psychologically astrology

Perhaps I am writing more on spiritual topics these days. But the influence of the planets is on me too. Sagittarius has his own ruler Jupiter back in it with Ketu. Saturn has come back to his own Capricorn and at present his father, the Sun is also with him. Mystic influences everywhere!

There was a question on occult powers and true realisation. It became too long an answer so posting it as full post and in very simple language.

When you do your spiritual practices, you access your own sub-conscious mind. These influences ‘activate’ your astral body and the inner most causal body. So the extra senses associated with them also become active. So you can do things with your mind and intention. I have written about clairvoyance, bio-energy, aura and stuff earlier. These all are not ‘super-natural powers’. These are very much natural and a part of yourself.

• Eg suppose someone was blind from birth and with modern medical procedures he was made to see, ie his eyes were activated and now he can use them to see the world. For him, this eye-sight would be very magical, he can see colors and shapes etc. But for us this is not magic or super-natural it is just a regular sensory thing of the physical body. Similarly occult powers, ie ‘siddhi’ are all a natural part of your bodies. They will come naturally as you progress.

All spiritual aspirants eventually are able to do ’super-natural’ things. (I have written about this in my post on experiences in Dhyan.) And most of them get caught in the wonder of these things that they forget that there is more. This is a very real danger. As you do things with the power of your practice you may also use yourself up. If you act with intention, this can create new karmic knots for yourself ‘higher up’!

• Eg, you break someone’s leg, this is on the purely physical levels, so the karmic balance will demand that your leg too gets broken. Ok, so it got broken, you went to a doctor who set it back. You wore a plaster and karma is done. Or you got a painful limp but the karma was done in one life.
• Another example, you astrally attack someone and destroy his Anahata chakra. ie you extinguish the green light in the center of his heart chakra. This person will have heart problems and his ability to ‘give’ will suffer later in this life or the next. He will feel discomfort when he is asked to ‘give’ emotions, things etc. For the heart problems he will go to a doctor (if he has the means) but for the problems at the energy levels he won’t find a solution so easily, it will take a few lifetimes for him to recover. So when this karma comes knocking at your door, you too will face the same problems a few lives down the line. See, in this life you had access to the astral so you hit out, but it is possible that in that life you won’t be able to manipulate the astral. You won’t know what has happened or how to rectify it. This in itself, now can become a focal point for creation of several new karma!

So the ‘higher up’ you create karma, the worse is the entanglement. Spiritual aspirants should be very careful about acting with intention or with emotion as they progress higher. So all spiritual practices insist on taming the erratic mind first and foremost. The seeds of desire in the mind (Mano-vritta-asur) have to be faced by the mind/ individual soul (Indra) itself and annihilated. Else they will pop up in even higher levels in the spiritual route and take even more lives to rebalance.

There are some teachers who teach occult practices and how to develop siddhi. I would advise you to stay away from these teachers. These abilities are not a route to true realisation. They are the side-by, on the way type of things.

• Eg you are on the way to a beautiful hill station (Moksh). On the route you see scenic views, lakes, etc (Siddhi) all very alluring. But do you abandon your goal of going to the hill-station and stop your journey at the lake? You might get a local guide who will try to entangle you in the beauty of the lake view, try to slow down or stop your journey but would you?

I have written about Jupiter and Venus the Guru-s of the zodiac. Jupiter helps you gather your resources and expand them. Venus consumes these resources to power your jump towards your ‘desire’. This desire can be physical, intellectual/mental or spiritual, ie broadly three categories, depending on the soul’s personal evolution. Material desires require less resources and spiritual desires require the highest amount.

Just remember that the resources are limited by the power of your Jupiter. If you use all your resources to power your material desires, you may not have enough to power your intellectual etc higher desires. Or on the other hand if you hoard the resources till you get a huge amount, then you can use it all in one go to satisfy your higher ‘desires’.

• Eg. Someone gets into physical affairs with several people. The satisfaction level naturally goes down with each successive encounter. He is using up all the resource in the material level itself. Such people cannot appreciate the higher intellectual/mental or the spiritual aspects of life.
• Eg. Someone practices the piano the earliest years, rigorously. Denies himself rest or any other pursuits and dedicates himself solely to the piano, he becomes a Mozart! Creates great art!
• Eg. Someone rejects the material life, becomes a Sanyasi. He hoards the resources to attain Moksh, he becomes a Jivan-mukt.

The ‘desire’ component is determined by Venus, where do you use the resources, how you use them and how far do you ‘jump’. This is the most deadly of the tests, as Venus presides over all sorts of one-one relationships from sexual partner, spouse, business, family, child, art, creative instinct, higher-Self etc. So many ‘desires’ then, which one do you choose? As always if you choose one category then you may not have resources for other categories.

• Eg. someone is in a marriage and the spouse is unsuitable, perhaps the horoscopes do not match. But once married, esp. in traditional societies you cannot back out so easily. So he uses all his energy resource to sustain the marriage. The resources are used up maintaining the spouse. Nothing left over for other one-one relationships. This spills over into his business/ profession, into his relationships with his family/ friends and also affects his relationship with his children. He does not have the energy to appreciate the mental/ intellectual or spiritual facets of life. (Even if divorce is possible, pain does remain). Ultimately all this will result in self-castigation, regrets affecting his relationship with his own Self. Real tragedy.

So you need to choose the direction of your ‘desires’ very carefully. If you want the material, then do it with the intention that you are completely satisfied. Don’t mix things and expect higher satisfaction in a series of affairs. If you want to create great art, do so, focus, so that you are finally content with what you create. (Most superlative artists die early, as they are internally satisfied, the 2nd and 7th Marak houses show their effect). Great artists are ‘married to their art’, it is not just a phrase it is actually a marriage! If you desire to know your self spiritually do so with all your heart so that you can achieve it. Desires are meant to be satisfied, so go on satisfy your deepest desires.

But once you put yourself in a path, remember turning back or changing tracks may not be so easy. It all depends on the quantum of the resource/ Jupiter and the power of desire/ Venus and their axis in your chart.

And for the higher paths, the mental or spiritual path, you have to show your dedication by choosing that same again and again through several lives, only then do you get your desire very many lives later.

I have written about Nija-Guru and Anya-Guru earlier.

Nija-guru is one single person or energy, you cannot have two or more Nija-guru. He is the Sat-Guru who directs you towards final Moksh in the most direct way possible. And Anya-Guru, who inspire and motivate you, help you gather your resources, but you know at your innermost levels that you cannot reach Moksh on their teachings, ie their teaching though may be very great, is not apt for you personally. So you are still in search for a Sat-Guru.

We should read stories of Guru-s from earlier times, it is instructive. A few examples, some of you might know these Guru-s,

• Eg – Mata Anandmayi from Hardwar – Her Sat-guru was exclusively on the astral planes. She had no physically visible person as a Sat-Guru.
• Eg – Shri Jnyaneshwar, author of the Jnyaneshwari a commentary on the Bhagwat Gita. He was a teenager when he wrote it. His younger sister was Mukta-devi, a small girl. One Chang-dev, a very high level siddha-yogi, challenged his authority. But it was Mukta-devi, who answered every question posed by Chang-dev, satisfied his soul. He fell at her feet and she accepted him as her disciple. He attained Moksh by her grace/ Guru-krupa.
• Eg – Shri Raghunathpriya Maharaj was a high level siddha-yogi who would debate on spiritual matters (Shastra-arth) with others, the others would accept defeat. He challenged Shri Guruling-jangam Maharaj and lost. Then he accepted him as a Sat-guru and then by his Guru-krupa attained Moksh.
• Eg – My own Sat-Guru was formally adopted at the age of 17yrs by the 25^th pontiff of the Siddha-giri Math, Shri Virupaksh Kadsiddheshwar. He was taught all the highest and most secret levels of yog and sadhana and then made the 26^th pontiff. But he did not achieve Moksh till the age of 29yrs, till he met his own Sat-guru Shri Siddharameshwar Maharaj. He too had gone to challenge his authority to speak on spiritual topics, but when he went there, he Saw and fell at his Sat-guru’s feet and achieved True realisation, Moksh at that very instant.

So meeting an Anya-Guru is one thing, he is like the Jupiter who will help you build your resources. Worthy of respect. But beyond, unless you get the spark (Venus) that a Sat-guru grants, you cannot attain Moksh. Some have been fortunate to have the most direct Sat-Guru at the very start itself and some have had to struggle to find that energy, eg above.

But the common theme is that your spiritual knowledge or siddhi, or yog, or sadhna or mantra-jaap etc are like firewood, stored and ready for use, the potential. To convert this stored potential into the infinite flames of true realization, you need the grace/guru-krupa of a Sat-Guru, the Nirvishesh Brahma itself.