approach and with guidance from the late Professor Choudhry (see http://cosmologer.blogspot.com/2007/12/samva-usa-chart.html )
The Destroyer of Ignorance and Confusion – Aum Namo KAlarAtreya NamAhA (Source: Wikipedia, Devi Kalratri, Sanghasri, Kalighat, Kolkata, 2010)
By Jayant Kalawar
The state assembly elections in India in November – December 2018 returned an anti-incumbency verdict, with BJP losing in Rajashthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. The question came up whether this anti-incumbency momentum would be repeated in the May 2019 General Election.
So I took up my lens from Systems Approach to Vedic Astrology (SAMVA)[i] and began investigating using India’s Independence Chart (using 7:43 deg Taurus rising chart for 12 am August 15th 1947, Delhi).
I noticed that the current cycle of elections were occurring in the Jupiter Bhukti period (August 15th 2018 – December 15th 2019), which was preceded by Rahu Bhukti period (Feb 13th 2017 – August 15th 2018). So I set out investigating whether during similar Rahu Bhukti – Jupiter Bhukti periods there were anti-incumbent waves. Here are my notes from my investigation of the political events in India corresponding to five data points of Rahu Bhukti – Jupiter Bhukti periods since 1960:
1960-1965: India-China Border dispute escalated after India gives Dalai Lama asylum and India began its forward policy of having army posts along the Chinese border. In 1963 the Congress lost popularity following the defeat in the Indo-Chinese war of 1962.To revitalize the party, Kamraj proposed the Kamaraj Plan to Nehru that encouraged six Congress chief ministers (including himself) and six senior cabinet ministers to resign to take up party work.
1975-1980: Emergency Rule by Indira Gandhi and a highly unpopular family planning initiative by Sanjay Gandhi from June 25th 1975 to March 21st 1977. In the General Elections that followed, Congress Party and Indira Gandhi defeated, including losing her own seat.
1985- 1987: Congress Party with Rajiv Gandhi had a super majority of 411 out of 542 seats in Lok Sabha from the 1984 December general election. He proceeded to dilute the Shah Bano verdict by the Supreme Court of India giving Muslim women rights in divorce proceedings. This led to accusation of minority appeasement. In July 1987 Rajiv Gandhi’s party lost in assembly elections in Haryana in a humiliating manner, which came as a shock.
1996-2002: This period saw BJP coming to power at the Center for the first time, with A.B. Vajpayee as Prime Minister, winning enough seats in the 1999 General Election to rule through coalitions, which were unstable and caused uncertainty. Subsequently in mid-May 2001 BJP lost in 5 key state elections.
2010-2012: 2G Spectrum scandal and many other scandals became a central issue against the UPA government. In the March 2012 state elections Congress lost in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Goa.
Pattern Observed with the 5 data points above: Actions by a ruling party in a Rahu Bhukti period leads to anti-incumbency wave in the immediately following Jupiter Bhukti period.
Prediction for May 2019 General Election based on Observed Pattern:
The current ruling party (BJP) implemented two programs during the Rahu Bhukti period of February 13th 2017 to August 15th 2018: Demonetisation and GST. These may have impacted the masses in a negative way, generating an anti-incumbency wave. The effect of this wave may be expected in the subsequent Jupiter Bhukti period of August 15th 2018 to December 15th 2019. The initial impact of the current anti-incumbency wave is already seen in the losses in the state elections in November-December 2018. It is likely that the anti-incumbency wave will continue resulting in BJP losing its majority position in the Lok Sabha elections in May 2019. There is likely to be instability at the Center up to December 2019, perhaps due to coalition politics.
For those more adept in Vedic Astrology and interested in Indian political history of the last 60 years, I provide details below of my findings and analysis of 60 years of Indian political history, focused on specific Rahu-Jupiter Bhukti periods.
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I begin with the first Rahu+Jupiter Bhukti period in the India Independence Chart in April 1960.
1960-1965
10th L Saturn Major Period Establishing Foundations for the Masses Ends in Loss of Standing in conflict with Neighbors (natal Saturn in 3rd, directly afflicted by 6th L Venus)
Rahu Sub-period 4/26/1960 – 3/3/1963 India-China Border dispute begins to escalate after India gives Dalai Lama asylum and begins forward policy of having army posts along the Chinese border.
The Sino-Indian War (Hindi: भारत-चीन युद्ध Bhārat-Chīn Yuddh), also known as the Sino-Indian Border Conflict (simplified Chinese: 中印边境战争; traditional Chinese: 中印邊境戰爭; pinyin: Zhōng-Yìn Biānjìng Zhànzhēng), was a war between China and India that occurred in 1962. A disputed Himalayan border was the main pretext for war, but other issues played a role. There had been a series of violent border incidents after the 1959 Tibetan uprising, when India had granted asylum to the Dalai Lama. India initiated a Forward Policy in which it placed outposts along the border, including several north of the McMahon Line, the eastern portion of the Line of Actual Control proclaimed by Chinese PremierZhou Enlai in 1959.
Unable to reach political accommodation on disputed territory along the 3,225-kilometre-long Himalayan border,[11] the Chinese launched simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line on 20 October 1962, coinciding with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Chinese troops advanced over Indian forces in both theatres, capturing Rezang La in Chushul in the western theatre, as well as Tawang in the eastern theatre. The war ended when China declared a ceasefire on 20 November 1962, and simultaneously announced its withdrawal to its claimed ‘line of actual control’.
Jupiter Sub: 3.3.63 – 9/14/65: Nehru era of establishing Indian Constitution (1950) and Indian States (1956) ends with Nehru’s death May 20th 1964. Indian National Congress begins to split into factions.
Kamaraj became the president of the All India Congress Committee in 1963 during the last year of Nehru’s life.[66] Prior to that, he had been the chief minister of Madras state for nine years.[67] Kamraj had also been a member of “the syndicate”, a group of right wing leaders within Congress. In 1963 the Congress lost popularity following the defeat in the Indo-Chinese war of 1962.To revitalize the party, Kamraj proposed the Kamaraj Plan to Nehru that encouraged six Congress chief ministers (including himself) and six senior cabinet ministers to resign to take up party work.[68][69][70] After Nehru’s death in May 1964, Kamaraj was widely credited as the “kingmaker” in Indian politics for ensuring the victory of Lal Bahadur Shastri over Morarji Desai as the successor of Nehru.[71]
The split in Congress Party under Kamaraj Plan, in this Jupiter sub-period, began the move towards the ascendancy of Indira Gandhi in 1966. The incumbent Congress (Organization) led by Morarji Desai was effectively voted out.
1975-1980 Rahu+Jupiter Bhukti Period
This one occurred in 5th L Mercury Dasha Period Relating To Children Ends in Reaction to Anti-Children Actions (forced sterilizations as means to family planning, also general signification of Mercury, open communication )
Rahu Sub-period 3/13/75 – 9/29/77: Emergency Rule by Indira Gandhi and a highly unpopular family planning initiative by Sanjay Gandhi from June 25th 1975 to March 21st 1977.
How did the Emergency get mixed up with sterilization?
Indira Gandhi’s 20-Point Programme did not say a word about family planning. But Sanjay Gandhi’s Four-Point Programme not only had family planning as the first point but it became the only point which was ruthlessly implemented on a national scale. In Sanjay’s vocabulary, family planning meant only one method – sterilization.
Jupiter Sub-period 9/29/77 – 1/5/1980: Congress Party and Indira Gandhi defeated, including losing her own seat.
The structural factors allowed voters to express their grievances, notably their resentment of the emergency and its authoritarian and repressive policies. One grievance often mentioned was the ‘Nasbandi’ (vasectomy) campaign in rural areas. The middle class also emphasised on the curbing of freedom of speech throughout the country.
This occurred during Ketu Dasha Period of Loss and Transformation: Loss of Congress Party standing as the only National Party, Emergence of BJP claiming to represent traditional religious and spiritual interests
Rahu Sub-period 8/14/85 – 9/2/86: Rajiv Gandhi, with a super majority if 411 out of 542 seats in Lok Sabha from the 1984 December general election, proceeded to dilute the Shah Bano verdict by the Supreme Court of India giving Muslim women rights in divorce proceedings. This led to accusation of minority appeasement. Many say this was the turning point for beginning of rise of BJP as a National political party.
Jupiter Sub-period 9/2/86 – 8/9/87: In July 1987 Rajiv Gandhi’s party lost in assembly elections in Haryana in a humiliating manner, which came as a shock.
Haryana elections: Congress(I) humiliated, Devi Lal’s Lok Dal(B) wins
This simple act symbolised not only the ideological change that had swept Haryana, but also the dramatic reversal in the fortunes of the Congress(I) which, like its leaders’ photographs, had been dumped unceremoniously, by the voters of the northern state. It was the hardest knock yet for Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, weakened as he is by scandals of kickbacks from defence deals.
This occurred during 6th L Venus Dasha Period Time of Conflicts, Disputes and hence Instability with Multiple Coalition Governments
Rahu Sub-period 11/13/96 – 11/14/1999: Congress was in power through a coalition government. It attempted to control the government by withdrawing support for one Prime Minister (Deve Gowda) and having another (I.K. Gujral) in his place. Led to unstable governance and a mid-term general election was called in December 1997.
New Lok Sabha elected in 1998 makes for a first time BJP led coalition led by A.B. Vajpayee. It is also unstable and lasts only 13 months. Another General Election is called for on April 26th 1999.
This occurred during 4th L Sun Dasha Period of Domestic Telecommunication Innovation Projects (natal Sun in 3rd, well placed, old in degrees) with Progress Marred by Scams
Rahu Sub: 11/8/2010 – 10/3/2011: 2G Spectrum scandal and many other scandals became a central issue against the UPA government.
This is currently (at time of writing) occurring in the 3rd L Moon Dasha Period of New Reform Initiatives (natal Moon well placed, weak in infancy) Badly Implemented
Rahu Sub-period 2/13/2017-8/15/2018: Demonetisation, though it was introduced in November, prior to February 2017, may have played a role in people in the non-organized sectors (some say there are up to 80% of the population) who operate in a cash economy, both in rural and urban India, in disenchanting and distancing them from the incumbent Government. If this aspect of how people who live day to day operating in cash economy is true, then their reaction may be similar to the 1977 reaction of people to forced sterilization.
Jupiter Sub-period 8/15/2018 – 12/15/2019: Incumbent BJP lost in 3 major state elections (Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh) in November – December 2018. At the time of this writing, the trend appears to be that BJP may be in a weaker position coming out of the 2019 May General Elections.
Based on the analysis in this post, one may come up with an actionable finding for the ruling party, such as:
How to make up for the pain that voters may see as having come directly from the Government due to demonetization and GST implementation? That is question that may be keeping leaders and strategists for the incumbent government awake now (if not, perhaps that is what they may want to focus on and worry about?). If they can crack that question, the incumbents may still have a chance in the upcoming general election in May 2019?
Aum Sri Matre NamahA Thillai Nataraja temple, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu [photo by Santu Brahma] source: tweet by Keerthik Sasidharan @KS1729 on October 1st 2018.
by Jayant Kalawar
Aloneness happens when there is no dependence.
No dependence on possessing things.
No dependence on having any relationships.
No dependence on having any obligations to family, friends, community or society.
No dependence on any give and take transactions.
Loneliness happens when there is dependence on any of those things and one is deprived of them.
Dependence followed by deprivation causes loneliness.
Dependence on owning a car or home takes away from the capacity to be alone. One may own a car or home and yet not be dependent.
Dependence comes from an attachment to a particular object, whether the car or home.
Moving from owning a car today to not owning one tomorrow, in an equanimous way, requires considerable Aloneness capacity.
Aloneness can be cultivated to some extent.
But to have deep and stable Aloneness capacity requires a cognitive shift.
Cognitive shift of how you view yourself, how you view the space and time world around you.
Materialist view of yourself and the world leads to dependency. Dependency on the material.
Materialists cannot be alone.
Religious view of yourself and the world leads to dependency. Dependency on the material and God.
Religious people cannot be alone.
The languages that we use today have emerged from and constrained by materialist and religious views of the world.
The world of the Aloneness cannot be described in the languages we use today.
It can only be contemplated, along the way to disabling our dependencies.
It can only be contemplated as we are enabling the cognitive shift to Aloneness.
To sustain oneself on this path we need the blessings of the Devi. Aum Sri Matre NamahA.
This contemplative note is based on my interpretation of a discourse on certain verses of The Naishkarmya Siddhi of SureshvarA by Swami Shantananda of Chinmaya Vrindavan, Cranbury, NJ on October 25th 2018.
Aum Shri GaNeshAya NamahA, Celebrating the Divya PurushA, evening of September 12th 2018, ChinmayA Mission, Cranbury, New Jersey (photo by jayant kalawar)
by jayant kalawar
He is the master of GaNas, categories.
We categorize the cosmos, slice and dice it.
So our limited cognitive ability can digest
What the senses deliver to us.
Our categories become our obstacles.
What they exclude makes for our ignorance, Avidya.
He removes these obstacles that make us ignorant, Vigna-hArA.
He is Buddhi-dAtA.
He blesses the SAdhakA,
Who strives to explore beyond ignorance,
With intellect, Buddhi.
He is Moksha-dAtA.
He shows the path to MokshA
To the SAdhakA who uses his intellect
To explore beyond the sensory world.
He is with us always.
We forget to remember
And connect with Him
So that He can guide us.
Aum Shri GaneshAya NamahA.
Above is a paraphrased summary of my interpretation of a short talk by Swami ShantAnandA at Chinmaya Mission, Cranbury, NJ on the evening of September 12th 20h18.
The Destroyer of Ignorance and Confusion – Aum Namo KAlarAtreya NamAhA (Source: Wikipedia, Devi Kalratri, Sanghasri, Kalighat, Kolkata, 2010)
Summary: the level of intensity of the putative physical and economic storms in 2019, with felt impacts into early 2020, is likely to be signaled in political events and directions in the USA in the first half of November 2018 and then in January 2019.
The storms of 2019 may impact up to 10 to 15% of people across the globe in some mix of physical and economic outcomes in a very low to high range. There are no cookie cutter solutions to identify who is more likely to be impacted and how much and what to do about it. Assessment of individual horoscopes can help in this regard. Those who do consistent sAdhanA and connect with the Devi are likely to have less impact.
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The grahAs will be showering their blessings upon us this September.
Venus will be transiting into its home base Libra on September 2nd and staying there until end of the year. Venus will promote a sense of material well-being and harmony, after a month being farthest away from Earth, hence weak.
Mercury will end its long sojourn of the last few months in Cancer and transit into Leo on September 2nd and then into its home base of Virgo on September 19th. Mercury then joins Venus on October 6th and moves into Scorpio on October 27th. Mercury may not cause much volatility between now and October 27th (except a brief few days September 22nd to 25th, when it comes under passing influence of Rahu-Ketu field), and thus helping better communications and analysis, further adding to the harmony component of Venus.
Mars is strong and exalted in Capricorn between now and November 5th, providing a positive energy to those who are adept at channeling its energies constructively by connecting with Devi DurgA. There is an exception period when Mars energy may be quite disturbed (not as intense as the June-July / Early August time frame) as it once again crosses the much weakened Rahu-Ketu field, between September 19th and 30th. Disturbed Mars energy shows up as natural disasters on Earth, including wild fires and volcanic eruptions, military and police action and generally aggressive interactions and thoughts at personal level. But overall Mars will still provide positive energies especially to Devi sadhakAs.
Sun is in its home base of Leo until mid-September and then in Virgo until mid-October. Sun will bless those of us who seek to remember their IshTa DevatAs and chant the GAyatri mantrA.
Jupiter will be generally strong in Libra between now and October 11th. In turn it supports Saturn to be strong in Sagittarius during this time.
Rahu-Ketu axis is moving between now and December 5th. Its negative influence is weak at this time.
So you see the overall picture emerging: a mostly positive environment may be expected between now and October 11th.
So what made me headline this post Calm before the Storm?
Well, I see this to be most positive period before storm clouds begin to signal themselves, and the storm momentum builds up. Watch out for the signals during the following periods in the next year or so and make your own assessments (I may likely keep coming back to this in future posts opening up more details). The way to approach and develop a series of potential scenarios is to apply the intensity of the outcome from one event set as the starting point of amplification of the next time period. So here goes:
Jupiter will go through the influence of a weak Rahu-Ketu field from October 22nd to Nov 14th, with peak dissonance between November 1st and 14th. At the same time Mercury will go through the same field November 1st-2nd. And Mars will be weak as it ends its long transit in Capricorn on November 5th. This may likely cause volatility in political and financial arenas combined with unfocussed energy, especially in the USA. All this points to chances that the November 6th mid-term elections in USA may end up giving a weak result for the current US president.
The Rahu-Ketu field will be strong between December 5th 2018 and March 6th 2019. On January 10th 2019 when the newly elected US Congress convenes the Rahu-Ketu field will be at its peak intensity. The result of the mid-term elections will likely be amplified and may likely begin impacting the ability of the current US president to carry out strong positive leadership actions in 2019.
So by end of January 2019 we may have a sense of how 2019 may likely unfold. Any sense of political weakness in the USA may translate into financial and economic weakness not only in the USA but throughout the globe.
The Rahu-Ketu field will be positioned to have intense impact between May 20th 2019 and August 19th 2019 – this one has particular potential to trigger both natural disasters and war like situations between multiple nations around the globe. This in turn may have negative impact on health and economic situations of large populations.
Fall-out from the May-August 2019 events may likely be felt in physical and economic terms, almost like after-tremors across the world, from November 13th 2019 to February 2nd 2020.
To sum up: the level of intensity of the putative physical and economic storms in 2019, with felt impacts into early 2020, is likely to be signaled in political events and directions in the USA in the first half of November 2018 and then in January 2019.
I may cover topics of how to begin to prepare and position for 2019 in the next few months.
The storms of 2019 may impact up to 10 to 15% of people across the globe in some mix of physical and economic outcomes in a very low to high range. There are no cookie cutter solutions to identify who is more likely to be impacted and how much and what to do about it. Assessment of individual horoscopes can help in this regard. Those who do consistent sAdhanA and connect with the Devi are likely to have less impact.
II Aum MAtre NamAhA II
I practice Systems Approach to Vedic Astrology as propounded by the late Professor V.K. Choudhry and now being carried forward by his son Shri K. Rajesh Chowdhary.
This morning, August 17th, the Sun rose in Leo. Ever auspicious, the Deva Savitr in Leo is even more so. He transits Leo in the period between August 17th and September 16th in the 21st century. The Deva channels Sri Gayatri MAtA’s blessings to us.
This 30 day period in 2018 is likely to be more positive than the same time in the last two years, when the Rahu-Ketu axis was afflicting Leo (and we experienced eclipses September 1st and 16th 2016 and August 21st 2017). This year Leo is clear and the Sun can bless us unhindered. Late last year the Rahu-Ketu axis moved on to Cancer and we experienced eclipses in June-July 2018 – and many of us have just about begun working our way out of some rather stressful situations at personal and social levels.
However (and there is usually a ‘however’), Mercury and Venus may send some mixed signals to quite a few of us during the next two weeks to September 2nd 2018.
Summary: Auspicious Sun in Leo, Volatile Mercury in Cancer, Weak Venus in Virgo. Sun will transit into Leo August 17th 2018 and will be there until September 16th 2018. Sun in Leo is auspicious for all signs in different ways. For example, Leo may show leadership, while Virgo works on inner peace and Gemini starts new initiatives. Capricorn may benefit from partnerships and inheritance, while Pisces may find it easy to win in competitions and get financial benefits. And so on.
However, Mercury, may throw a spanner in the works until September 2nd as it moves slowly out of Cancer. It makes for volatility in communications and analysis, in turn impacting volatility in many areas in our lives, including financial markets. In this case, the volatility of Mercury is mostly related to Moon transiting from one house to another. Dates to watch for mixed and missed signals: August 17th-21st (Moon transiting from Libra through Scorpio and into Sagittarius), 23rd, 25th/26th, 28th, 30th and September 1st-2nd.
Meanwhile, Venus continues to be weak and distant in Virgo until September 2nd. Luxury items and sales targeted at women have less chance of success and this will be reflected in the financial markets as well.
So September 3rd to 16th may be less volatile, more enjoyable. More on that later.
The Destroyer of Ignorance and Confusion – Aum Namo KAlarAtreya NamAhA (Source: Wikipedia, Devi Kalratri, Sanghasri, Kalighat, Kolkata, 2010)
President Trump’s America First policies are being noticed in India. The first, most obvious, was the H1B related restrictions and consequent impact on export of high skilled services from India. Now the potential impact of Iran sanctions (full force targeted for November 6th 2018) is looming on the horizon.
The metric most accessible to notice how India is responding to these changes, in the rule of global economic game, is the USD to INR foreign exchange rate. From a low of 63.3 in January 2017 it went up to 68.9 in July 2018. RBI then intervened with an increase in repo rate and the FOREX rate appears to have stabilized at around 68.5.
The need to manage the forex rate arises from India’s dependency on oil imports (both for fuel as well as fertilizer). The downward pressure on export of skilled services adds to the anxiety of FOREX required to manage rise in oil prices, as dollar repatriation decrease (a fall out from a combination of America First policy shift as well as the shifts towards cloud, big data, AI/ML based systems and the rise of the gig economy which has made skilled services available at lower costs without IT Cos as intermediaries). Slowdown in Middle Eastern countries has also contributed to lower levels of skill based dollar repatriation that helped India’s balance of payments.
India also appears to be attempting to conserve FOREX by imposing import tariffs on a series of imports, which are likely to impact trade with China (and that is additionally rationalized under the Make in India / create local employment rubric – which falls in line with the America First doctrine as well).
Increased interest rates and import tariffs may likely help in stabilizing the FOREX reserves situation as oil prices rise. Whether such a strategy will be enough, especially if there is an economic shock of a US recession, remains to be seen. After all it’s been 10 years of slow but steady (and now a sharp spurt in 2017-2018) economic growth in the US that has powered most of the global growth.
So what does it mean for the India Investor in the next 18 months?
To answer that lets us turn to the subtle moves in the graha energies in the India Independence birth chart, which we may be able to use to assess, at a high level, what to expect in the next 18 months (from August 2018) in this context.
The India chart is currently showing Moon dasha and Rahu bhukti (which ends on August 15th 2018). The 13 months of Rahu bhukti (since July 2017) may have given confusing and deceiving signals about the underlying well-being of the Indian economy. As Jupiter bhukti begins after August 15th 2018, we may begin to see a different contour. And the resulting reality check may intensify when transit Jupiter moves from Libra into Scorpio in mid-October and is immediately afflicted by the 5th aspect of transit Rahu. The weeks between mid-October to mid-November 2018 may see some sharp changes in investor sentiment in India.
So to the question to pose may be as follows: when should India investors move more towards cash and cash like investments? Astro analysis indications are to do so between now and mid-October 2018.
Next questions: How much of your portfolio should you move towards cash? How long to hold in cash? And what to disinvest in, and what to remain invested in, are questions I may broadly cover in multiple future posts, as time permits.
Usual Caveats apply: All of the above is at a general level – very broad 100,000 ft indications. Action and experience takes place at the individual level, where things get much more complex. There can really be no cookie cutter problem identification or solutions.
I use Systems Approach to Vedic Astrology as propounded by Professor V.K. Chaudhary in developing my Astro Analysis posts.
ॐ श्री मात्रे नमः (Photo by Soumik Dey on Unsplash)
The heat waves and the wild fires that seem to have gripped many areas in the last few weeks may begin to recede, as Mars begins to move out of the Rahu-Ketu field August 7the. Time to step back and assess the impact of Mars transit through the Rahu-Ketu field, acting out in different areas of your lives in June and July. Take some time by yourself to scan your physical and emotional health and that of your loved ones. We have a breather here – to calm down and heal. Those of you who have continually been connected with MA DurgA would have sensed the protection and blessings and a sense of calm, even as the fires raged, emotional and physical, in various shapes and forms, all around us.
In August 2018, Venus will be most distant from Earth. It will be seen in the sky to be transiting the zodiac of Virgo. A milder form of confusion (unlike the raging storms of Mars) is likely between August 8th and 17th, with peaks around August 10th to 13th. We may see this manifested in the social and political arenas and in turn inducing volatility in financial markets. Fashion and luxury goods sectors may be particularly impacted. The inclination, for many of us, may be towards being more analytical and less emotional – and thus out of balance in situations which require emotions to play.
Usual caveat applies: the experience may be in different areas of life for each ascendant sign and intensity depends on particular ascendant degrees. Those who continually connect with the Devi are blessed with strength and calm to better navigate through the squalls and storms of life.
Venus in Leo in July Balances the Turbulence of Mars for some of us (Photo by Mohammad Metri on Unsplash)
By Jayant Kalawar
Venus will be energized as it transits through the cluster of nakshatrAs (constellations) that make up SimhA lagnA (Leo ascendant) from the evening of July 4th to the early morning hours of August 1st. This will provide a welcome cushion for those with lagnA (ascendant) birth signs of Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Libra and Scorpio. The rest of us (those with Leo, Virgo, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces) may have to manage by keeping a low profile and very patient.
Mars, as of this writing on July 4th, is beginning to close in and will fully immerse into the turbulent field of Rahu-Ketu between July 12th and 29th. Expect more of the events such as freak storms, volcanic eruptions, as well as strong emotional expressions of frustration and anger, within us and amongst us, that we saw during the previous Mars immersion in the first two weeks of June. This transit of Mars will be experienced by most of us with varying degrees of intensity, depending on how much we practice focused awareness, enabling us to channel and sublimate out (not suppressing for future eruptions!) the turbulent energies, which trigger memories of past angers and frustrations, leading us to actions which we later regret.
Practicing focused awareness makes us observe the churn of emotional energies arising with the waxing and waning of planetary energies. When we are accomplished in this practice, we can watch them trigger our own particular memories, which become thoughts that we take to be all too real. We then act upon this reality of our mind. It takes a long time, many births perhaps, for this practice of focused awareness to be rooted, become one of our limbs in the subtle space. There are many techniques one can use, and many paths one can take, to climb this mountain. It helps to have a seasoned coach, at least to get ready and started on this climb, at the base camp of this mountain!
(c) Jayant Kalawar and 21BanyanTree.com
I use Systems Approach to Vedic Astrology as propounded by Professor V.K. Choudhry in my use of Jyotisha as one of the range of modalities in my coaching practice.
I often hear people talk about the stress of balancing work and life. So I decided to do some research on how that sense of separating work from rest of our life came about.
Work-life balance appears to have become a term mentioned with increasing frequency in popular media in the last quarter of the twentieth-century, according to a contested entry in the Wikipedia. This particular quote from a popular book captures the sentiment that appears to inform the work-life balance problem eloquently:
“There are thousands and thousands of people out there leading lives of quiet, screaming desperation, where they work long, hard hours at jobs they hate to enable them to buy things they don’t need to impress people they don’t like.”
Then there are solutions offered to balance work and life. Mayo Clinic tries to help in this regard by providing practical tips to a better work-life balance like time management, learning to say no and nurturing one’s self. What does “nurturing” yourself mean? According to one generally accepted definition it includes: “Eat a healthy diet, include physical activity in your daily routine and get enough sleep. Set aside time each day for an activity that you enjoy, such as practicing yoga or reading. Better yet, discover activities you can do with your partner, family or friends — such as hiking, dancing or taking cooking classes.”
If we are honest, all this only adds “more things to do” on the already overflowing plate of our lives, resulting in juggling more activities and stresses.
There is inherently something not quite right in the whole Work-Life balance movement: How can one see “Work” separate from “Life,” as is implied in this framework? Do we not spend more time and energy at work, in our whole life time, than in any other activity? Do we put “Life” on hold when we are in the “Work” mode? It just does not make sense, does it?
Let’s look at balancing our life from a different perspective by approaching our work, relationships and money as the three key theaters in our life and that we play different roles on each stage in each of these theaters. At work, we play roles as colleagues, subordinates or the boss. In relationships, we are spouses, siblings, partners, parents, children and friends. With money, we are earners, savers, creditors, debtors and investors. Much of the time, we play these roles without giving enough thought except, perhaps, at work where our performance is measured frequently and rewarded (or not) accordingly. Along the way, we inadvertently may play out parts of scripts of one role appropriate to one theater on to a different stage in another theater of our life. For instance, what we learn about our roles at work may help us function with excellence on that stage, but if we bring that role into our personal relationships, without being aware of what we are doing repeatedly over long periods, we risk becoming substandard role players on the stage of personal relationships. So being a great boss at work does not necessarily translate into being a great parent or spouse. When such slips happen they are mundane instances of actions without awareness.
Only when we start distancing ourselves from the roles we play without identifying with those roles will we begin to excel in playing them over a cycle of days, weeks, months, years. To excel in all our roles in all our theaters of life of work, relationships and money, we need to learn how to act in awareness.
Awareness is a subtle potential that we all have. We can strengthen and deepen our awareness potential through specific contemplative, breathing and meditative practices. With a deepened awareness potential we develop the ability to observe what we do and how we act out our roles , learn how to gracefully refine what makes sense and to let go of all that does not to achieve what we want for a balanced life.
For each one of us this set of roles, and the deft balancing acts that are required, is different at different times in our life.
Bring the fragrance of jasmine to your social group! (Photo by Socialpictures CH on Unsplash)
You may have noticed that when there are times we want to be alone and we give it a positive value. At other times, we may feel lonely even when we are amongst family, friends, colleagues and so on. The physical situation may be the same, but the time and place that the situation of being lonely is happening is something we do not want. Then we give it a negative value. What makes for being alone and what makes for being lonely? I hope to write about this in a series of posts in a contemplative exploration of what being alone means, in the context of socializing, intimacy and privacy that each of us may relate to and practice in different ways.
Many people inhabiting the 21st century digital world feel that being alone provides the opportunity for rejuvenation within the boundaries of privacy. They want only a certain amount of socializing. And with certain individuals of their choice, they would like the intimacy. There is a balance between intimacy and socializing, which seems to be managed by signaling privacy boundaries. When that balance is right, we may get to the alone time we value. When that balance is skewed, we may either end up with too little of the alone time or too much of the alone time, which at some point becomes lonely time.
This may happen both over time in different phases of our life cycle, and across the spaces we inhabit. When young, we may sense the need for more socializing and less alone time. When older we may feel the need for more alone time. It may also differ from person to person the same age group, due to a myriad of reasons. Join me in this contemplative, intuitive exploration.
In this Part I post I will explore socializing and what it means in the digital age. Future posts will cover socializing in the context of different degrees of intimacy and privacy factors, how we create boundaries and manage them and how it comes together in giving us positive alone time sometimes, and leaves us feeling lonely and hungry for company at other times.
Socializing
The framework I use for this contemplative exploration is from the Advaita Vedanta perspective (and this is just touching one point of the shore of the surface of the breadth and depth of the Vedanta framework on being human): the human is considered to have 4 capabilities – physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. In these contemplations I articulate that perspective using 21st century memes.
We socialize physically, by being present in a team meeting or on the playing field or at the coffee shop. We cannot have the physical presence in our digital social interactions (yet – sometime in the future that may change given augmented reality and holograms and so on, they may be able to produce the sense of smell and touch, which is part of the core of our physical socializing).
During these social physical together times we interact emotionally, often times with the full range of emotions: from affectionately positively friendly to angrily upsettingly negative. Being in the same physical space and in a group, makes for moderating influence. We are more circumspect on both sides. On the other hand, when we have emotional social interactions digitally, we may end up not being so circumspect. Losing some of our composure and expending physical energy in the process.
We socialize intellectually too: we have conversations about politics, education, health care, welfare. We have opinions based on our observations, we propose them using models we have in our minds. We defend and argue about our models. And learn and sometimes change our models (often surreptitiously, without admitting it) in the process, so we can argue better next time. Those are the steps of an intellectual process. Scientists and academics do that more formally. This type of intellectual socialization may work in a digital space, especially if we leave our emotional interactions at the door. That happens more in a physical setting, and not as much in digital settings, as we notice in the flame wars on social media sites.
As I have grown older, I find I value socializing less and intimacy (which I expect to explore in a future post) and alone time more. I manage it through setting privacy boundaries (which also I will explore in a future post in this series). I see a similar pattern both in those close to my age around me, as well as my children, as they get closer to 30. My work based socialization has become very focused individual or group based problem solving interactions, strategic and wide ranging as they may be. My socialization outside of work projects, coaching and satsanghs is down to a few select friends. My alone time is filled with long walks, meditation, chanting, reading, writing, doodling, sketching (and lately sporadically knitting a scarf).
I have reached over the 800 word limit already on this post, which apparently is the expected attention span of a digital interaction. I will continue in my next post.
Meanwhile, on a scale to 100, I would say I value socializing at 30, intimacy at 30 and alone time at 40 at this stage of my life. How about you?
The Pyramid Game: Very Few Winners (Photo by Meriç Dağlı on Unsplash)
By Jayant Kalawar
Most of us are driven to act by desires much of the time. And by fears some of the time. Some mix of the two most of the time. Sometimes we act out of habit. We have an inertia about changing how we act. Even when the driving desires and fears are no longer in us. Today I am going to talk about some consequences of acting in situations when desires do not give expected results.
Many of us have the desire to acquire and maintain a certain social status. That social status requires income, assets, acquiring of objects such as houses and cars and jewelry and clothes and college degrees. Many ands can be added. Career is one way of getting social status in the corporate (and remembers it’s only a little over a hundred years old!). The career structure is a pyramid. So people compete fiercely to get to the next level on the pyramid. It’s like playing musical chairs.
When someone else gets ahead in the pyramid, some of us feel that it was unfair. They did not get a fair shake. Those who got ahead were from the ‘in-group’. The others were favored. And so on. Factually it is likely that all that is true. When the desire to get ahead in the pyramid gets doused, many of us feel frustrated. Most of us reach this stage somewhere in their 40s and 50s. After all it is a pyramid. Only a few people can get to the top. We begin to see a few of our class mates and colleagues soar. And you know from way back that you are better than them. The frustration sometimes begins to boil over to resentment.
Getting resentful about not being able to get ahead on the career and social status pyramid sets the stage for some not very sensible actions. Such actions, born out of frustration, have consequences.
These not very sensible actions may show up as objections and snide remarks at meetings. Negative water-cooler talk is another vent. It may show up in a more passive aggressive way – in the form of internal corporate survey responses for example. We may assume those survey responses are indeed confidential and not shared. Most internal corporate surveys may be assumed to be used as barometers of where an individual is in terms of being a team player. So survey responses used for venting may have negative consequences. Perceptions in HR and senior management may turn negative. A venting team member cannot be relied upon as much.
So what can we do? Life is not fair. We learned that in kindergarten. We keep forgetting it. The odds are stacked against us, all of us, as we go up each rung in the pyramid. Those of us who are lucky, and much of it may be just luck, to get to the next rung, begin to think we are really good and better than those who did not make it there. We begin to think life is fair, so we made it there! Then when we cannot make it to the next higher rung, we are suddenly shocked that life is not fair.
So what can we do? The pyramid game is a finite game. There are many many more losers and very few winners in that game. Switch to playing the infinite game. The cosmos is infinite. We live and act in a microcosm of that cosmos. The microcosm has everything that the cosmos has. Remember the first verse of the Isha Upanishad:
Purnam-adah Purnam-idam, PurnAt Purna-mudachyate,
Purnasya Purnam-Adaya, PurnamevA Vashishyate
The switch from playing the finite pyramid game to the infinite game takes a cognitive shift within ourselves. Deconstruction out of the pyramid game to resonating with the cosmos.
So that we may begin hear the birds sing and flowers bloom, and notice the waxing and waning of the Moon.
Live to the rhythms of the universal clock within us, to sync with the cosmic cycles all around us.
And yes, it is very hard work to get there. But some of us may feel it will indeed work to get us there.
Mars in Turbulent Fields (Photo by Derek Thomson on Unsplash)
Many of you have already noticed natural events, whether freaky storms, earth tremors or volcanic activity, since May 2nd. There is more to come, as Mars moves through turbulent fields between now and early November 2018, both in natural and human generated events with potentially negative impacts.
Here are the date ranges to watch out for such occurrences and within that some potential peak dates, when you may experience unexpected / sudden events.
Date ranges to be cautious and observe:
May 31st to June 15th (with May 31st to June 8th being peak dates for potential sudden / unexpected events to commence).
July 10th to July 28th (chances of sudden / unexpected events: July 10th to July 19th)
September 21st to September 30th (peak dates: September 21st to September 26th).
Besides the natural and mass human generated events, which we will all observe, each of us may experience events in specific areas of our personal and family lives depending on ascendant birth sign (using sidereal zodiac). Here are some pointers (if you want empower yourself to surf these waves, there are ways of doing it):
Aries: There may be some events relating to career and social status that impact your health, physically and emotionally.
Taurus: There is potential for some sudden events for your parents, advanced studies and good fortune in general.
Gemini: Some potential for loss of income and connections with elder siblings and mentors is seen.
Cancer: Potential for loss in career and social status may impact your spouse / partner.
Leo: You may find yourself in debt or disputes with your parents (or those in authority), obstacles in advanced studies and during some long distance travels.
Virgo: Expect some obstacles and endings in your emotional relationships and creative pursuits.
Libra: There may be some endings in personal and business partnerships.
Scorpio: Some disputes and debt situations may be seen with younger siblings, colleagues and any small business interests you may have.
Sagittarius: Some losses in your emotional relationships and creative pursuits may impact general sense of well-being for yourself and your family.
Capricorn: You may experience some personal impact due to sudden change in your financial asset, home or mother related situations.
Aquarius: You may experience some setbacks relating to small business situations, younger siblings and communication clarity.
Pisces: There may be changes in family situation that impact income and relationship with elder siblings and mentors.
Two Birds on the Tree of Life (Photo by Alan Godfrey on Unsplash)
By Jayant Kalawar
Many of you may know about the metaphor used in the Upanishads. Of the two birds on the tree of life.
It is a way of deconstructing ourselves, to become aware of how we function in this world.
We are the two birds. The tree of life is the cosmos we perch on.
One of the birds is the eater bird. The other is the observer bird.
The eater bird has desires and it has fears to match its desires. It desires to eat the fruits it sees on the cosmic tree. It starts by eating what is nearest to it. Then its appetite increases and it hops to other branches. Higher branches, with apparently big juicy fruit. We start by only wanting to eat, be just about warm and to sleep. Then we want to have fun. Then we want to have social status: more food, more house, more car, more degrees, more fashion statements, more show-off. Many of us want to have children. We want them to maintain and increase our social status. We do this every day and night. We are either nibbling or grasping off the cosmic tree or we are plotting and planning how to eat more and more.
The eater bird starts triggering its fears as soon as it starts desiring. What if I do not get to the fruit. What if some other eater bird grabs the fruit before I can eat it all. What if there is no more fruit on the branch I am on. What if I cannot jump to the higher branches. What if other eater birds knock me off this branch. What if they do not let me get on to another branch. What if. What if.
Those are the fears we carry with us all the time. Free floating anxieties. Many times those fears come true. It is an uncertain world out there. We, as eater birds, have very little control. We may deceive ourselves to believe that we are in control of some part of some fruit. We know we are not in control. And it reinforces our anxieties.
Many of us hear inner voices sagely telling us to stick to what we know. In our comfort zones. Those voices are our fears talking to us. They are telling us how to manage our fears down and make the most of the fruits in hand. We give it fancy names. Managing risks down. Maximizing returns. We feel good that we are sophisticated and modern. We are eater birds on the cosmic tree. Eating fruit we do not own. On which we have very little control on.
And then hopping along with the eater bird part is the observer bird. Always there, besides us. If only we were to look. It is that part of us which has an understanding of the nature of the cosmos and our part in it. When we connect and immerse ourselves in the observer bird part of us, we may be able to calm down our desires. As our desires become minimal, so do our fears. When our fears become minimal, we can sleep better. We are more energized with less.
There are primal desires that never go away. We manifest in this physical body. It comes with the desire to survive. And the other desire most of us come with is the one to procreate. So while we may be able to minimize material and social desires at a personal level, these primal desires of the eater bird need a culture that helps manage these primal desires to a minimal level, without being violent with each other. That is where the personal become social.
The cultural fabric seems to be collapsing in slow motion around us, as science and technology of the material becomes our master, ruling how we live and connect with each other under the guise of Reason. We seem to be slowly but surely becoming even more disconnected from the observer bird part of us.
The challenge is not just at a personal level. It is even more so at a social level. And it is global. Start with a contemplation: what will the world be like to really act out that we desire minimally and flourish as observers of the cosmos. Step back, from time to time, from being an eater bird, and be the part that is naturally you: the quiet observer.
Glow in the High Energy of Sun in Aries (Photo by Tanishq Tiwari on Unsplash)
By Jayant Kalawar
When the Sun transits through Aries between mid-April and mid-May, most of us sense a boost of energy in different areas of life, depending on your ascendant birth sign (using sidereal, not tropical zodiac). If you are in touch with your energy flows through your inner work, this is something you will sense. You will be able to channel this burst of energy appropriately to heal yourself and others around you.
This year though, Mercury is still hanging around in Pisces (where it has been going back and forth since early March) and will be there until May 9th. Mercury in Pisces makes for generally less than effective communications for most of us. This is exacerbated for Aries (may cause some losses, increased expenses), Libra (mis-communications may lead to disputes) and Leo (may cause challenges in career and social status). Those situations may likely be resolved after May 9th.
Also, there will be one other major movement in the next few weeks. Mars will be moving into Capricorn on May 3rd and will be hanging its hat there until November 6th. In Capricorn Mars is energized and is generally positive for most signs, provided we channel its energies appropriately (so Leo ascendants may sense great energy flows which make them competitive at work and help win in disputes. Make sure to manage it with the long run in mind, not just the short run wins i.e. do not burn bridges for immediate applause, bring people along with you). This year Mars will be heading into rather rough astro weather in the June-July time frame, with the Moon’s orbit disturbing the Sun-Earth gravitational field (yes the July solar and lunar eclipses are just one measure of this disturbance). Mars energies will be weakened considerably. Many of us are likely to feel the stress of this sudden drop in energy levels in different ways. Those with Gemini, Leo and Aquarius ascendants need to be especially aware: prioritize and focus to conserve energies, to get through positively in the June-July period. I may write more about this next month.
To end on a positive note, currently, between April 13th to 20th, there is a Venus-Jupiter alignment going on, which is giving positive energies to many of us. May be a nice time to enjoy art and culture (Venus) and a general sense of well-being, blessed by expansive energies of Jupiter.
Do you see Pisces in the sky? (Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash)
I am late posting my ruminations for the Piscean month of March 14th to April 13th when the Sun is seen to transit in zodiac of Pisces on the sky map. I was busy with coaching and writing. Also, this is mixed bag of planetary transits, so I cannot take short cuts, have to speak to each sign and talk to the positives and challenges. So that took some time.
Before I dive in, did you read about the solar magnetic storm that was to pass by Earth from September 14th to 18th? Most of you know that there are regular space weather bulletins issued by the US National Weather Service.
Overall, in the Piscean month this year, Gemini, Cancer, Libra, Sagittarius, and Aquarius are relatively more positive. Aries, Taurus, Leo, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces may have somewhat more challenges, in varying degrees.
The mixed bag comes from three events we notice in the sky:
First is Mercury’s transit in Pisces through this month, giving us more emotional and less analytical / logical vibrations. At the same time Venus is transiting Pisces until March 25th. Venus adds positively to the emotional energies. So the next week or so is great time to bond with your mother, for example. And, only coincidentally, many of us are celebrating Chaitra Navratri during this time, connecting with the Mother, LalitAmbA, through puja, chanting and meditation. It is a meditative time (see my meditative-contemplative suggestion at the end of the post).
Second is that Mercury, Venus and Sun energies reach us through the disturbed nodal axis zone created by the last solar and lunar eclipses in February 2018. That disturbed zone is still quite potent and will dissipate only after the first week of April. This causes confusions, which add to the already emotionally charged month. This will be experienced more by some signs than others and I point that out below.
Third, is the transit of Mars close to Saturn, reaching the same exact longitude on April 2nd-3rd 2018. The effect of this Mars-Saturn conjunction will begin experienced from March 23rd to April 10th, with peak on April 2nd-3rd. This is a complex experience, and each of us will observe it from different angles in our lives. I give broad directional flavor below by signs, but that is really hand waving – it requires you to get a sense of your birth chart and the role that Saturn and Mars play there, to better appreciate this conjunction.
Ok, here we go.
Aries: You may experience some temporary losses and separations in different areas of your life. On the positive side, you may get some gains in your passive income e.g. investment income, pensions, rents.
Taurus: This may turn out to be stressful month on the professional front, as well as health, work and home areas. Step back, conserve energy, focus on what is required and do it well. Sometimes stress makes you come out a champion, when managed well.
Gemini: Overall a positive month, when fortune shines and blessings flow. Some temporary stress is seen in home, children and creative areas. Be careful with your communication and how you present yourself.
Cancer: A very mixed month. Many positive uplifting things happening in home, creativity and general sense of well-being, punctuated by some passing sudden confusions. Between March 23rd and April 9th, you may see some obstructions to your career goals. Slow down, step back and then actively work towards overcoming the obstacles by collaborating with your partner(s) and seeking help from people you trust.
Leo: Fortune is likely to shine on work you do this month with your personal and business partners. On the other hand, expect and manage obstructions in career matters, communication issues and health.
Virgo: On the positive side, a general sense of well-being is pervasive. You may get to be quite emotional in your communication – slow-down in your speech and writing and try to veer to being thoughtful and silent. Hard work and showing the excellence of your work will be more beneficial than talking about it. Your physical and emotional health may be under stress especially between March 23rd and April 9th. Be careful about operating mechanical machinery, including cars, as you may be prone to injury during this time.
Libra: On the positive side, you may work closely with your partner(s) in the areas of creative projects, romance and children. Health and work place matters are likely to be stressed. The usual slow down rule applies.
Scorpio: There is potential for positive results this month, when you connect creativity, children and romance in your career area, with thoughtful communication. There may be some sudden confusions which you may have to be on the watch for. There may be some passing disputes and disturbances in home matters.
Sagittarius: A generally positive month, with some passing disturbances in passive income, career matters and luck. Connecting creativity, children and romance to new initiatives may lead to success in this period.
Capricorn: Career matters likely to move in a positive direction, with some hiccups since fortune may not favor at this time. You may experience some passing obstructions in your communications and in interactions with younger siblings, friends and colleagues. You may continue to experience a sense of loss this month (this feeling may pervade until early 2020), exacerbated due to loss in home related matters.
Aquarius: An otherwise positive month may be marred by some recurring confusions arising out of communications and also your interactions with personal and business partners. Be thoughtful. Taking a leadership position with younger friends and colleagues to drive entrepreneurial initiatives likely to lead to success now.
Pisces: The continuing challenges in the career area are likely to show up as a general free floating sense of malaise this month. This is an emotionally challenging month, which may be reflected in physical health too. Communications and overall relationship with partner(s) are likely to be under strain.
Let’s turn this month of mixed possibilities into one of abundance of the Devi’s blessings this Chaitra Navratri through meditative-dance!
Venus and Mercury In Cosmic Musical Symphony (Photo by Jonatan Pie on Unsplash)
Venus and Mercury will move to Pisces on March 2nd. Venus will be seen in Pisces until March 25th. Mercury will be seen in Pisces for much longer: until May 8th.
The effect of this movement is likely to be relatively positive in March for Gemini, Cancer, Virgo, Sagittarius and Capricorn.
Those with the following ascendants may wish to be a little more attentive in certain areas in March:
Aries: Some potential for disputes and / or health issue with your personal and business partners.
Taurus: Some impact may be seen on your creativity, children and romantic endeavors.
Leo: Potential impact on career, interactions with younger colleagues, siblings, new initiatives and personal partners.
Libra: Potential for stress and health issues. May be appropriate time for quiet long meditative retreat.
Scorpio: Some impact on interactions with mentors and elder siblings and some losses on investment income.
Aquarius: There is some potential for changes / endings if you have plans for long distance travel or advanced studies, or attending spiritual programs – new options will open up. Be attentive to possibility of impact on relationships with personal partners.
Pisces: Potential for some endings with some personal and business partners. Open new ways of doing things.
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