Astrology-"the study of the movements and positions of the sun, moon, planets and stars, and the skill of describing the expected effect that these are believed to have on the character and behavior of humans". This is all Cambridge dictionary told me about it.
Being from a biotech background and working as an Analyst in the corporate world, how-much-ever unconnected the two fields may sound, I have no clue how some celestial bodies floating somewhere in the universe can decide how my mom takes the news of me having a boyfriend or my boss deciding my annual rating or for that matter Shahrukh Khan’s "Om shanti Om" being a hit. I was wondering about this sitting in a room in which patches of the walls tried to take a peek at me from behind the innumerable posters and banners that spoke high of astrology, depicted planets as deities and had tables representing the positions of planets which made me recall my practical notebooks of eleventh grade. I was there for a reason. It is not as strong as the previous sentence may sound. It is because my uncle took me there. :) We were treated as VIPs as my uncle is a long time friend of that astrologer who makes money predicting others lives. This gave me the chance to observe a lot of things based on his interaction with his other customers.
Customer No. 1:
A mid-aged man with a hangdog look complains about his daughter- "I sent her to college thinking she will become an engineer, but she has forced me to leave all my dreams about her and plead the parents of that guy who does not even come close to the imagination I had about the groom I would get for her. The problem is she is elder to him and my daughter has "Mangala Dosha". I don’t know how I could even go and ask them about it". Our "solution-for-all" guru says with a wry smile and know-it-all attitude-"Well, that does not look like a problem to me. Date of birth can always be changed and kundali modified to get rid of problems. In fact, why don’t u get the horoscope of the guy. I can tailor your daughter’s horoscope to that."
Wow, that’s cool. Marriage is reduced do a garment business. If we can change everything in the horoscope, why do we need to match them? These questions of mine may never get answered.
Customer No. 2:
An old man with lines on his forehead that speak about his unmarried daughter gets in with some pieces of paper out of which all or one may end up in the dustbin in the corner of the room after the astro researcher speaks up. "Sir, I have these options in front of me. Can you tell me which of these is the best match?" Not spending more than 5 seconds on each, he says. "Well, I don’t recommend any of them". That man with the same look on his face after paying 20 Rs.
Is this great astrologer so proficient to make that out in 5 seconds? Probably at his age the visual power itself will bring a delay of 10 seconds. Or may be he can make that out and it is just my limitation to suspect it. But how was he sure that those horoscopes were not tailored artificially for someone else? ;)
Customer No. 3:
This time it is a woman who brings the horoscope of her very successful son who has everything but is not getting married and is 35 years old already. She asks –"My son is 35 and is not married yet. "
What is the whole point? You should be handing over the horoscope and be asking that guy to predict the scenario with marriage and not be letting the whole thing out.
Our astro king brushes it off with a bombastic statement –" How is it possible madam? I see that Shani has become asthadipati and is higher to Budha who has been looking at mangala from 4th house."
Does that make even one iota of sense to a layperson? What is he intending to do here?
" He will have to visit a temple which is beyond the hills and the mountains and do a pooja there. I understand that he will be busy with it. Let me suggest something for your good. It can be done by someone like us. All you will have to do is pay us some 5000 bucks. That’s all. That is nothing compared to your son’s future"
Great. I got my answer.
I thought horoscopes describe the way things take their course. So can that be changed by doing what he said. Will Budha stop looking at Mangala? How will that happen unless you change it and reprint it?
Customer No. 4
A guy of my age is here finally. He wants to know about why he is not successful in his career and is burdened by debt.
Burdened by debt at this age itself?
This lead to the same kind of fuzzy description and the conclusion was to make the guy wear a ruby stone ring on his middle finger. "How much would that cost?" he asks wishing as much as he could that it would not be high. "15000. That is fine. It makes you conquer the sun" comes the answer and I see a total eclipse on the guy’s face.
A guy is burdened by debt and you make him drown a little more by making him spend like this. Is this astro king sure that it helps? Will he pay the debt if it does not help? Ah look at his hand. I could see all the precious stones on the earth dancing on his fingers. Does this guy have no problems in his life now that he has conquered all the planets and stars?
The guy is hesitant to go ahead with it when asked if they could call the jeweler there itself. Of course, commissions are an unsaid part of it. After a lot of –"Go ahead" and "Hmm, I need to think", the astro says with the same know-it-all tone –" Your horoscope tells me you are stubborn and you wont listen"
Then why the hell were they trying to suggest or advise?
The guy leaves the room with nothing changing in his life other than the fact that now his pocket was lighter after those ten 10 Rupee notes left his pocket.
After all this I am left alone for a whole day of pondering on many things I see in life. I do believe that there is a power which is the reason for how different lives take their turns, intersect, diverge and converge. But my reservations are about the claims of understanding that power in totality and making a business out of the claim. If someone could conquer the forces that affect our lives, why are they still working for the 100 bucks that the guy gave? If they knew what to do to earn well, why have they not taken over Azim Premji or Narayan Murthy? Given that I have spent only 24 years on this earth, I don’t know what is the absolute truth and may not come to know even after spending 80 years. But that does not stop me from penning down my views and things that make me put my thinking cap on.
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5 comments:
Astrology is a beautiful thing, and it is beyond doubt that it is now nothing more than business. As laymen, it is hard to differentiate truth and money-driven claims and predictions from a quack or a real astrologer.
Also, sadly, in this world one needs money to function. So judging the true 'astrologer' has become harder, for are we right in saying that the powers of astrology would have made him rich? Or, is that what he really wants in life? to make more money?
Making astrology into business may have been a necessity but it has also been a loophole for corruption to creep in. And I am of the opinion that astrology cannot 'solve' one's problems, but makes one aware of them. It does not necessarily avert them, but gives you solutions as to how to deal with them or I feel, in my limited knowledge of astrology, a way to lessen the suffering caused by them.
astro is like a particular doc. if sth works for u then u start believing it.
It all depends on who u met and how he convinced u to stuff
cz there are things u never did yesterday but did them today cuz the factor that made u do today is more cogent.
so it all depends on who u meet and when .
Well i dont know if that is decided by astrology ;)
Astrology is pretty interesting thing. People who learn are not all commercializing it, my grandpa practices just for his hobby and he is self taught through books. He only found that a lot of things that he learnt and predicted were true.
One can not solve problems, as vastav says, its like if you were to travel on a new road, it would help to know what kind of traffic it had.
Its hardly like a doctrine, why it is dominated by quacks is just that a astrologer does not exactly excite people. People use his services etc. but the profession is not exactly glamorous and is hugely misunderstood.
Misunderstood because, 1) practitioners make over reaching claims. All claims can be backed with reason, this an astrologer can put another to test with.
2) people think everything can be predicted. like in lage raho munnabhai, people will ask you what happens the next instant and how they hell can you say that.
There is another thing very interesting about astrology, it is a prospective unifying factor for the world. Most of the independently originated astrology all over world have many similarities. The number of signs, the names(translated), the symbols of the signs are inter translable, the planets of each house, the significance of each house, it ceases to amaze me that this is all so common in most of the world.
@Assman
It is pretty interesting to predict future. No doubt about that. What made me write this whole thing is the overconfidence of the practitioners I have met in my experience. May be I am yet to meet a true astrologer. But the kind of solutions given, I still have my reservations about them (giving away black clothes, wearing fancy rings and shelling out money for different rituals). The question is - Is something pre-decided at all? If something can be predicted , it should be. If it is how can u change it by these suggestions? So that becomes a chicken and egg problem.
@Venky Lot of things can be told right based on body language and general behaviour. Some people like it when astrologer speaks good of them and make them dream that future is good. Coincidence can make things work. Out of 10 claims if one work, we start focusing on the one and start believing it which should not be the case. Of course I mentioned that I believe there is a power which controls the sequence of activities in everyone's life, but it cant be understood totally.
@Vatsav I agree that astrology cannot solve problems but only tell you there is a probability( high or low depending on the astrologer) of something happening.
@assman
May be it is like music. Which has seven basic swaras where ever you go. Astrology can also be statistical correlations with some imaginary quantities like planets not the ones revolving around the sun. The outcome they give through calculations can be a statistical probability. If some astrologer has made his decision in a matter of seconds then may be he has a better correlation methods , in a crude non-mathematical form which he observed during his experience.
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