Propuestas de mejora

Visible Results Motivations Invisible Results*

(a) Instantaneous (a) Pure and auspicious (a) Worldly (b) Delayed (b) Impure and inauspicious (b) Spiritual

* It is the area of failures of astrologers. Perhaps invisible planets will give some clue. It is why when some people develop some pathological dependence on astrologers are miserable beings.

Note: It is only in the kriyaman area that man enjoys freedom to act according to his wish though the motivations of past life and prarabdha do often create a conflict.

The best advice given by all great yogis to all is to suffer willingly prarabdha and do good deeds and charities in the kriyaman area.They know that human body suffers from six vikaras or defects:

there is birth, then a form, change, growth, decay and finally destructions. The prarabdha is what the. body has to suffer. He who has conquered his mind and has reached a high state of divine wisdom does not look upon all these six defects as any cause for grief at all.

In astrology, we talk of favourable periods, particularly the yogakaraka periods. I have noticed that men have suffered badly as soon as their yogakaraka dasha was over because in this period instead of doing holy deeds and charities they accumulated wealth, gained power and became arrogant. In many cases the results were instantaneous while in others delayed.

In the good period when nothing was succeeding like success, they took to only the gratification of their material achievements with gusto, forsaking many scruples. When the bad period came their

C/assificolion of Karma Karma & Rebirth in Hindu Astrology

suffering was too much for them.

What then is suffering? It is what you think it is.

The yogi too suffers from prarabdha^'s strokes but he remains cheerful because he accepts prarabdha.

The Difference Between Bondage and Salvation

The cycle of births and rebirths comes to an end only when the astral body finally gets dissolved in some birth and salvation is attained.

Salvation is not the dissolution of the physical body but of the astral body. We refer to three bodies:

(a) The physical body (b) The astral body and

(c) The causal body We are concerned here with the astral body which when dissolved

leads to that blissful state of living death which is what akarma finally becomes.

Astral Body or Lingo or Sookshmo Dena

Every transmigration is the migration of the astral body from one physical body into another, carrying with it the history of its good and bad deeds.

It is the astral body that stands between bondage and liberation.

The scriptural literature of India is full of instances of the dissolution of the astral body leading to salvation. In the west, particularly in the USA which is the most open minded western society, there are great instances like that of Edgar Cayce, who inspite of being an orthodox Christian traced the origin of every ailment to some karmic cause of the past life which he could see in his trances. There are said to be ninety thousand such recorded cases in the institute named after

this great American.

The favourite instance of mine is that of Arjuna the great hero

of the Mahabharata and companion of Lord Krishna. When Maya enveloped him and he did not want to fight the baffle at Kurukhestra, Lord Krishna gave what is the greatest piece of divine wisdom, the Gita. To convince Arjuna, he even let him see his Vishwaroopa^' or the great Cosmic Form. Yet, it appears that Arjuna could not overcome his respect and attachment to Bhishma, Dronacharya and others who

had been his Gurus, counsellors and had in his life the place of most venerated grand parents of their family.

On one of the eighteen days of the great baffle, Arjuna was fighting battle else where when his dear son, Abhimanyu was trapped by the army of Duryodhana and killed. If the persons whom he had respected could do this to his son, Arjuna had now no reason not to fight with all his might, skill and valour. It was not the preaching of the Gita as much as the death of his dear son that could have been now the greatest motivation for Arjuna to fight the baffle ferociously.

The picture of Arjuna now was not of a spiritually wise man but of an aggrieved father who had to take revenge for the death of his son.

The baffle over, with his elder brother, Yuddhistara having become the king, one day Arjuna told Lord Krishna that he had forgotten the great lessons of the Gita preached to him on the battlefield of Kurukhestra and wanted to hear it again 4rom him.

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Yat Tad Bhagvata Proktam Pura Keshava Souhna^daat Tat tatsarvam purusha-vyaghra nasta me bhrasta chetasa If that can be the condition of Arjuna whose moral uprightenousness and spirituality besides the great luck of being the companion of Lord Krishna, what should be the reactions of us the puny mortals?

Krishna chided Arjuna and gave the essence of the teachings of the Bhagvata Gita in a different form. The lessons were repeated through the preachings of a Brahmin which were quoted.

Did Arjuna remember these? Let us see the future development of Arluna spiritually.

Arjuna was present when Lord Krishna left his mortal frame in what is known as Prabhas Patan, near Somnath in Gujarat. It was an inconsolable state for him now. His dearest friend had left him. He was now not the warrior Arjuna but the meditator who thought only of Lord Krishna all the time. He now reached a high state of Krishna consciousness. The memories of his past association with Lord Krishna haunted him always now. The deep agony was the much greater incentive for him now than the actual companionship of Lord

C/assifi'cotion o f Karma

Krishna earlier. It transformed him.

Srimad Bhagvatam is:

Karma & Rebirth in Hindu Astrology The description given in the

V M c i + i 4 O t

f:

Geetam Bhagvatam Gyanam fatyatsangram murghani