Metaphysics 14 Osho Speaking Here:
Astrology: A Door to Religiousness
It is necessary that some matters be understood. First, it is necessary to
know that, from a scientific point of view, the whole solar family is born
out of the sun. The moon, Mars, Jupiter, and the rest of the planets,
including this Earth, are all organic parts of the sun. Slowly, life on
Earth came into being - from plants to man. Man is an organic part of the
Earth; the Earth is an organic part of the sun. It is like a mother who has
a daughter, who in turn also has a daughter, and in all three of them the
same blood flows. Their bodies are made up of similar cells. The scientists
use a word "empathy" meaning shared sensitivity. Those things that are born
from the same source have a sort of shared inner experience.
Out of the sun the Earth is born, and out of the Earth our bodies are born,
and far away, the sun is our great grandparent. Whatsoever happens on the
sun creates a vibration in every cell of our bodies. It must be that way
because our cells are all born out of the sun. The sun appears to be a great
distance away but it is not so far. In every element of our blood and in
every particle of our bones live the atoms of the sun. We are part of the
sun, so it is no wonder that our lives are influenced by the sun. There is a
sort of empathy between the sun and ourselves. If we understand this empathy
rightly, we can enter into one dimension of astrology.
Yesterday I talked to you about twins. Some experiments on empathy can be
conducted when twins born of the same egg are placed in separate rooms.
During the last fifty years many of these kinds of experiments have been
conducted. Twins were put into separate rooms, a bell was rung, and the
children were told to write or draw whatsoever they first thought of when
the bell was rung. This was repeated twenty times, and it was observed with
great wonder that ninety percent of the pictures drawn by the twins were
similar. The flow of thoughts produced in one child on the ringing of the
bell, and the word or picture brought about by that thought, would be the
same as in the other twin.
This similarity of experience is described by scientists as empathy.
There is so much similarity between twins that they vibrate alike. Within
the bodies of two such children there is an inner communication or dialogue
which flows through some unknown channels.
Between the sun and the Earth also there are communication bridges like
this, and every moment messages are being passed across these bridges. And
similarly, communication bridges exist between the Earth and man. So there
is a continuous communication between man, the Earth and the sun. But that
communication is very mysterious; it is inner and subtle. Let us also try to
understand something about this.
There is a research center in America known as the Tree Ring Research
Center. If you cut down a tree, you will find a number of rings or circles
visible across the cut surface. The beautiful decorative designs in the
grain of wooden furniture are due to these circles. This research center has
spent the last fifty years working on the formation of these rings.
Professor Douglas, the center's director, who has spent a major part of his
life studying them, has discovered a number of facts. Ordinarily, all of us
know that the age of a tree can be calculated from the number of these
rings. Every year one new ring is grown; one new layer is made within the
tree every year. If the tree is fifty years old, if it has seen fifty
autumns, then fifty rings have formed inside the tree.
But it is surprising to know that these rings also indicate what sort of
seasons there were in a particular year. If the seasons were hotter or
wetter than usual, the ring formation is broader. If the seasons were cold
and dry, the ring is not so wide. It is possible to know when there were
strong rains, when there was drought, and when the seasons were very cold.
If Buddha had said that there was a good rainfall in a particular year, the
bodhi tree under which he sat would confirm the truth of it. Buddha might
have made a mistake, but the tree could not. The tree ring will be wider or
thinner, indicating the type of season that particular year.
While conducting his research, Professor Douglas reached still another
conclusion which was far beyond anything he could have anticipated. He
observed that the rings are wider every eleventh year - and every eleventh
year there is maximum nuclear activity on the sun; the sun becomes more
active. It is as if the sun has a periodic rhythm, and its radioactivity is
then at a maximum. During such a year a tree makes a wider ring - not in one
forest or in one place or country, but all over the Earth all trees behave
similarly in order to protect themselves from the intensified radioactivity.
To protect itself from the excessive power that is released by the sun, the
tree grows a thicker skin every eleventh year. Due to this phenomenon,
scientists coined a new phrase: "global climate".
The seasons are different in different places: it will be raining in one
place, cold in another, and hot somewhere else; and the idea of there being
a global climate has never existed before. So in referring to the effects of
this eleventh year, Professor Douglas coined the term "global climate". And
while we may not notice it, trees do. There is a gradual decrease in the
width of the tree rings that are formed after the eleventh year, and after
five years there is again a gradual increase in the width up to the eleventh
year.
If the trees are so sensitive that they can carefully record an event
happening on the sun, then is it not possible that in the mind of man there
might also be some layer...that man's body might have a subtle sensitivity
to the sun's activity that creates ripples in his psyche? Until now
scientists have not been able to clearly find any effects in man's body -
yet it seems impossible that the body would not record such activity.
Astrology is an investigation into the possibility that whatever is
happening anywhere in the universe also affects man.
But it is not as easy to investigate the body of man because it cannot be
cut open like a tree. To cut open a human being is a very delicate and
dangerous affair. And because man has a mind, it is not the body which
registers events in this way but the mind. The tree has no such mind, and so
its body has to register the events.
One more point is also worth noting. Just as there are radioactive storms on
the sun every eleventh year, there is similarly another periodic rhythm of
ninety years on the sun. This has only come to light recently, but it is a
scientific fact, and it is as surprising as the periodic rhythm occurring
each eleven years. Astrologers do not mention anything about this, but I am
telling you to make it easier for you to understand astrology in a
scientific manner. There is a cycle of ninety years which has been
experienced, and its story is quite amazing.
Four thousand years ago, an Egyptian pharaoh told his scientists to keep a
record of how often the water in the River Nile increases or decreases, and
by how much. The River Nile is the only river in the world with a
"biography" four thousand years old. A record has been kept of when the
water level in the river increased or decreased by even one inch. This
record runs from the time of the pharaohs, four thousand years ago, until
today.
"Pharaoh" is the name given to an Egyptian emperor, and in the Egyptian
language it means the sun. There was a belief in Egypt that a continuous
dialogue exists between the sun and the River Nile. The pharaohs, who were
devotees of the sun, declared that a complete record of the Nile should be
kept. They said: "We know nothing about the sun at present, but we will some
day, and this record will be useful."
So for four thousand years everything about the River Nile has been
recorded: the increase in the water level, when there were floods and when
there were none... And one Egyptian scholar, Tasman, compiled its history.
Some things that were not known in the times of the pharaohs are now known,
and everything that has happened in the Nile has been compared with events
on the sun. A ninety-year rhythm has been clearly indicated to relate to
happenings on the sun. These events are quite similar to what we call birth
and death.
Understand it this way: the sun is youthful for forty-five years and then
begins to decline, to age, for forty-five years. For forty-five years the
energy flow within the sun increases towards a peak of youth. After
forty-five years there is a receding flow of energy, as within a human
being. After ninety years the sun becomes very old. During the latter
forty-five years, the Earth is struck with earthquakes. Earthquakes are
related to this ninety-year cycle. At the end of the ninetieth year, the sun
again starts to become youthful.
This is a very important cyclical occurrence.
There are such immense changes happening on the sun that it is also natural
for the Earth to be shaken. When a body as huge as the Earth becomes shaken
by earthquakes because of changes on the sun, how can the small body of man
remain unaffected? This is the question astrologers have been asking. They
say it is impossible for the body of man to remain unaffected. Children that
are born during the forty-five years when the sun is growing, in its
youthful phase, are wonderfully healthy. But children that are born during
the forty-five years when the sun is growing old cannot be in sound health.
The condition of children born during the period when the sun is on the
downward path is like that of a ship that has to travel east when the winds
are blowing west - a great deal of physical effort is needed to move the
oars. The sails do not work, so the helmsman has to work harder. It is like
swimming against the current. The sun is the vital energy source for the
whole solar family. So whenever the sun is on the decline, whosoever is
youthful must swim against the current. He has to undergo a great strain.
And whenever the sun is on the incline, the entire solar family is filled
with energy and is moving toward its peak. Whoever is born then is in a ship
that is sailing in the direction of the wind. No effort is needed; neither
the oars nor the rudder have to be moved. The sails have only to be opened
and the ship is moved by the winds. During this period the least number of
diseases is prevalent on the earth. And when the sun is on the decline, we
get the maximum number of diseases. So for forty-five years on Earth there
is an increase in diseases, and for the next forty-five years there is a
decrease, and so on.
The River Nile's historical record of four thousand years shows that there
is an increased amount of water flowing in it during the forty-five years
when the sun is in its youth. Whenever the sun is on the decline, the water
level in the Nile drops and its current also becomes less strong and more
sluggish.
Man is not an island, he is part of this whole unity.
Not even the best watches that man has made tell the time as accurately as
the Earth does. It takes twenty-three hours and fifty-six minutes for the
Earth to make one revolution around its axis. On the basis of this time
period we have devised a day of twenty-four hours. And so far the Earth has
never been known to take one second more or less to complete its revolution.
But the reason is that we have not had any totally accurate means with which
to study this phenomenon so we have only made rough estimates. But when the
sun's cycle of ninety years is completed and it readjusts for a new cycle,
the Earth's clock is shaken.
At the time when the sun experiences increased radioactivity, during its
eleven-year cycle, then too the Earth's clock is disturbed. Whenever the
Earth comes under the influence of such external forces its inner rhythm is
disturbed. Any new cosmic influence like a star, a meteor, or a comet
passing near the Earth also disturbs it. On a cosmic scale, things very far
away in the sky are really very near, because everything is interconnected
in an invisible way.
However, the ability of our language to express this phenomenon is very
weak, because when we say that a star has come a little nearer to our sun,
we think about this in the ordinary sense of one person coming nearer to
another. Yet, these distances are very great; even a slight change in the
distances between cosmic objects and the axis of the earth is disturbed -
although we may not at all be aware of this. To disturb the Earth, a great
force is required. For even a one inch shift on the Earth, powerful cosmic
bodies are required to pass near its orbit.
When these great cosmic bodies pass near the Earth, they also pass near us.
When the Earth is shaken, it is not possible that the trees growing on it
are not shaken. It is not possible that the human being living and walking
on it is not shaken. No, everything is shaken, but the shaking is very
minute, and man had no instruments to measure it with. Now however, we have
such sensitive electronic instruments, that a vibration of a thousandth of a
second's duration can also be measured. But the vibration of the human being
still cannot be measured. We have so far not made any instruments to measure
this with.
Man is a very subtle creature and it is necessary for him to be that way;
otherwise it would be difficult for him to live on the Earth. If he was able
to experience and be aware of the influence of all the surrounding forces
that act upon him twenty-four hours a day, he would not be able to live. We
are only able to live because we are not aware of everything that is
happening around us.
There is another law also. This law is that we cannot be aware of influences
either above or below a certain limit.
The range of our experience is limited. For example, suppose we measure the
body's temperature as being between ninety-eight degrees at the lowest point
and one hundred and ten degrees at the highest point, that shows that we are
living within these twelve degrees.
If the temperature drops much below ninety-eight degrees we will die, and if
it shoots up above one hundred and ten degrees we will also die. But do you
think that the temperature range of the universe is limited to just twelve
degrees? Man lives within the limited range of twelve degrees - outside of
this range he will die. Man lives in a sort of balance. He has to fluctuate
between ninety-eight and one hundred and ten degrees. Similarly, there are
balances for everything.
I am speaking to you and you can hear me. If I speak in a very low tone, a
point will come where you will not be able to hear me. This you can
understand, but you will not be able to imagine that there is a higher point
of audibility beyond which you cannot hear. It will be difficult to imagine
that a louder noise can also be inaudible.
Scientists say that we have a certain range of hearing, and that we cannot
hear anything below or above it. All around us great thundering noises are
occurring, but we cannot hear them. If a star disintegrates or a new planet
is born, tremendous, thundering noises are created around the Earth. If we
were to hear them, then at that very moment we would become deaf. But we are
protected because our ears cannot hear them . We cannot hear below certain
decibels and we cannot hear above certain decibels; we can only hear within
a certain range.
There are even limits to smelling. The senses of all human beings operate
within a particular range. For example, a dog is able to smell much more
than you can. Its range of smell is wider; a dog can smell what we are not
able to smell. What we are not able to hear, a horse can. A horse's sense of
hearing and smell is much sharper. A horse can smell the approach of a lion
from a distance of one and a half miles. It will suddenly stop, and we will
not understand why. Its sense of smell is very powerful. But if you had such
a strong sense of smell that you could experience all the smells pervading
your surroundings, you would go mad. A human being is closed within a sort
of capsule - he has boundaries.
When you switch on your radio you can listen to many stations. But do you
think that the music begins only when the radio is switched on? The radio
waves of music and speech are continuously flowing in the air, whether you
switch on your radio or not. But you can only hear them when the radio is
switched on. In this very room, the radio waves of all the broadcasting
stations of the world are continuously flowing, but you can only hear them
when you switch on your radio. Those radio waves are there even when your
radio is not switched on, but you cannot hear them.
In this world many sounds are passing by all around us. There is a great
tumult. We are not able to hear it, but we cannot escape being affected by
it. We are influenced by all these noises - in every nerve, in every
heartbeat, in every muscle. These noises are working in us unnoticed. The
smells we are not able to recognize also affect us. If those smells bring
with them some disease, you will catch the disease.
Your awareness or recognition of something is not necessary in order for it
to exist.
Astrology says that there are energy fields around us which go on
influencing us continuously. As soon as a child is born, it is subject to
all the influences of the world. In the language of science, we can describe
birth as a process of exposure.
It is just as though we expose a film in a camera. You press the exposure
button of a camera, and within a split second the lens window opens and
closes, and whatsoever was in front of the camera is immediately registered
on the film. The film is exposed without affecting the previous exposure.
The film has captured the image of the scene forever.
Similarly, when a child is conceived in the mother's womb, this is a first
exposure for the child. On the day the child is born there is a second
exposure. These two exposures are registered upon the sensitive mind of the
child, as if on film. The world as it is at that moment is imprinted upon
the child, and so there is an empathy in the child for the world as it is at
that moment.
You will be surprised to know that ninety percent of children are born at
night. Ordinarily, in accordance with mathematical probability, the
percentage of births would be the same for night as for day. There might be
a fluctuation of four to five percent here and there, but why should ninety
percent be born during the night? Only ten percent of births, at the most,
occur during the day. There must be a reason for it - there are many reasons
for it. Let me explain...
When a child is born at night, the first exposure of the world upon its mind
is not of light, but of darkness. I am telling you this only by way of
illustration, because the matter is really much deeper. Only by way of
illustration am I telling you that the first impression upon the mind of the
child is that of darkness. The sun is absent, its energy is absent. All
around, the world is sleeping - nothing is actually awake. This is the first
impact on the child.
If we were to ask Buddha or Mahavir about the reason for this, they would
say that most souls take birth at night because they are sleeping when they
are born. These souls cannot choose the moment of their birth. There are
hundreds of other reasons, but this is important; that most people are
asleep. They are in darkness and inactivity.
Whosoever is born after sunrise will be born with energy.
After sunset, in the darkness of night, only sleeping beings can take birth.
The birth that takes place at the time of the rising of the sun will be a
birth under the influence of energy; the birth that takes place after
sunset, under the cover of darkness, will be a birth under the influence of
sleep. The exposure will be different for a film exposed at night than for
one exposed during the day. It is necessary to understand this point about
exposure more clearly, because astrology is very deeply related to it.
The scientists who are conducting research on this subject of birth exposure
say that it is a happening of the utmost importance. That exposure will
follow you throughout your life.
When a chick is born to a hen, it immediately starts running after the hen.
We say that it is running after the mother, but scientists say that this has
nothing to do with the mother, that it is only a question of exposure and
imprinting. Scientists have now conducted hundreds of experiments... One
experiment was on chicks about to be born. The chicks' beaks were emerging
from the eggs, and just then the hen was removed from the scene and instead
a balloon was placed in front of the chicks. When the chicks opened their
eyes they saw the balloon. You will be surprised to know that the chicks
loved the balloon as if it were their mother. Wherever that balloon moved in
the air, they would run after it. They did not care for the mother, wherever
she might be, but they became surprisingly sensitive towards the balloon.
When the chicks became tired, they would go and sit beside the balloon. They
would try to love the balloon, they would try to peck at the balloon - not
at the mother.
Konrad Lorenz, the scientist who has done a great deal of work in this
connection, says that the first moment of exposure is the most important.
The chick becomes intimately related to the mother because of that first
exposure; it runs after the mother only because she was available to it first.
Now some more experiments are being conducted... Male children who are not
brought up in the presence of the mother are not capable of loving any
woman. There has been no proper exposure; the image of a woman has not been
properly imprinted on such a child's mind. If homosexuality is increasing in
the West, one fundamental reason is an insufficient exposure to one of the
parents. Heterosexual love, love between opposite sexes, is becoming less
and less in the West, and love between members of the same sex is
increasing. Although this is an unnatural happening, it is bound to be there.
The sexual attraction between a man and a woman is also conditioned in
another way.
To whom a child will be first exposed is a matter that should be considered.
A woman will not be happy her whole life if, as a baby girl, she was first
exposed to the mother. Her exposure should be to a man. The first impact on
the mind of a girl should be of her father; only then she will be capable of
loving a man fully. If men always surpass women, it is because boys and
girls are both first exposed to and brought up by the mother.
The exposure of the boy is correct, but that of the girl is not. So, as long
as a baby girl's first exposure is not to her father, it will not be
possible for her to become equal to a man. Neither through politics, nor
through employment, nor through economic independence can she become equal,
because from a psychological perspective, the weakness in the personality of
a girl remains. No civilization has so far been able to overcome this
weakness.
If a small balloon can exert so much influence on a chicken, if it can enter
so indelibly into its mind, astrology suggests that whatsoever surrounds us
- the whole universe - also enters into our consciousness at that moment of
exposure at birth when the mental film is exposed to the world. This
determines your sympathies and antipathies for your entire life. All the
constellations that are encircling the Earth at that moment also, in a very
deep way, imprint their influence on the newly born consciousness. The
constellations are in certain positions: the basic significance of these
constellations lies in the influence of their radioactivity falling upon the
Earth at the moment of birth.
Now scientists believe that every celestial body has its own unique
radioactivity. The planet Venus throws out rays which are tranquil, whereas
the moon has quite a different type of radio wave. The radio waves that
reach us from Jupiter are different from those that reach us from the sun.
The reason for the difference is that each planet has a different
combination of gaseous layers encircling it, and from each planet a
different combination of rays comes towards the earth. And when the child is
born, whatever constellations, stars, planets or distant super-suns are
encircling the horizon, all enter deep within the mind of the child at the
time of its exposure. The cosmic situation at that moment, with all its
weaknesses, strengths and capabilities, influences the child for his whole
life.
It is like knowing the exact effect of what would happen when an atom bomb
explodes amidst a populated area like Hiroshima.
Before the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, it was only known that
hundreds of thousands of people would die. But it was not known that this
would also affect future generations and everything else too. For those who
died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki it was just a matter of one moment. But the
trees that remained behind, the animals, the birds, the fish and the human
beings that remained behind, were all permanently affected in an unknown
manner. The total effect of this will be known only after about ten
generations pass, because deep radioactive forces are still at work.
Any woman surviving had her ovaries affected by radioactivity. Now these
ovaries are incapable of reproducing normal children, such as they would
have done before they were affected by the radioactivity. A child born of
these ovaries could be lame or blind, it could have four or even eight eyes;
it could be anything - one cannot say. Its brain may be diseased, or it may
be a genius such as has never been born before. We are not certain what it
will be like; we know only one thing for certain, and that is that it will
not be like an ordinary, normal human being.
If the power of an atomic bomb, which is comparatively not a very great
power, can cause such great harm to life on Earth, then you can begin to
imagine the power of the sun. It is as if millions of atom bombs are
bursting on it simultaneously. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki an atom bomb killed
one hundred and twenty thousand human beings. In comparison, can you imagine
how much radioactivity exists on the sun?
The sun has been heating the Earth for four billion years, and scientists
say that there is no possibility of its beginning to grow cool for millions
of years. Each day it gives out tremendous heat to the Earth, and that too
from a distance of almost one hundred million miles. Whatever happened in
Hiroshima only effected a radius of up to ten miles, whereas the sun has
been giving us heat from a distance of one hundred million miles, and for so
long; it is still not exhausted. But compared with other suns in the
universe our sun is just a tiny star. The stars that we see in the sky are
much bigger than our sun, and each one of them has its own individual
radiation which is flowing towards us.
One great scientist, Michael Gacquilin, has been carrying out research on
the forces in the universe.
He tells us that we are not able to understand even one percent of the
things that are caused by the forces coming within our experience. Since we
have begun to send space satellites beyond the Earth, so much information
has been transmitted to us for which we have no words to describe, nor is
science yet able to decipher the transmitted information. We never imagined
that so much energy and so many forces might be operating all around us.
In this context, let us understand one more thing. Astrology is not a new
science that is still developing. The position is quite the reverse. If you
have seen the Taj Mahal, you may have noticed some incomplete walls beyond
the opposite bank of the River Yamuna. The current story is that Shah Jehan
not only made the Taj Mahal for his wife Mumtaz, but that he was also
constructing a tomb for himself, from the same marble stone as the Taj
Mahal, on the opposite bank of the River Yamuna. However, according to the
story, that tomb could not be completed. But now this has been researched by
historians who tell us that the walls which look incomplete are not the
walls of a tomb that was being constructed, but the ruins of a big palace
that existed long ago.
For the last three hundred years we have been told that these walls were the
incomplete walls of a tomb that Shah Jehan had begun to construct. But the
walls of a tomb being newly built and the ruins of some old palace would
look similar, so it is very difficult to decide what exactly these walls
are. Historical research now indicates that not only were they once a
complete palace, but that the Taj Mahal itself was not constructed by Shah
Jehan. It was an old palace constructed by Hindus, which Shah Jehan
converted into a tomb. But it often happens that we cannot believe anything
that contradicts what we have always heard.
No tomb like the Taj Mahal has been constructed anywhere else in the world.
A tomb is never constructed like this. All around the Taj Mahal there are
places for soldiers to stand, and for installing rifles and guns. Tombs do
not need to be protected by rifles and guns. It was an old palace that was
converted. On the opposite bank of the Yamuna there was also an old palace
which collapsed and its ruins remain as a witness.
Astrology is also like the ruins of a great building that once existed.
It was a complete science which has been lost. It is neither new nor is it
in the process of construction. From the walls that have remained it is not
possible to judge how big that building once might have been. Many times
truths are realized only to become lost again.
About two hundred years before Christ, Aristarchus, a Greek scientist,
discovered that the sun is the center of our universe and not the earth.
This principle of Aristarchus became known as the heliocentric principle -
that the sun is at the center. But later, in about 100 AD, Ptolemy again
changed this discovery and said that the earth was the center. After that,
it took over one thousand years until Kepler and Copernicus reestablished
that the sun is the center of our universe. The truth discovered by
Aristarchus remained hidden for a very long time, until Copernicus opened
the old book of Aristarchus and declared it again...and people were shocked.
In the West it is said that America was discovered by Columbus. When Oscar
Wilde went to America he made a joke about it that has become well known. He
said that America had been discovered much earlier by someone else. This is
true; America was discovered many times, and was lost again and again when
relations with it were cut off. Someone asked Oscar Wilde: "If Columbus did
not discover it the first time, if it had already been discovered, why did
it become lost every time?"
Oscar Wilde jokingly replied: "He did discover America. It was discovered
many times, but every time it was hushed up. Every time it was necessary to
keep it quiet, because such a troublesome thing is best forgotten and put
away."
In the Mahabharata epic there are references to America - one of Arjuna's
wives was from Mexico. There are ancient Hindu temples in Mexico with idols
of Ganesh carved on them.
It happens many times that the truth comes within our grasp and then is lost
again. Astrology was one such great truth: it was once known about, but
subsequently lost. There are difficulties in the way of knowing it again;
that is why I am talking to you from many different points of view.
My intention in talking on astrology could be misunderstood. It is not as if
I intend to talk on the same subjects that are discussed by an ordinary
astrologer. To such an astrologer you can pay a coin and be told your
fortune. Perhaps you think that I am going to talk about him or be in
support of him.
In the name of astrology, ninety-nine percent of astrologers only bluff.
Only one percent will not dogmatically assert that an event will definitely
happen. They know that astrology is a vast subject - so vast that someone
can only enter into it hesitatingly.
When I am talking about astrology, I want you to have a picture of the whole
science from many angles, so that you can enter it without any fear or
hesitation. When I talk about astrology, I am not talking about the ordinary
astrologer - such small matters. But the average man's curiosity regarding
astrology is just to know whether his daughter will get married or not.
Astrology can be divided into three parts. The first part is the core, the
essence; it is essential, and cannot be changed. It is the part which is
most difficult to understand. The second part is the middle layer, in which
one can make whatever changes one wants. It is the semi-essential portion,
in which you can make changes if you know how, but without knowing how, no
changes are possible at all. The third part is the outermost layer which is
nonessential, but about which we are all very curious.
The first is the essence, in which no changes can be made. When it is known,
the only way is to cooperate with it. Religions have devised astrology in
order to know and decipher this essential destiny. The semi-essential part
of astrology is such that if we know about it, we can change our lives -
otherwise not.
If we do not know, then whatsoever is going to happen will happen. If there
is knowledge, there are alternatives to choose between. There is a
possibility of transformation if the right choice is made. The third,
nonessential part is just the periphery, the outer surface. There is nothing
essential in it; everything is circumstantial.
But we go to consult astrologers only for the nonessential things.
Someone goes and asks an astrologer when he will get employment - there is
no relationship between your employment and the moon and stars. Someone asks
whether he will marry or not - a society without marriage is possible.
Someone asks whether he will remain poor or become rich - a socialist or
communist society where there will be no rich and no poor people is
possible. So these are nonessential questions...
An eighty-year-old man was walking along when his foot slipped on a banana
peel that had been thrown onto the road. Now, is it possible to inquire of
an astrologer, to know from the moon and stars on which road and on which
banana peel the foot will slip? Such queries are foolish. But you are
curious to know in advance whether your foot will step on a banana peel and
slip if you go out on the road today. This is nonessential. This has nothing
to do with your being or your soul. These events happen on the periphery,
and astrology has nothing to do with them. But because astrologers were busy
talking only about these kinds of things, the great establishment of
astrology collapsed. This was the only reason.
No intelligent person is going to be prepared to believe that when he was
born it was written in his destiny, that on a particular day, on Marine
Drive, his foot would step on some banana peel, and he would fall. Neither
the fall nor the banana peel have any relationship to the stars. Astrology
has lost respectability because it became connected with these kinds of
things.
At one time or another we have all wanted to know such things from
astrologers, yet these things are nonessential. But there are certain
semi-essential matters such as the birth or death of a person: if you can
know everything about these, you can take precautionary measures. If you do
not know anything, you cannot do anything.
If our knowledge about the diagnosis of diseases was improved we would be
able to increase the life span of human beings - we have already been doing
it. If our research to make deadlier atom bombs succeeds we will be able to
kill hundreds of thousands of people at a time - we have done it.
This semi-essential world presents a possibility that we may be able to do
certain things if we know in advance what is going to happen.
If we do not know, nothing can be done. By our knowing in advance,
alternatives can be sorted out and selected.
Beyond this exists the world of the essential - and that you cannot do
anything about. However, our curiosity is to know only about nonessential
things. Seldom does someone reach out to know the semi-essential. And our
curiosity or desire never extends to knowing that which is essential and
unavoidable, that which cannot be changed even if known.
Mahavir was passing through a village with his disciple, Goshalak - who
later became his opponent - when they came across a small plant, and
Goshalak said to Mahavir: "Listen, here is a plant. What do you think? -
will it grow to produce a flower, or will it die before it can flower? What
is its future?"
Mahavir immediately closed his eyes and sat in front of the plant.
Goshalak cunningly said: "Do not avoid the issue. What will happen by
closing your eyes?"
He did not know why Mahavir had become silent and closed his eyes - that he
was looking for the essential. It was necessary to go deep down into the
being, into the soul of that plant. Without doing so, it would not be
possible to say what was going to happen.
After a while Mahavir opened his eyes and said: "This plant will survive to
flower."
Goshalak immediately pulled the plant up by its roots, threw it away and
laughed mockingly. There was no better way to refute Mahavir's statement.
Mahavir had nothing more to say now, because Goshalak had uprooted the plant
and thrown it away as a challenge. He was laughing, Mahavir was smiling, and
they continued their journey.
Then it began to rain heavily. There was a storm, and for seven days
continuously torrential rains fell, so they were not able to go out for
seven whole days.
When the rains had subsided and they were returning, on the way they reached
the same spot where seven days previously Mahavir had closed his eyes to
know the inner being of the plant. They saw that the plant was again
standing with its roots in the ground. Due to the heavy rains and winds, the
earth had become wet and loose, and the roots of the plant had dug in.
Mahavir again closed his eyes and stood beside the plant. Goshalak became
very embarrassed - he had uprooted and thrown away the plant. When Mahavir
opened his eyes, Goshalak said: "I am surprised and confused. I uprooted
this plant and threw it away, and it is growing again."
Mahavir replied: "It will survive to flower. I closed my eyes to see the
inner potentiality and the condition of the seed: whether it was capable of
taking root again even though it was uprooted, whether it was suicidal or
not, whether it had a strong instinct or desire for death. If its instinct
was suicidal it would have used your help to die. I wanted to see whether it
was yearning to live; if it was determined to live, it would live. I knew
that you were going to uproot it and throw it away."
Goshalak asked: "What are you saying?"
Mahavir said: "When I was looking into the inner being of the plant with my
eyes closed, I also saw you standing by, determined to uproot it. I knew
that you would uproot the plant. That is why it was necessary for me to know
the inner capacity of the plant to live, how much self-confidence and
willpower it had. If it was waiting to die and looking for an excuse, you
would have been excuse enough for it to die; otherwise, the uprooted plant
would take root again."
Goshalak lacked the courage to uproot the plant again. He was afraid.
Previously Goshalak had gone laughing to the village; this time, Mahavir
walked ahead smiling.
Goshalak then asked: "Why are you smiling?"
Mahavir said: "I was watching and just thinking about your capability -
whether you could uproot the plant a second time or not."
Goshalak said: "You could see whether I would do it or not?"
Mahavir replied: "It was nonessential. You might have uprooted it, you might
not have uprooted it. But it was essential and unavoidable that the plant
still wanted to live. Its whole being, its whole vitality wanted to live.
That was essential. What was nonessential was your throwing it away or not,
and that was dependent on you. But you have proven weaker and less
determined than the plant. You have been defeated."
One of the reasons why Goshalak was displeased with Mahavir was this
incident with the plant.
The astrology I am talking about concerns the essential, the fundamental.
At best your curiosity goes as far as the semi-essential. You want to know
how long you will live, or whether or not you will die suddenly, but you are
not curious to know what you will do if you live - how you will live. You
want to know how you will die when the time comes, or what you will be doing
at that time. Your curiosity extends to events, not to the soul. That I am
living is just an event, but what I am doing while living, or what I am, is
my soul. When I die it will be an event but at the moment of death, how I
will be, what I will do, is my soul. We shall all die; the event of death is
common to all but the manner of dying, the moment of death, will be
different for everyone. Someone may even die smiling.
At the time of his death, someone asked Mulla Nasruddin: "What do you think,
Mulla? - When people are born, from where do they come?"
Mulla replied: "I've seen every child weeping at the time of birth, and at
the time of death also everyone seems to be weeping. So I surmise that
people are neither coming from nor going to a good place. As they come they
are weeping, and as they go they are also weeping!"
But people like Nasruddin die laughing. Death is an event, but that which is
laughing at the time of death is the soul. So when you go to an astrologer,
ask him how you will die, weeping or laughing? This is worth asking - but it
is connected to essential astrology. No one on this Earth has asked an
astrologer whether he will die weeping or smiling. You are asking when you
will die - as if dying is of value in itself. You are asking how long you
will live - as if just living is sufficient.
Why will I live? For what shall I live? What shall I do while living? What
shall I become if I live? Such questions are not asked by anyone. That is
why the structure of astrology has collapsed. Anything which is constructed
on nonessential foundations will certainly collapse. The astrology I am
talking about, and what you understand to be astrology, are different. Why
will I live. The astrology about which I am talking is qualitatively different and
of much more depth.
Its dimensions are different. What I am saying is that something which is
essential between your life and that of the universe is connected, is in a
rhythmic harmony. The whole world is participating in it - you are not alone.
When Buddha became enlightened he placed his hands together in salutation,
and bowed his head until it touched the ground. The story goes on to say
that the gods came from heaven to pay their respects to Buddha because he
had found the ultimate truth, but upon seeing him with his head touching the
ground, they were surprised. They asked Buddha to whom he was bowing. They
said that they had come from heaven to offer greetings to him because he was
enlightened, and that they did not know that there could be something to
which even Buddha had to offer salutations, as enlightenment is the ultimate
attainment.
Buddha then opened his eyes and said: "I am not alone in whatsoever has
happened to me; the world has also participated. So I bowed down to the
earth in thanksgiving to the whole world."
This is a matter connected with essential astrology. That is why Buddha told
his disciples that whenever they attained to inner bliss, they should
immediately give thanks to the whole world because they would not be alone
in that experience. If the sun had not risen or if the moon had not risen,
or if the chain of events had differed just slightly, the experience they
had would have been missed. It is true, it was they who had the experience,
but everything was instrumental in it - the whole of existence contributed
to it. The name of this interconnected cosmic relationship is astrology.
Buddha would never say: "I have become enlightened." He would only say: "The
world has experienced this through me - this event of enlightenment, this
supreme light is known to the world through me. I am only an excuse, a
pretext. I am only a crossing where all the roads of the world have met."
Have you ever thought that although a crossroads looks significant, it is in
itself nothing? If the four roads that meet are removed, the significance of
the crossroads will also disappear. We are each a crossroads where the
forces of the world touch and meet at a point. At that point an individual
is formed, a person is born.
The meaning and essence of astrology is that we are not separate, we are one
with the universe.
Not only are we one with the universe, we are also participants in every
situation and event.
So Buddha said that he was offering salutations to all the Buddhas who had
come before him, and to those who would come after him. Then someone said to
him that it was understandable that he should offer salutations to those
born before him, because knowingly or unknowingly Buddha might be in their
debt - their knowledge might have helped him - but why would he salute those
who were not yet born? What could he have gained from them?
Buddha replied that he had received help not only from those Buddhas who
were born before him, but also from those who would be born after him -
because where he stood at that moment, the past and the future were meeting
and becoming one. Those who had passed were meeting those who were coming,
right where he was. The sunrise and the sunset were meeting at that one
point. So Buddha was also offering salutations to those who were still to be
born; he was indebted to them too because if they were not being projected
into the future, Buddha also could not have happened.
This is a little difficult to understand. It is connected with essential
astrology. I would not exist if anything from my past is dropped or lost; I
am a link in a long chain. It is understandable that if my father had not
been born I could not have been born, because my father is an essential link
in the chain reaching up to me. Even if my grandfather had not been there I
could not have been born, because the link is essential. But it is difficult
to understand that if there were no link attached to me leading into the
future, that then too I could not have been born.
What do I have to do with that future link? - I have already been born. But
Buddha says that if whatsoever is going to happen in the future were not
already there, then too I could not have been born because I am a link
between the past and the future. If there were even a slight change in the
past or the future, I could not be the same as I am now.
Yesterday has made me and tomorrow has also made me: this is astrology.
Not only yesterday, but also tomorrow; not only what has already arrived,
but also what is coming; not only the sun that has risen today, but also the
sun that will rise tomorrow - all are participants.
The future moments also determine the present moment. This present moment
could not be if there were no future moments. The present moment can only
occur with the support of future moments. Our hands are resting on the
shoulders of the future; our feet are standing on the shoulders of our past.
It is very obvious that if that which is below me - on which I am standing
and which I can see - slips away, I will fall. But if the shoulders of the
future - on which my outstretched hands are resting - slip away, I will also
fall.
Once a person finds himself connected with this inner unity of the past and
the future he is able to understand astrology. Then astrology becomes
religion, then astrology becomes spirituality. Otherwise, by becoming
related to the nonessential, astrology becomes merely a subject for pseudo
fortune-tellers on the roadside, and then it is of no value. Even the
highest science is just dust in the hands of those who are ignorant. Its
value is determined by the use to which we are able to put the knowledge.
Hence I am trying to push you from many doors to one objective, so that you
may understand that everything is joined together, interconnected. This
universe is like a family, like one organic body. When I am breathing my
whole body is affected; likewise, when the sun breathes the Earth is
affected. The Earth is even affected by what remote suns do. Even the
smallest cell vibrates in unity with those giant suns. If you can understand
this, we will be able to enter into essential astrology, and then we will be
spared the uselessness of the nonessential.
We have associated the most trivial matters with astrology. These matters
have no value, and difficulties have arisen because we have connected them
with astrology. For example, we have connected astrology with questions
about a person being born into a poor family or a rich family. Until you can
understand that such things are nonessential, you will continue to connect
them with astrology.
Astrology can become a tool in your hands only if you distinguish the
essential from the nonessential.
I will tell you a very interesting story so that you may understand.
Mohammed had a disciple named Ali. This Ali once asked Mohammed's opinion
about whether a man is independent and free to do what he wants, or whether
he is bound by his destiny in everything he does. Ali asked: "Can one do as
one wants to or not?"
Man has been asking this question for a long, long time...
"If a man is not able to do as he desires," Ali said, "then it is useless
and foolish to preach to him not to steal, not to tell lies, not to be
dishonest. Or is it destiny that one man should always be there to preach to
others not to steal or not to do this or that? - while knowing full well
that it is also destiny for a dishonest man to remain dishonest, for a thief
to remain a thief, for a murderer to remain a murderer. All this appears to
be absurd. If everything is predestined, all education is useless, then all
prophets, all saints, all teachers are useless."
People have asked both Mahavir and Buddha such questions. If what is going
to happen is predestined, why should Mahavir or Buddha have taken so much
trouble to explain what is right and what is wrong? So Ali asked Mohammed
what he thought about this controversial matter. If Mahavir or Buddha had
been asked such a question, they would have given a very complicated and
deep reply, but Mohammed gave a reply which Ali could understand. Many of
Mohammed's replies were direct and straightforward.
Ordinarily, answers given by people who are uneducated or less educated, by
people who are simple villagers, are direct and frank. People like Kabir,
Nanak, Mohammed and Jesus were simple in that way. Answers by people like
Buddha, Mahavir and Krishna were complex - Buddha and Mahavir were the cream
of a rich and highly developed civilization. The words of Jesus were direct,
like a blow on the head. Kabir has actually sung: "Kabir is standing in the
open market with a hammer in his hand to hit you!"
If anyone came near him he would, so to speak, break open his head to remove
all the rubbish that was lying inside.
Mohammed did not give any metaphysical reply. He asked Ali to lift one leg
and stand on it. Ali had just asked a question about whether a man is free
to do what he wants - why should he stand on one leg? Mohammed said: "First
lift one leg."
Poor Ali lifted his left leg and stood there on one leg.
Mohammed then asked him: "Now lift the right leg also."
Ali was puzzled and asked how it was possible. Then Mohammed said: "If you
had wanted to you could have lifted the right leg first but now you cannot.
A man is always free to lift the first leg - it can be whichever he wants -
but no sooner has the first one been lifted than the other becomes bound to
the Earth."
With regard to the nonessential part of life, we are always free to lift the
first leg. But once that is done it becomes a bondage for the essential
part. We take steps that are non essential, become entangled, and then we
are not able to do the essential. So Mohammed said to Ali that he had all
the freedom to lift the right or the left leg first. But once he had
exercised that freedom and lifted his left leg, he was incapable of lifting
the other leg. So freedom is there within certain limits, but beyond those
limits there is no freedom.
This is an old conflict for the human mind.
If man is a slave to his destiny - as astrologers generally seem to assert -
if everything is predestined and inevitable, then all the religions are of
no use. If a man is free to do everything, as all so-called rationalists
say, and if nothing is predetermined or inevitable, then life will become
just a chaos and an anarchy; then it is also possible that a man may steal
and still attain to liberation, that he may murder people and still realize
the divine. When nothing is related, when one step is not related to the
other, then there are no laws and nothing is binding anywhere.
I remember a story about Mulla Nasruddin: Mulla was passing by a mosque when
suddenly, someone fell down from the minaret of the mosque where he had
climbed to say his prayers. The man fell right onto Mulla's shoulders, and
Mulla's spine was broken. So Mulla was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Some of his disciples came to see him, and because Mulla used to interpret
all events they asked him: "How do you interpret this event? What does it
mean?"
Mulla replied: "It is very clear that there is no relationship between an
act and its fruit. One person falls and someone else's spine breaks. And so
from now on never enter into any controversy about the doctrine of karma. It
has been proved that one person may fall and that the spine of another can
break. The person who fell was healthy and hearty: he fell on me and I got
in a mess. I had not climbed the minaret to say my prayers; I was just
returning home. I was not in any way concerned with the prayers, but still I
got involved. So from now on...no more talk about the doctrine of karma!
Anything can happen. There is no law - it is all anarchy."
Mulla was very unhappy, naturally, because his spine had been unnecessarily
broken.
There are two hypotheses. On the one hand there is the astrologer who is
sitting on the side of the road being asked about the nonessential...
Whether he is the astrologer of a poor man or of Morarji Desai, the finance
minister, it does not make any difference - all astrologers who deal with
the non- essential, with questions like whether or not one will win the
elections, are ordinary. How are the elections connected with the moon and
the stars? The ordinary astrologer who replies: "Everything is predetermined
and no changes, not even as much as one inch can be made" - is making a
false statement.
On the other hand there is the rationalist. He says that nothing is
inevitably connected: whatsoever happens is coincidental, circumstantial and
a matter of chance. There is no law, everything is anarchic. He is also
making a false statement.
There is a law: A rationalist is never found to be as full of joy and bliss
as a Buddha.
The rationalist denies God, the soul and religion with the help of logic,
but he can never attain to the joy of Mahavir. Certainly Mahavir must have
done something that earned him his joy, Buddha must have done something that
liberated him, and Krishna must also have done something which made it
possible for him to give out such distinctly unique and magical notes
through his flute.
The real thing is the third, which is the quintessence of everything, which
belongs to the innermost and which is absolutely predetermined. The more one
moves toward one's center, the nearer one comes to the essential,
predetermined part. As we move towards the periphery we move towards
coincidence. The more we talk about external happenings, the more there is
coincidence. When we talk about inner phenomena, things begin to appear
scientific, as if based on a definite law; they become more and more decisive.
Between these two conditions - the essential and the peripheral - there is
ample room to effect changes by exercising one's freedom of choice. Here,
someone with awareness will make the correct choice; whereas a person who is
in the darkness of ignorance will drift into his destiny, putting up with
whatever comes his way.
So there are three areas of life. In the area which is the essential core,
everything is predetermined. Knowing this is knowing the essence of
astrology. In the area which is peripheral everything is uncertain. To know
this is to know the everyday, unpredictable world. There is another area
which is in the middle. By knowing this, a person can save himself from
trying to do the impossible, and he can do what is possible. If a person
lives in the peripheral and middle areas in such a way that he begins to
move towards the center, he will become religious. But if he lives in such a
way that he is never able to move towards the center, his life will remain
irreligious.
For example: a person is preparing to steal. Stealing is not predetermined;
it cannot be claimed that stealing is inevitable or unavoidable - there is
complete freedom whether to steal or not. But once the theft has been
committed, it is as if one foot has been lifted and the other foot remains
on the earth: after doing it, you cannot undo the act. And the total effect
of the act of stealing will spread over the personality of the person who
did it. But as long as stealing does not happen, the other alternative is
present and available.
The mind swings between yes and no. If he says yes to stealing he will be
thrown towards the periphery; if he says no to stealing he will move towards
the center. Thus, in the middle, there is a choice. If he makes the wrong
choice he is thrown towards the periphery; if he makes the right choice he
moves towards the center, towards that part of astrology which is essential
in life.
I have told you certain things about essential astrology. I have told you
that we are the outstretched hands of the sun, that the Earth is born of the
sun and we are born of the Earth, that we are not separate, but all united.
We are branches and leaves that have spread out from the sun. Whatsoever
happens at the core of the sun will vibrate and spread throughout and within
one's being, through every cell and nerve. If we can understand this
properly, we will realize that we are one family on this planet. Then there
is no need to live encased within ego and pride.
The heaviest blow of astrology is upon the ego.
If astrology is right, the ego is wrong. Let us understand it this way: if
astrology is wrong, then nothing remains to be right but the ego. If
astrology is right then the world is right, and only I as an island am
wrong. I am only an infinitesimal and trifling part of the world - I am so
minute that I cannot even be included in the count. If astrology is right,
then I am not there. There is a huge flow of forces in which I am only a
small ripple.
Sometimes as we ride a big wave, we are under the illusion that we too are
something special, and we forget about the big wave. This big wave is also
riding upon the ocean of which we are completely unaware. If the ocean
disappears below it, the wave will disappear and we will also disappear.
Without any reason we become unhappy about the possibility of our
disappearance, only because we have contrived to be happy through our belief
in our own separate existence. If we had realized that there is only a big
wave and the vast ocean, and that we are not - that it is the wish of the
ocean that we arise on it, that it is the wish of the ocean that we die...
If an attitude arises in which we realize that we are only a fraction of the
great design of existence, then there will be no unhappiness.
And with such an attitude, the so-called happiness which we want to enjoy
will also not be there.
The feeling of happiness over such thoughts as: "I have won or I have
attained" will no longer be there. Nor will there be a feeling of
unhappiness over such thoughts as: "I am dying, I am finished, I have
drowned, I have been destroyed or defeated."
And when neither happiness nor unhappiness remains, we enter into the world
of reality - the essential - where there is bliss. Astrology then becomes
the door to bliss.
If we look at astrology as a melting of our pride or as a disintegration of
the ego, then astrology becomes religion. But we go to the ordinary
astrologer, and in order to protect our egos we ask: "Will I run into a
loss? Will I win the lottery? Will I succeed in the new business I am
undertaking?"
These questions are asked in order to save our egos, but the fact is that
astrology is entirely in opposition to the ego. The significance of
astrology is this: you are not, but the universe is; you are not, but the
cosmos is. Very powerful forces are operating, and you are absolutely
insignificant.
You can only see astrology in this light, if you think and feel that you are
an integral part of this big world. That is why I have told you how the
whole solar family is connected with the sun. If you can realize this, you
will also realize that our sun is connected with many larger suns in the
universe.
Scientists say that there are four billion suns, and all are born from some
bigger sun. We have no knowledge of where that supreme sun may be. We do not
know how this Earth is rotating round its axis and also revolving around the
sun, nor do we know where that center is around which our sun with its
family is revolving. A great universal merry-go-round is in swing.
In Hindu temples there is an aisle called parikrama encircling the image of
the deity. This aisle is symbolic of the fact that everything is rotating by
itself and also revolving around something else. Then these two together
revolve around a third thing, and these three in turn revolve around a
fourth thing, and so on, ad infinitum.
The ultimate center of infinity is referred to by those who know as brahman,
the absolute reality. This ultimate center is neither rotating nor revolving
around anything else. Whatsoever is rotating itself will definitely revolve
around something else, but that which neither rotates nor revolves is the
ultimate. It is also known as the supreme silence or void. This is the axis,
the pivot around which the whole universe expands and contracts.
Hindus thought that just as a bud becomes a flower and the flower withers,
similarly the universe also expands and then disintegrates; that just as
there is day and night, the universe also has its day and night.
As I told you earlier, there are cycles of eleven years and cycles of ninety
years. Similarly, Hindus thought that there are cycles of billions and
trillions of years. During such a cycle a universe is born, passes through
youth and grows old; earths are born, moons and stars spread across the
universe, populations grow, and millions of living creatures are born.
This is not only happening on the Earth; now scientists say that there must
be a minimum of fifty thousand planets on which there is life. There may be
more, but this is the minimum. In such an infinite universe it is impossible
that only one earth should have life. There are fifty thousand planets or
earths on which there is life - it is an infinite expanse. And then,
everything contracts again.
This earth was not here from the beginning, nor will it last until the end.
Just as I was born and I will cease to exist, this earth and the sun will
also cease to exist; a time will come when these moons, stars and planets
will also cease to exist. The circle of their being and not being continues.
We are just infinitesimal, rotating and revolving somewhere on this cosmic
wheel. And if we still think that we are separate, then we are like Mulla
Nasruddin who was traveling in an airplane for the first time....
Mulla Nasruddin entered the airplane, and as it took off he started walking
along the aisle in the plane. He wanted to reach his destination very fast
and was in a great hurry: naturally, if you want to reach somewhere quickly
you will get there quicker if you walk faster!
His co-passengers stopped him and asked him what he was doing.
Mulla Nasruddin replied that he was in a hurry.
He was traveling in a plane for the first time and he was using the same
logic which worked on the ground. There, he always arrived more quickly when
he walked faster. He did not realize that walking in the plane was useless -
the airplane itself was flying, and he would only exhaust himself by
walking. He would not arrive any earlier, and it is possible, that by the
time he arrived he would be so exhausted that he would not be able to stand
up. He should rest, he should close his eyes and rest. But neither Mulla nor
any other pundits would agree to such advice.
I call someone religious who is at rest within this cosmic circular movement
of the universe. Someone who knows that the universal forces are at work and
that there is no hurry, that his hurry is of no use, is religious. If we can
simply be one with the universal harmony, that is enough - and it is blissful.
I have told you some things about astrology, if you understand these things,
then astrology can become a door to spiritual attainment.
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