May the force be with you

Now before you question my years of grooming and education in scientifically proven ideas .. you should realise that my post just puts forward a view on astrology - something a surprisingly large section of the society even the educated elite believe in ..

I never was much of a believer all my life .. prayers meant nothing more than a daily routine, an important part of the culture .. that you inculcate from parents and family members .. While you were made to believe that success or failure solely depend on efforts .. bad luck was always the lame excuse of a loser .. Needless to say .. Astrology was as absurd as anything could be .. For me a more acceptable belief at this stage of life was Karma .. a fear of retribution .. justified in very nature of human beings .. hence believable

Well that was then ... as you grown older .. you start understanding life in a much wider perspective .. some things happen / don't happen for no apparent reason .. the quest for the non existent reason and the self denials eventually succumb to the fear of unknown force ... A force that wedges in through every aspect of your life .. and we call it destiny

and then you read .. The Alchemist .. The Secret .. For somebody like me who has read very little all his life, Non fiction and piles of self help books start making sense .. gradually .. astrology .. faith .. religion everything seems connected ..

Now understanding astrology is very simple ... it draws from the understanding that existence is a function of space and time .. each one of us in the world are manifestations of cosmic energy .. which is influenced by the positions of various stars and planets in the time-space coordinates of the universe .. Several key events play an important role .. birth for one is a key event .. based on your location on earth and the time and date of birth .. your coordinate in the three dimensional solar system is fixed .. the life force injected into you at that time is a combined impact of the various forces from all the stars, clusters, planets at the time in space .. that explains the birth star, raashi(constellation) and the kundali (planetary alignment) .. with positions of different planets in the different positions .. now the ambiguity arises in the interpretation of these influences on our existence .. one way is to verify would be through pure statistical analysis .. if you could establish correlation between these parameters to certain characteristics of individuals then .. these predictions are plausible ..

Next major unknown force .. the power of faith .. I believe in the unknown (u call it god) and not in religion .. religion is merely a channel used by preachers to inculcate faith in people .. While religion was born out of circumstances (social,political) .. faith has been universal .. whether it is prayer or heartfelt best wishes ... or even ill luck brought upon by bad omens .. it all leads to the thought espoused by Paolo Coelho and Rhonda Bryne .. that when something is very strongly desired .. good or bad .. the whole world conspires to make it happen .. You might say .. an individual would naturally focus all his efforts towards the singular goal .. But in reality most often, experiences in life make us believe that there is a strange unknown force backing you in ur pursuit ..

Now .. when everything in life goes horribly wrong despite all efforts .. you wonder, worry then you visit the friendly neighbourhood astrologer .. and he identifies it as the ill effects of unsuitable planetary alignment .. the unknown force is working against you .. so what does he recommend ?.. some pooja .. some meditation .. some donations (Charity) .. there is some justification to these as well ...Pooja /meditation are meant to help you gain the power of faith and the confidence so necessary to enable you to overcome the ill effects of planetary alignment .. the charity to some extent is used to offset the effects of bad karma .. sounds fairly logical doesn't it :)

Now why match horoscope for marriages .. while marriages are expected to lead to creation of new life .. the future of the new born is as much a function of its coordinates in 3 - D space - time universe as it is of the parents DNA embedded in the life form .. that would mean DNA is essentially the fingerprint of some of the forces that embedded during the origination of life ..

Well beyond this .. how will job prospects, health prospects are determined by astrology is beyond my understanding ..

I completely feel each one of the explanations is trash .. absolute trash .. but i cant agree or disagree either .. as there is always the unexplained .. until then .. every hypothesis is a plausible interpretation .. astrology is just one of them .. To make it easy, just let go and believe in the power of prayer .. doesn't take much effort .. if it really works then so be it :)

Amen!