In the journey called life!

'There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.'  ~ Albert Einstein ~ 1

I finally found something which  truly inspired me to write a blog. Its interesting for sure and in my opinion something fascinating. But I realised I put my feet into an ocean.  An ocean of knowledge which is endless in the true sense. Let me explain what I am talking about

It was in late march 2013 when something strange happened to me during my annual visit to Chennai. I met a person who made a prediction for me. Its not something unusual. India has always had a long history of mysticism and astrology. It’s a part and parcel of the  life of Indians who firmly believe in these things. That has annoyed me in the past. Why do they blindly believe in something they really don’t have much knowledge about? I have also heard about a number of fraud astrologers out there who have scared people by telling them they have this or that dosha (affliction). They prescribe remedial measures which I found absolutely absurd and baseless. This is not just my opinion. There are many many young Indians out there who would agree with me. The thought would be ' This is bullshit. What a scam!'.

That One day….

But still that one day, that one experience  I had in march 2013 penetrated deep into my head. Till date I cannot explain why. It just happened. I was intrigued by this prediction. How does this guy have this superpower to look at a birthchart and tell things about a person he is meeting for the first time in his life?! What is this birthchart all about? Why do people carry their charts to the astrologer with doubts about their life?.... One thing led to another and in the DNAge of free accessible information*, all you need is interest and some time. I generated my birthchart on an online website**. I then stared at it for the first time. What are these boxes? What do the numbers inside them represent? What are these planets doing  in the boxes ?!

When I think back now..i realise I had been so ignorant about so many things all these years. When I got into it...my curiosity turned into interest which turned into investigation which turned into fascination! The transformation was smooth, of course it involved a lot of hard work and needed some time out of my busy schedule. I was writing my PhD thesis and I had to also prepare for the PhD defence during this time. Funnily enough, the subject was so exciting that even after a tough day of writing and learning, followed by my fitness regime, I could come back home and read about it till sleep overtook my interest. 

Burning the midnight oil..

I started with the birthchart..It is the snapshot of the sky the moment you were born and where you were  born. Ahan,  how can that tell about your life? I had never  thought about this before. But as I realised it tells a lot about your personality and your journey you were born to take.  Being a scientist, this was so hard for me to believe. I needed more proof. I needed to test the theories. I started with the twelve zodiac signs and their ruling planets. I figured out what these boxes in the chart were all about. Ohh, 12 boxes(houses)  for the 12 signs, now I get it! I checked out how to read this chart. How the numbering of the houses work and what  these 12 houses all about. Apparently these are different facets of your life. I see..Interesting!.. I found Youtube videos on what different planets in different houses mean. When I checked the planetary positions of my chart and their meanings in the houses..I saw a lot of myself in the description. It took me by surprise. How is this possible?  Here I must warn you that once you try something like this, not only does your curiosity increase, it becomes hard for you to retreat! The reason being that you are sure to be awed by the advanced science of astrology which was practiced in Ancient India.

I kept learning more and more. This whole regime of learning totally different subjects during the day and night actually increased my concentration power by manifolds ( for both the subjects). I used to feel like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, changing my avatar. I learnt about planetary time periods being the most crucial thing in the entire astrological interpretation of the chart. When I learnt the principles, I started learning more things about myself. Why I did, what I did and most impotantly when I did it! I could actually pin-point the time period when this sudden interest in astrology started for me. Did I have the inclination towards astrology indicated in my chart? Yes. Why did this interest not rear its head all these years? Simple answer was, the time period did not support developing this interest. When the time came, the interest came. The promise indicated in the chart fructified.  My fascination increased even further. I was not satisfied by just looking at my own chart. I started asking birth details of my close friends who I knew very well. I wanted to test this also on their charts. Since knowing about oneself is fun for any person, I got great cooperation from them. I started checking their planetary positions and asked them whether some things which it was supposed to indicate was true or false.

The epic journey to the capital

PhD got over. I got my degree in front of my proud parents. But the fascination for the  astrological science did not stop after that..six months down the lane. One thing led to another and before I knew I was taking a flight to New Delhi to attend a course on Jaimini technique in astrology.  Where did I hear about it? From an interview on a Youtube channel. I headed to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, especially to meet one man, the one I heard and read so much about. Watching his interview, listening to his ideology, his school of thought  of having a rational scientific research approach to promote  astrology as science awed me. I had to meet him and that time was now!!.......Click this link for the continuation... ( http://i-believe-in-simplicity.blogspot.in/2013/11/in-journey-called-life-part-ii.html)

1Pasted from <http://gladstone7.tripod.com/pageone.html>

* among many other websites, there are rather informative Youtube channels on astrology which are available these days.

** Warning- Please be beware that the information available on different astrology websites are not always true. Lot of things vary from one software to another.