Ravindran Kesavan

Dear Avinash, Perfect. But to say the universe is bhraman's body one must be careful of not commiting the mistake of dualism. there is no Bhraman and the universe asa two different entities. Because bhraman is ONE And it is fundamentaly a spirit - a form of consciousness. Hence the only sense that we make of the fact that everything is bhraman is to assume everything is consciousness. Matter exists in consciousness as a form of consciousness -like a dream. Dreem exists in mind and is of mind - nothing material or real but of pure mentel construction. Universe is a form of consciousness and arises in consciousness like a dream - that is why it is called maya. (Illusion) or Mitya( appearance).This is the only interpretation possible if we were to avoid dualism. Hence body and spirit, as two things, do not apply to bhraman - it is just one. So instead of assuming that it is a spirit with universe as its body, one needs to assume that it is just a bodyless spirit from which everything is conjured up like a dream. K.Ravindran

Dear Avinash Spirit by definition is opposite of matter. When we say spirit it means it is not matter it is not a body. Hence by definition spirit can and must exist in a bodyless state. If it cannot and does not then it is not a spirit but some form of matter. Spirit exists in bodyless state when it is liberated. Aftter liberation it has no body. That is what liberation means at the first place. Spirit freeying from its trapping in a body or in some mater. - that is what is liberation is. Even after death, the spirit is not supposed to be free from body. It is not bodyless as it is still trapped in subtle body. Though the physical gross body does not exist the subtle body in which its past karmas are stored goes with it. It cannot get rid of this body. If it does rebirth will not occur, as there is no karma left. It truely becomes bodyless at liberation when it merges with the Bhraman - the infinite universal spirit. K.Ravindran

Dear Rajan, One more point . Laziness and accepting things are not the same. Lazyness is Tamasic. There is a tendancy of escaping from work and duty and what must be done. It is hardly spiritual Accepting ones life as it is with out rebelling and struggling is Spiritual - It is not thamasic but satvic. In this there is no avoidance of what must be done, one's assigned mission, no avoidance of hard work if it has to be done. Recall the Hanuman's story - Hanuman accepted when sade sati sani visited him- no escaping , no running away, no rebelling. But does this imply Hanuman is lazy? the opposite is true. Hanuman worked very hard. But he accepted this gladly with out cribing and complaining. That is spiritual. Acceptance of things as they are is a spiritual quality. It is not lazyness as you interpreted. Lazyness is avoidance (of hard work) not acceptance. Regards, K.Ravindran

Dear Badday, I am assuming that you know that before activating second chakra or anty other chakra first must be activated. Chakras can only be activated in the sequence. If your root chakra is not activated no other chakra can be activated as the energy to activate any chakra comes from the mula the root - and that is why it is called the root. Once you activate the root the reat of the chakras are relatevely easy. You need to only direct the kundalini energy to the respective centres and stablise there the kundalini power will automatically activate those centres. The techniques of directing to and stabilising in of the kundalini in various chakras are all essentially same - Dharana. You need to mentally think of required centre and fix your attention unwavering on that center for long enough time. You can use the centre's pictorial discription for this Dharana exercise. Visualisu the petals of the centres in the appropriate colour and the appropriate letter inscribed on them and the like. When you mentally conscentrate in any centres - or even any part of the body - with single focused attention for long, the energy surges to that place. This is the basic technique. This technique is enough to activate different centres. However for different yogic centre different hatayoga Krias are available. - you can learn them from Hata yoga texts, if you are interested in them. ( they are physical exercises in nature along with pranayama - in any case they are not self sufficient with out the mental technique. However they could facilitate the process along with the mental technique.) K.Ravindran

Dear Rajan, I reiterate that the basic premise of astrology is Determinism. That is, there is no free will. Determinism and free will are opposing categories and holding them together simultaniously leads to a logical contradiction -like simultaniously declaring that it is raining and it is not raining as true. Or , it is like declaring that the result of a coin tossing is both a head as well as a tail. Two opposing positions can never be held or belived together. If one is true the other has to be false and vice versa. Other wise we would be contradicting ourself. Your position that people would become lazy , seemes to be based on your deep rooted notion of freewill - that people are free to decide not to work or not to do anything. You can have that notion, no problem, but then you cannot be , simultaniously be engaged in astrology, as astrology is based on the thorough going determinism. That is, If you are a coherent regorous astrologer, you will have to maintain that Mr.X afrer consulting astrology become lazy not because after consulting his future prospects he decided to become lazy, but because in any way X is destinied to becomne lazy at that perticular period, and that could be predicted from his charts that he would become lazy. You see what I mean, He didnot consciously decided to become lazy after consultion the astrologer, HE HAS NO OTHER OPTION BUT TO BE LAZY at that phase of his life - that is how his destiny is made for him - and if you are a good astrologer you could predict this too. That is, people dont become lazy just like that, they become lazy only when they are programmed to be lazzy. As astrology is based on determinism you will have to maintain this interpretation if you are a true astrologer. To be consistant and coherant with astrology, you must maintain what I maintain - The purpose of astrology is to give wisedom- to tell you in advance what is inevitable , what is your mission for you - as you are a determinstically programed robort or puppet. Everything that happens happens in accordance with this program. This is being consistant with the science of astrology. If you think that people have free will that they can choose to become lazy or active (or challenge the predictions in any way), then you are not in consistant with the science of astrology. You cannot be mixing, then, astrology with these kind of free will notions. You can then only be cohrently and regorously stand for free will and reject astrology totally. In that case you dont go to an astrologer and then decide what to do - to be active entuiastic creative etc. If you believe you could do any of these things - if you are a believer free will and of human efforts - then you straight away do them - be active, entusiastic and creative. Why at the first place you need an astrological reading? What purpose it serves you ? Do you see what I mean, Your conception of the purpose of of astrology is in contradiction with the true foundation principles of astrology. K.Ravindran

Dear Deepa, To continue, on the quiries you have, on the role of god, spirituality, and karma, let me change gears and start the invistigation from a different angle. This little longish posting is the climax and can answer all the questions you have so far asked and unasked. Besides it could complety transform your self spiritually - if you get it. It is a spiritual Instruction. Let me start it with a spiritual question. "Who Am I? " Have you ever asked Who you are? Did you ever investigate the question seriously "Who Am I?" Ask different people "who are you?" and you will get different different answers. For example you might say You are Deepa. But if I bring to your notice that this answer - your name - is quite arbitary and unrevealing - it could have been any other name as well and this answer does not indicate anything substancial about you, then you might answer " I am a body of flesh blood, bone and nerve ", I am a women", "I am a hindu", "I am an Indian", "I am an astrologer" etc. etc. People answer differently. But what is common in all the answers to this question is a procedure of drawing a boundary of what you are and what you are not. To answer this quistion you must draw a boundry- You must define yourself. And in that defining you draw a boundry indicating what is inside and what is outside- who you are and who you are not. For example when you define yourself as a women you exclude all Men from it. You are saying "I am a women and I am not a man". When you define tourself as a hindu, you are simultaniously defining who you are not - a muslim, Cristian, Jew etc. All such definitions are arbitary as you could have defined differently. If you ask a number of people, people do define them differently. Some definitations could be so narrow that it include only one's biological organism - as in the case when you define yourself as your body. Some definitions are broder then this. For instance when you define youeself as a women your identification is not just with your body but with all women. You could define yourself broder than this too - "I am a human" includes males inside the boundry, "Iam a living being" Includes animals and plants in side the boundry. and so on. Ken Wilber , in his book, 'No Boundries' ( Shambala publication) shows that all boundries are arbitary, there by, shows that the notion of your self -Who you are - is just an arbitary conception - you could draw your boundries anywhere you please. Actually there are no boundries. Let us investigate this thesis rigorously , using a definition that we are our bodies - a very commonly believed answer. Are you your body? Are you your flesh, blood, bone, hair and nail? Okey, conduct this exercise. Cut your nail and some strand of your hairs. Put the cliping of your nail and strand of hair on the table and watch them and ask the quistion : "Am I this nail and hair?" Are you that nail? that hair? Instantly you will know that you are not that nail or that hair- isint it? Now the rest of the experiment you could do with your mind alone - no need to actually do it. Peele of a patch of your skin, and put that on the table and ask the question Are you that skin? No. Draw out some blood and keep in a test tube or bottle. Are you that? No. Cut out a piece of your bone and place it on the table? and ask - "Am I this?" No. Are you your kidny?, liver? heart? Answer is NO, NO, NO. In fact you could transplant all parts of your body nowadays. You could change everything in your body by other's body parts or even synthetic body part. Yet you will not feel any different as to your sense of self. You will feel that you are same. The "I" sence in you will remain intact - you wont think you are that person whose body part you wear now - you remain intact the same you even after every thing in your body has changed. Conclusion; you are not your body. Then who are you or what are you? Are you your mind then? What you have done to your body - the imaginary experiment - you could do to your mind too. Take a specific thought or image or emotion and watch it and ask the question: Are you that thoght?, that image, that feeling? Thoughts come and go images apear and disappear, fealing arise and subside You are none of them . You are not a thought in the mind, you are not a feeling that you experience .You are not your happiness or your depression. Much of the confusion that 'mind is the self ' arises out of the language that we speake. We say " I am angryI am depressed I am happy". The word am is to be blamed for the confusion. This word am creats an illusion of identity between I and my anger, my depression and my happiness, giving the impression I am anger. I am depression I am happiness. If we replace the wrong usage am in our language and repharase rightly as below, the confusion disappears: I experience anger, I experience depression I experience happyness. Here we clearly perceive that "I" is distinct from what that "I" experiences . There is no mixing up with I with its object of experiences. I am not my mind. I experience my mind as an object . Here I shall introduce a Philosophical trerminology; The "knower" and the "known" - also as the "subject" and the "object" . For example when you are reading this posting in your computer, there is a 'you' and a 'computer'. Your computer is not you - it is an object for you - you are the subject. Strictly speaking when we say "I" we refer to the 'subject' the 'knower' and not to the object the known. "I" refers to the subject - the knower and not the object that it knows. Keeping this distinction in mind if we investigate the question "Who Am I " lot of confusion gets cleared. I am not my body as my body is an object that I exoerience - that I happen to 'know' - just like any other object of the world. Just like I am different from my computer and the table on which the computer is placed and the room in which it occupies, ( I am not the computer, the table or the room but the knower -the experiencer - of the computer table and room) I am different from my body and mind which are objects that I happened to be knowing. I know my body in the same way as I know my table. To know the table I need to see it through the eye, touch it with hand etc The table enters the consciuosness through the five sences - Indrias. My body too enters the consciousness in the same way. It has to go through the senses.Then why do we assume the body which is just like the table, is us and the table is not us? Both table and body are objects of awareness for the Knower,- for the real "I" You get it? You are not your body or your mind. You are the knower of your body and mind. You are not the object that you know of. You are the subject that knows the object. You are consciousness itself -Cit - Atman, the knower of all the objects. Your body mind complex is just one of the objects that the knower - the true you - knows. If you are not the body and not the mind then what are you? Now you can establish easily that all answers givin to the question "who am I" are wrong answers. Because as we have shown earlier to answer this question you need to create a definition and all definitions are created out picking and choosing something from the realm of the known. This is the only way to define. But anything that we define in terms of the 'known' is a wrong answer as "I" is not anything that exists in the realm of Known It is the very knower itself and not the known. Hence All answers are wrong. The Question "Who am I?" has no answer and cannot be answered. Let us demonstrate this with a couple of analogy. The first analogy is the anology of tha camera. A camera can take photograph of everything but it cannot take a picture of itself. That is, in the picture it has taken you cannot find the very camera itself. Even if this camera has taken the picture of everything in the entire universe, in that picture of the universe the camera will be missing. - A camera cannot take its own picture. the second analogy is that of our Physical organ Eye. The eye can see everything but the seeing eye cannot see itself. ( you can argue that you can see it in a mirror. But what you see in the mirror is not the seeing eye. It is a image with out any power to see. it is not the real eye which sees everything.). Just like the camera cannot tale a picture of itself, Just like the eye cannot see itself , the knower that knows everything cannot know itself . No aswer in terms of the objects of consciuusness is a real answer to the question who is the knower?- Who am I? Since The knower cannot know itself, any answer we give to this question is a wrong answer. Nothing from the universe or from the realm of objects of consciousness could be identified as "I" - though we make this mistake routinly . We define ourself as this or that from the realm of the known. We pick and choose some thing from the realm of objects and declare 'this is me' - this is what we do when we declare ourself as a body. All other answers that we create this way are equally wrong. "Where Am I located ?" We will investigate another question "Where am I?' Many people, even those who have no difficulty of seeing that they are not their bodies, commit another mistake more difficult to correct. They think they are in their bodies - they locate the knower, the self, the subject, the consciousness , the atman inside the body. Some doctrine places the soul(Atman) in the heart some in the head, and so on. This is an error too. Let us demonstrate. Again by an anology: Think of a time when you were asleep and had a vivid dream. In the dream you saw and experienced many things. Perhaps there were landscapes . perhaps there were animals and people and temples and buildings. Are you in your dream? You will say yes , as you have a dream body too in your dream. In fact you experience the entire dream from the centre of your dream body, that is, in your dream you think and experience as if it is this dream bodty that sees the landscape, building and animals. That dream body gets exited by good events frightenrd by bad events like when a wild animal chases your dream body etc. But the dream body has no real eye to see the other parts and contents of the deram world. It has no real harmons secreting in its body to feel the emotions. It is just like any other part of the dream - a picture, a shadow which cannot experience anything. The impression that this dream body is the centre of experiences and it experiences the rest of the dream contents is an illusion. the dream body as well as the other details of the dream are all experienced by a real body lying down and sleeping in your bed in a real space. The dream body is just a dream content like anything else in the dream and not the experiencer. If you search who is the real experiencer - (here by this I mean your real physical body) inside your dream you will never find it. It does not exist in your dream space. It exists in the real space 'outside' the dream. ( You have to wake up to find it - you cannot find int in your dream world) Just like your real body that is experiencing the dream is not to be found inside the deram world , and it cannot be located anywhere in the dream space (the space that exists in your dream -the land scape and all the rest of space) - you cannot locate the knower in side what you Know. The knower is to be located no where in the universe as the entire universe is the realm of the known . Just like the real dreamer lies outside the dream world, the real knower, the atman lies outside the realm of what it knows. You cannot locate it any where in the physical universe - which include your body. It is just an illusion - much like we experience the experiencer in our dream body. Hence our startling conclution : The real knower - the atman - is a transcendental entity. (in the sense It transcendends the physical space. that is, it is beyond or away or above the entire physical existence.) The Sanscrit word for this quality of the atman is Paramatman . The word 'Para' means transcentance, being beyond. Since the atman is beyond the emprical universe , it is called Paramatman (Transcendantal soul). What about Time dimention? Let us investicate one more matter. We concluded the real self transcendents space. What about time? Is it in time? Does time quordinates apply to it? Time like space is an experience - an object,abstract though -experienced by the experiencer. Just like mater and space, Time is also an experience of the knower. Hence The experiencer -the consciuosness - the atman- transcends time too. That is, it is not to be located in time , or bound by time or in any way influnced by time. Time belongs to the emprical realm. Events of the emprical realm are determined by time and not the knower that knows the time itself . This has a drastic startling consequence. The Knower -the atman is in no way influenced by time as it is beyond time. It does not age and die- It is eternally same. It is immortal. Paramatma, Jeevatma and karma . Before we proceed Let us summarise our conclutions The three startling conclusions are: 1) "I" - (the real you) - is not your body-mind complex 2) "I" cannot be known in emprical terms ( all answers to the question who am I? are wrong answers) 3) "I" is nowhere to be located in the emprical world of space time and causation . It belongs to the transcendantal world - the world beyond. Thus truely, your true self "I" is already Paramatman. It is just that you dont know that, and you think mistakenly you are this or that in the emprical material world. This mistake of identifying yourself with some orbitary objects in the emprical world is called False Identification in Vedanta. By this illusory false identification you think of yourself as your body mind complex and a variety of other things -( like you are a woman., you are a dauter , a astrologer and the like). This state of false identification creates the ego - a narrow boundry of who you are. - a narrow self definition. Once you put on a self definition thus and restricted your self like this you have become a Jeevatman. Paramatman deluded by false identification is jeevatmam. Then forgetting your real identity, feel;ing trapped, you struggle and manipulate the natural qualities and events of the objects with you have identified yourself. If you are established in the knowledge that you are not your body mind complex but a knower - a transcendantal experiencer nothing to do with any of the emprical things, - then you will become a neutral witness to everything that goes on in this emprical realm. - you will not struggle against them. You can witness all the phases of a tree that is in front of your house- which grows, blooms, bear fruits , sheds its leaves and even dry and die- all this you could witness with out suffering and strugglind . The tree simply lives its life in conformity with the laws of nature and you understand that . Even you see beauty in all phases in the tree's life, including its dry dead state. (dry tree becomes an object of aesthics for many) . You could do this neutral witnessing as you are not identified with it. The same thing happens when you are not identified with your body. With the knowledge that you are not a body and the body is just another object like the tree, you will serinely calmly and neutrally witness all the natural changes that happens to the body. When it become old, when the hair grays, when skin wringles you will let it be and will not suffer on that count ,struggle or manipulate the events. In your knowledge that your body is not you and it belongs to the emprical realm having its own laws, you let it be. Even the approaching death of the body will not let you loose your composure as you know you are not your body but the atman which is immortal. Body has its own laws - it changes ages and it dies. But you - the adman is eternally same and immortal. In this state of knowing you even cherish all phases of life. Let Sani come and go. Let all the nine planet come and stage their drama and go , What is it for you? as you are not affected , you are a witness of all this drama. Do you see why spiritually advanced do not prescribe any astrological remedy? Prescribing a remedy is to take the drama of the emprical realm seriously and there by strengthening false identification and ego - it is detrimental to spiritual progress. True spirituality is to detach oneself from the emprical realm and establish firmly in the knowledge that is one is not the body mind compplex but t6he eternal changless Paramatman. Jnana yoga Karma yoga Bhakti Yoga, and Moksha. What we have been sofar doing is called Jana yoga. We have been inquiring the nature of self and grasped that this self in actuallity is Paramatman - religion calls it God. When you grasp this your attitude and reation to the world and events will undergo a drastic change. You no more would suffer and struggle against the natural unfolding - pragrti - of the emprical laws and you let it be. This does not mean that your emprical body mind complex become actionless- it will continue to act and react according to its own pragriti. It is a law bound thing and it goes on its own course. But now, from your part , you dont struggle and everything goes according to its own dharma( nature) Hense you dont manipulate as per the the ego's, whime and fancy and desires. The actions will be with out ego. ( as your false identification has been withdrawn, you will have no ego. - no self defined boundry) This natural consequence of jnana of acting with out ego is called Karmayoga. Since you know you are a transcendental self and nothing to do with material world automatically you will be established in Paramatma - God. You will desire and need nothing from the material realm. You will be one with god .This is Bakti yoga. The culmination of jnana is bakti. Thus Jana yoga, karma joga and Bhakti yoga are all the same thing and reffer to the same state. However, while the essence is the same the perspectives differ. Dear Dpeepa, if you have seen the truth of who you are really from this post than you have got it. If you have got it there is nothing else you need to get more - spiritually. All your doughts will fall off. The only thing remaining for you then is to stabilise in this understanding -in this witness consciousness . Even if you have got it perfectly now, you might , over a period of time, loose this insight and slowly fall back to the false identity. To counter that you need to engage in practicing it in life by way of karma yoga. Practice karma yoga of accepting things as they are and not desiring anything, while you go about doing your daily duity. It does not require renouncing the world. True renounciation is detatchment from the emprical realm , in the knowledge that you have nothing to do with the emprical. Like King Janaka the Raja Rishi, who did not renounce his kingdom but went about fulfilling all the duities that his kingly role demanded. But yet he is considered to be the greatest sage, as he did all that with detachment- without ego. When you act like this, with out attachment and desiring, You will not creat new karma. Then all the old karma will exhaust by itself in due course. Then , the movement of karma, - like a potter wheel which is not again and again reinforced, or in modern analogy, a running fan whose electricity is cut off,- will eventually stop. You will live till that day in a jeevan mukta state. (Though you are a mukta, as you got the jnana of self , you will continue to live to exhaust the karmic force that has been already activated in your life. Hence that life where you live , without adding new karma, just for finishing the currently running karma is called jeevan mukti. ) And at the end, when your karma exhaust itself, when the body falls, the soul returns to the eternal free state- Mukti. You will not return again to this emprical world. I hope I have answered your spiritual doubts Regards, K.Ravindran

Dear Appolonius, There is no strict rule as to the number of repetition of a mantra though the general rule is higher the better. Becides the sadana being quickly finished if you chant more, The potency increases. Think of it in the same way as an antibiotic drug given for killing a microorganism. Low dossess will be week and the micro organism will gain resistence. The strategy is to give a sufficiantly high dossess (but safe to the body) that will finish off the miroorganism without giving a chance for it to survive and develop resistance. If you ask my priscription, Repeate the mantra 1008 times at a time. Do it minimum twice a day ( Morning and evening). You can increase the number of japa as well as the timming, as per your determination. You can do it thrice a day(morning-midnoon-evening) four times a day(morning- midnoon- evening- midnight) Sixtimes , or even continuously as aganda purascarana - nonstop japa (expect when you sleep of course). There is no perticular pooja and rictual and the like. However if you want You can do a simple Panjopasara pooja ( worship with five elements : offering of Ganda- some fragrent paste or powder -like sandal paste -as a symbol of earth element, Naivedya - some food items like fruits hony sweet porrige, as a symbol of water element, Deepa- light as a symbol of fire element, Dhoopa- agarbhati smoke as a symbol of air element, and Pushpa- flowers as a symbol of space element) It is costromery to offer this five element worship before -At the start - and after -at the end of- the jaba at each time you do japa. You can do this pooja completely internally at your heart by your mind alone without employing any actual materials like flower light etc. In fact I recommend that as it is declared that internal worship is more pottent than external one. The sectret is that your mind has tramedus power. You do every thing with mind. Dont be too rictualistic externally. The essential techniques that ultimately works are only three: Mantra japa Dhyana of the form of the deity( visualization) and Bhavana( mental assumption ) that the deity and you are one and the same. Seecret of tantric worship is that you become the very devada that you worship. " You cannot worship a deity by not becoming that deity yourself" To repeat: Japa, dhyana And bhavana are the only essential components. All else are ploys and proxies and are not needed strictly. Kroda Bhairava is a very very powerful sadana. If you can do it nothing like it. You will become very very powerful in the realm of ghosts, sprits and entities. You can rule all of them. But to succeed you need to be very determined. Mentally strong and should never accept the bullshits of the ghosts never surrender to them and their ploys and strategies. You should know that you are -ultimately -Krodabhairava yourself ( that is you are going to transform yourself in to Krodabhairava ) and these inferior creaters can do nothing to you . They are not anywhere your equal even let alone being higher than you. This you should believe and treat the ghoste in that mannor - never get intimidated by them never get discouraged by them never fear them Dont give a damn to them. Let them try all they could do with the best of their ability. Do not give in in any way and continue your practice. If they make you bed ridden - if you cannot sit errect- lie down and chant the mantra. (it perfectly all right to do this sadana) if they give you pain, instead of shouting with pain shout out the mantra (let that be youe experssion of pain). If they make you sick, make you pass feaces and urin in the bet and you cannot take bath, dont bother to take bath - dont be rictuallistically obssed with cleanliness. Rolling on the filth chant the mantra. Clenliness of your phisical body hardly matters -as such our body is filthy- You get the idea ? never give up the sadana for what-so-ever reason, once you start it. Be determined to get the boon and power of Kroda Bhairava. You are ging to do this as a Tapas. One thing , Dont stop eating. Dont fast ultill death - that is not needed and not desirable. And That is not what I mean by Thapas. Eat sufficiently well to nursish your body - but eat satvic vegitarian food throughout the sadana. ( it is not a moralistic principle- if you happened eat meat or fish during this sadana it is allright - dont feel guilty of it and stope the sadana on that count- thinking that you commited a grave mistake. No great sin is incurred by it . Only the nadi suddhi is delayed as rajasic and tamasic food is not condusive for any spiritual sadana and would delay the siddhi) And remember those ghosts can do nothing to you of any real consequence if you ignore them completly. They have power only as long as you give importance to them . You are the one who is giving them the strength. Get it? Decide whether you are ready for this and plunch in to it. And yes , I am a Malayali born in Palakkad. With best of luck Ravindran.

Dear Dhruva, People with the power to influcience minds of others like what you have described are extreemy rare and such powers are not a joke that any Tom Dick and Harry could get. It requires rigorous spiritual discipline and those who succed in gaining such powers are very spritual people. The are not the people who would herrase any one. Aghoris too are very highly developed spiritual people, inspite of the popular misconception and fear about them. I dont think they are the cause of missery of your family. Besides After all your father was only serving them , is int it? why will they go againt your father or your family? In fact they should only be protecting your family. Siva mantra is a fine mantra and Lord Siva only will prodect the bhaktas form all evils. It will never hatrm the chanter. (Lord Siva is not an ordinary god ,my friend, he is a high - very high - god. Not a evil being or ghost) My diagnosis from your discription of your and your sisters problem is that it it is not likely that you and your sister are victimised by anybody from outside. Such attackes are common in many women ( Psychological theories describe them in texts and is called hysterical dreams- I am a psychologist by training). It is products of her own unconcious mind. There is nothing to worry. You need to understand them in the right perspective. Nothing elce to be done. Many women get such dreems. They are just dreams. Dont attach too much meaning to it. Take it cool and ignore it. When she ultimately gets married these dreams will stop automatically. Regards, K.Ravindran

Dear Sudarshan, With that disinclination for work, it is clear why you are unemployed. What one really wants from one's deep heart only will happen. My hunch now is that you have an ascetic inclination and that is why You are not getting jobs. ( you only dont want it) If this is the case you should not worry, and with single minded devotion, without conflict persue the ascetic path . You can do service too in this path. There are lots of excellent muts in india all over. Ramakrishna mut for example is one that allowes you to renounce the world and do service too ( Vivekanendra kendra). You will be happy only if you follow your hearts true inclination. Otherwise even if you get a job you will not be happy. So follow what is truely your calling. Regards, K.Ravindran

Dear Sudarshan, If You are jobless first thing you do is check whether you have sade sati. Post your birth details in the vadic astrology forum There are qualified astrologers there to help you (Expecially Deepa bhandari and USR) The strategy will depends on the diagosis. General solution for getting a job is worship of karthikeya or Buvaneswari. But do consult astrologers first. With regards to black magic - the general solution is fire worship . Check this in my posting under the head "Urgent help needed -Matter of life and death". (But I am not a practicing tantric . My knowlegde is book knowledge) I suggest consult Bhairo. (You will find his posting in this forum). He will give you specific advice for whichcraft. His deity, Kal bhaiorav is very powerful. Request Bhairo to help you. I dont know any practicing tantric in Bangalore. Regards, K.Ravindran

Dear Sivamohan, Before taking up the sadana, the first thing is Kurudeeksha. Go to a south indian siva temple and look for the Dakshinamurthi pradista. Usually in south indian siva temples you will find this. In case you dont find it in one temple you need to serch for another. Dakshinamurti is the guru for all .On a holiday do a worship of dakshnamurthi with offering of white flowers. The preast of the temple will do that for you. Then sit before Dakshna murti and pray him to be your guru. Mentally surrenter to dakshinamurthy completely.Beg him to give siddhi of the vidya. Imagine his feet on your croun of your head. Then in your root centre- situated between your sex organ and anus , the soft portion of skin that you can feel by your touch - think of Ganesa being seated and chant mentally his mantra: Om gam ganapathaye namah Chant it for a few time intencely request ganasa to remove all hurdils form the path of spiritual sadana. Then At your heart, (the exact centre beween your nipple and not at the physical heart whivh is slightly left side) think of a white lotus on which think of a white letter aim . and from this beeja imagine a white goddess emerges and being seated in the lotus. Think of her as brilliant as thought of one million moon light. Think of everyihink associated with her as white - her dress is white her arnaments are nade up of white pearls, she wears white flowers etc.Mentally offer worship to her in your heart with fragrant smoke, light, white sandal past, white flowers and fruits and milk keer(payasa).Then repeat the seed mantra aim while thinking visually the goddess as described here, as much as possible. 1008 is a traditional prescription. If you needto count it use a spadika (crystal)rocery. But you dont have to be exact in the number. If you are particular of the number then you have to use a rocery and that distracts the mind from your dhyana to the sensation to your fiunger. (I dont personally prefer a mala as that distracts my attention). What is important is not the number but the total absorption of your ming in your meditation. If the rocery is a distraction to it dont use it. But make sure you spent quite a lot of time on meditation. Dont get yp quickly. Spend an hour or two daily initiall. At the end of the sesstion once perform the worship with smoke, light, flower, sandal past, and food mentally. and break your meditation and get up to attend to your regular duties. Sit and do the sadana even you are bored or mind wavers, initially for a fixed amount of time - say one hour. As you proceed mind will come under your control and you can sit for long without noticing time has passed - you will not be bored and will be very relaxed and would enjoy doing the sadana after some regular mental dril. So dont give up. Even if your mind wanders, or cannot visuallise the goddess as described still continue chanting and try to visualise the white goddess. In due course you can perfectly visualise. And your mind will stay on the mantra jaba with complete one point attention. So dont worry if you dont succeed in the initial stages. Keep practicing. Your target is to complete three lackh of jaba. At the end of three lackh jaba, perform a homa with. 1/10 offering out of the total number of jaba. that is for three lackh jaba homa ahudis will be thirty thousands. That is chant further 30thousand mantras , each associated with some offering to fire. 30 thousand homa sticks socked in ghee will do ( you can also offer 30 thousand white lotus or 30 thousand pearls ect depending your capacity) This is the essential procedure. There is no end to the elaboration. You can do a pooja in an elaborate way for hours as it is done in temples with many many perocedures and items like bathing the deity, with a varierty of things like milk, honey, oil, sugarcane juice, watter , then dressing her up with a variety of garments and decorating her with a variety of aornaments, and then offering her food, fanning her, blowing conch shall, singing dancing and so on and so on. You do a homa, darpana dana feeding bramacharies and so on and on. Dont get in to too much rictuallism and too much elaboration. It will only tire you and you will give up the sadana. Do essential sadana - meditation daily on the goddess with the mantra. This is all that is needed to attain siddhi. Of course love the goddess. Bakti is an essential component of worship. Mechanical procedure with out love will not fetch you much success. Remember goddess doesnot expect your elaborate and costly rictual. She needs your love and single minded devotion. Kalidasa was an idiot and he dint know any rictualistic procedure and he dint do them. He simply walked in to goddess temple in the midnight - having thrown out of the palace by his princes wife, on their first night, (up on discovering that he is an idiot ) - and cried to goddess to give him brains. Goddess responded to his innocent unsofisticated pure love love. She came and wrote the beeja of knowledge Aim in his tongue. Instantly He bloomed in to a Genious overniight. - She needs Your heart and nothing else. When you give that she will make you the greatest genious in the world. That is enough elaboration isint it? Regards, K.Ravindran

Dear Deepa bhandari, The puropse of astrology is not to manipulate life events - which is quite pointless, given the deterministic schema of life. And perhaps this is why spritual gurues do not prescribe remedies to chande the course of events. The purpose of astrology is to gain wisdom - to know our destinied path beforehand gives a serinity to accept the life as it is with out struggling against it and when we know what is to come we would not mentally suffer our destiny. (If I know in the course of sade sati I will mis a promotion, I will not be angry at my boss and I will accept that as a routine thing). There is setrinity and wisdom in knowing our complete destiny. We can then 'let it be' - that is a highest spiritual state. When we dont resist our destiny, when we completely accept it, and when we know that our suffering are due to our own past karma - that knowledge itself is liberative. and there is power in it. I shal narrate a mythologicalsrory to demonstrate this. Sani catches everybody and it is his duty to do so. But if the person he is going to catch happened to be a big shot a vvip (in a spiritual sence) , Sani will inform the vvip well in advence and seek permission to do his duty of catching. Once it was the turn of Hanuman for sade sati Sani. Sani went to hanuman and politely told him; " Your highness it is my time time to catch you for seven and half years". Hanuman said "Okey. No problem. Do your duty'. Sani asked "Whare shall I sit - please show me a place" Hanuman said "Sit on my head" And Sani sat on Hanumans Head. (And you know When Sani Catches some one he will deprive comfort and make the person struggle very hard). As soon as Sani sat on Hanuman's head, Hanuman started building a big temple for Ram - A really big one so he needed gient size stones to build it. So he collected huge huge stones from various sources and put it on his head and jumping around to reach the place of the temple site. You know Sani is a lazy man( He makes others work hard but he himself is very lazy, tamasic in nature slow moving etc). He found this load put on him too much and on the top of it the Hanuman's, style of carring it- jumping around - was really unbearable. After some time , Sani started begging Hanuman to leave him. But hanuman would not listern. Rather hanuman advised Sani to be quite and participate in the holy work for Rama and earn some punya. Sani really started pleading and begging. Then Hanuman said: "Alright on one condition I will let you go. You should not catch my baktas, is that alright for you?" Sani was more than happy to promise that and said "I will never come any where near you and your Baktas too. Please leave me now" Then Hanuman left Sani. The moral of the story: Generally It is assumed that remedy for sade sati is Hanuman worship. While this is coprrect, Hanuman worship must be understood in the right perspective. Worship of a deity is not puting some light and flower and muttering some mantra. Worship of a deity is to become one with the deity- to become like the deity. Worshiping hanuman is to become like Hanuman - having hanuman's attitude towards hard tedious work. Hanuman did not consider hard work as problem or as a curse He thought of it as Ram's seva , as a worship. Hence he did not suffer. Sani which makes people to do hard tedious work and gives suffering to others could not succeed in giving suffering to hanuman as he accepted that phase of sade sati as a boon to do Ram seva. Hanuman had no complaints for sani's visit- rather he accepted gladely as an opportunity to do lot of hard work and gain merit. It is Sani who was suffering during this period. If we accept our sade sati gladly without any complaint and understand that it is our duty to go through the tough period -even an oportunity to refine ourselfs ( Sani gives us suffering but it teaches a spiritual lession - it denies things makes kings beggers or cooks or menticants . It demolishes or mellows down our ego - it is a very spiritual task.) - then there is no suffering we will take it sportively. This is true Hanuman worship - a true and right remedi for sade sati. What has been said for sade sati is true for all other planets and for our destiny as a whole. By not resisting our destiny, And accepting it as our karma yoga we gain serinity peace and Sthidha prajna. We lead our life with a spiritual quality. This is the purpose of Astrology - to show us what is our karma in this life and to make us accept it with serinity. Regards, K.Ravindran

Dear Raagi When you sleep during nyasa or any other meditative practice it means that means you are deeply relaxed and you body needs that sleep. Meditative practices are deeply relaxing in nature.Dont worry Sleep well when your body needs it. Continue your practice dailly. Over a period of time you will get used to the deep relaxation and you will remain allert during the whole process. Try the practice when your body is rested well and is fress - like in the morning after a good quota of night's sleep. If you do the practice when your body is tird and needs sleep then you will invariably fall asleep. K.Ravindran

Dear Bija, If you are seeking the information from genune mantra sastra, there is a specific mantra for exactly this purpose. It is called Gandarvaraja mantra. the purpose is to get your dream girl as your wife. The mantra runs as this; "Om Gandharvaraaja Viswaavase Mamabilaashidha Kanyaam Prayacha Swaahaa" Meaning; o gandarva king (named) Viswavasu May I get my desired girl. (Note the double vovals 'aa' denote long sound and singla 'a' denote short sound. ) This mantra must be chanted 330 times at a sitting and continued every day till you obtain your desired women. K.Ravindran

A distinction needs to be made between heven and Mukti. Hevens are places like earth only with more pleasure and joy. Mukti is a state of complete freedom coming out of union with god. Heven is temporary and lasts finate time -though a very long astronomical time. At the end of it souls return back to earth. Mukyti is permanant - the sole attained mukti never returens back. Heven can be reached by meritorious deads, leading a good life and Performing fire sacrifices (Yagas). That is the way to go to heaven.It is a path of karma - accumulating good karma. Mukti can only be attained by freeing from karma - good or bad. It is obtainable by burning accumulated karmas and by not accumulating new ones. Yoga is the path ( Including bakti yoga). K.Ravindran

Dear Moksh, Sachidananda is a combination of thrree words- attributes: Sat = existance, truth, real. Chit = consciousness Ananda = bliss. conscious blissful existance. These are the tree qualities of god and insidently these are the three qualities of the innermost self - adman, in every being. Parama hamsa literally translated means supreme swan Swan is the upanasadic symbol for soul. Hence paramahamsa means supreme soul - transcendandal soul. In one sense it vagain refer to god as god is the suprime soul. in another sense it refer to any soul who has elivated to such a purity of swan - Saint of a very high purity. Parama hamsa also is a title of certain class of sanyasies who follow strict celibacy and carry a palasa dhanda. - a stick of palasa as a sign of spiritual authority. K.Ravindran

Dear Deepa Bhandari, I am not sure the practice of matching the horoscope for marrage purpose is truely in conformity with rigorous astrological science. (though people do it). I am expressing this skepticism on this issue from the evedance of nadi astrology( which i once happen to consult). Nadi astrology is astrology- written by the original rishies themselves. _ that is what it is claimed. And it is pretty accurate to an ammazing degree. You cannot reject its authoroty if you are an astrologer. In this nadi texts, every thing is explicitly stated with specific details and minute accuracy. It states the name , horoscopic chart and other personal details like address of the would be wife, amoung other things. This text gives an impression that ones's wife or huspant is completely predetermined like everything else. (This is the case not only in my case . In every bodys nadi text the names and details of their spouse are specified pin pointedly.Every one has exactly specific person/s as their partners - and this is written several thousand years before) Where is the question of matching and choosing if this is the case? ( in Nadi astrologi there is no concept of matching the horoscope - it will tell you who is your partner accuractly - Full stop. I suppose ordinary astrologers practice matchmaking because they are not in position to predict with the accuracy of nadi system and exactly point out who is ones wife or husband. Match making is the best they could do in this circumstance I believe. In the light of nadi match making procedures should be interpreted as an exercise of choice but some rough and vague attempt to guess who is one's destined partner. Ultimately whome the person realliy gets married is the one destined to get married in spite of all the matchmaking and care and causion they take, I guess. This is my conclution from my concrete research in nadi astrology - not just an opinion. As to your observation about spiritually advanced soul being not concerned of astrology, I can completely aggree with you. Spiritual advancement is about freeying or finishing off ones past karma and not adding fress ones. It is about liberation, moksha mukti going beyond karmic realm. In the case of such a person, who have managed to burn or errace the Karmic influences of the past, obviously astrology will not work as there are no Karma left . Since astrology's determinism is karmic determinism - that is the causal factors are karmas and not planets - planets do not directly affect any one . some people assume that the planets with their rays or force or radiation ect directly influence the events. this is not true. What determines ones life events are the host of karmas in the Karmic chain. Planets are merely indicaters of these karmic condition - a diagnostiic device. Hence when ones karma gets finished - when one attains jeevan mukti - that one is free from karma and hence astrology will fail , though that person will have a horoscopic chart and planets go around the sky as usual. Astrology fails in this case as the karmic determinism fails for these individuals. These souls who are freed from karma mala are called pralaya kalas and are to be distinguished from sakalas - the ordinary souls who are under the full grip of karma mala. Astrology is never meant for pralayakalas, who are finished with their karma and are free from karmic laws. It would be an error to cast there horoscope and attempt to predict their life event as they are beyond the realm of karma. But quoting their example and extending the argument of freedom to sakalas- the one who are bound by the deterministic chain of karma will do no good . It only add confusion in the astrological science. You will end up contradicting yourself - you will say Astrology works there by invoking determinism and at the same breath you will say "but there is free will - people can choose" , rejecting determinism. (You cannot say it is raining now and it is not raining now simultaniously - that would be a logical contradiction. isint it?) Two opposite position together one cannot hold. You cannot hold determinism and free will simultaniously - that would be a logical contradiction.. To avoid this contradiction you must attribute determinism to some people and freedom to entirly different set of people. Or you could hold a perticular person is determined at one stage of life and free at another stage of life ( jeevan mukti stage) If you mix up these issues a logical fallacy arises. Unless you maintain a rigorous uncompromising deterministic position you could not defend astrology. Astrology or any predictive and lawboubd science works because of determinism. And if you are not consistent on this you will end up in a set on contradictions. Regards, K.Ravindran

Try with Sadguru publication, delhi. Internet search will give you the full details about this publishers and the books they publish. you might experiment a little with the spelling of Sadguru.i am not sure this is how it is listed in internet. K.Ravindran

Dear Rajan, Deterministic assumption is never false, though a science can grow. Phisics has grown over time. new laws and new fields came to being over a period of time. And the field is till growing. Bur the basic assumption of phisics does not change. The principle of Determinism itself is not obsolete. Cause effect relationship is the basis of physics and all physical sciences. Science searches for causes of phenomenon and events. Strangly enough while our knowledge grows over a period of time and new and new fields , things and gadgets emerge, the theory - the explanatory schema - itself more and more economical in the sence it involves fewer and fewer fundamental entities and concepts explanining all the multiplicity of phenominon. For example in physics, earlier days there were many amd many forces considered as fundsamental - Electricity, magnetic force, light, heat, mechanical energy, sound, gravitation, atomic force and so on and on. Each had a different theory. But as time progressed these theories starting merging with one another. It was discovered that heat and light are fundamentally the same thing .What we call heat is a form of light ( called Infra red ray) and hence heat and light could be merged together with one single theory. The same thing happened with electricity and magneticism .We have one single force called electro magnetic force. Now we know light itself is a form of elecrtomagneric wave. 'Unification of forces' this is called . And such unification continued in the development of physics giving us fewer and fewer theries. To cut the long story short we have the lattest position that there are only four fundamental forces in the universe : Electromagnetic, Gravitation, Strong nuclear force and week nuclear force. Every thing else -all other varities of forces - are manifestation of these four fundamental forces. Now the lattest attempt is to unify these four in to one single force. Physicsts call it the Grand Unification Stephen Hawking employs his pet term for this the Theory of Everything (TOE) - that is, physics is progressing towards, the discovery of one single theory that will explain everything in the universe deterministically. Now the question Does things multiplies or reduces? Answer is yes and know. Things themselves multiplied over a period of time We discovered new and new objects in the universe - new planets, gallexies, blackholes. And we invented new and new things, Aeroplanes, TV, micorvave oven, computers, robots, - wich dint exist before. But our explanation - our theory of these things- is getting reduceed to more and more economic schema. We have few theories of these things than before and we are aiding for a single theory ultimately. While physical things multiply theories reduce. This is scientific progress. And multiplication of things doesnot imply failure of determinism. As long all all of them can be casully explained determinism stays. Now from science to astrology. Our discovery of new and new things and changed life style in no way suggests that the detareminism is failing. Of course our ancient thinks dint have the idea of rocket, TV or microvave or uranium. And hence in ther predictive system they have not stated the the planatory associations for these things. ( each planet has associations for example, sun is associated with soul, king, copper, etc. It is with this associated list astrologers predict events in ones life. For example if sun in thenth house- the house of profession - profession is infered as in government (kingdom), or associated with copper. etc) We dont find in the astrological texts reference to new new jobs and materials, For example we dont know which planet is signifying Uranium and hence we dont know how to account for people working in neuclear reactors. But this apparant failure is not a failure of determinism. People working in atomic reactor with uranium metel are not free because astrology doesnot predict their profession. That is a wrong interpretation of determinism. It is a failure of our knowledge. Of course modern astrologers have been working and enhancing their list of associations. This is a matter of emprical observation. Data from real life gives the input for this work. And as HST pointed out in the previous post Such work of progress has happened and is going on ( Krishnamurty, B.V.Raman, K.N.Rao...) New celestrial bodies like uraneous neptun and pluto are already included in western astrology along with their associations though Indian astrology still retains the vedic schema of seven bodies along with rahu and ketu. It is a matter of emprical work again to see which model is more adequate. However a model is a model and can never be the real thing that it simulates. That is, models are in some sence representarttion of the real with simplications. If the model is as complex as the real then it is not a model and it does not serve the purpose as model. The !2 sign and 9 planet system is a model. There is no sence to include everything of the universe in to a model. Then the model looses its advantage of simplicity and no one can handle such a complex system. Astrology then become next to immposible science if the astrologer has to take all the million things before predicting the event, and such a complity is not needed. Just like science which employs few thinga to explain every thing, vedic astrology deals with few things to explain the myrrads of events in human life. This is not to say that we should not correct our model. However such a correction need not end up including everything in the universe. There is no advantage in it. While adequacy of a model can be improved by modifing perfecting it by systematic research, infinate complixity is not needed for reaching a fair level of adequacy. This has been found true in the case of all scientific modells. By this I dont imply the present system of astrology given by Vedic thinkers is an adequate and complete and perfect model which cannot be improved up on. But non the less it is a model.- much like any scientific model From my postings it should not be interpreted that I argue that astrology is a perfect science. My own personal view is far from it. Astrology still cannot predict manything and predictions do go wrong drastically. However I do maintain Astrology is conceived from the scireentic temper. The ancient thinkers are regorously scientific in their outlook - they assumed rigorous determinism . The failure of astrology cannot be attributeed to their lack of scientific temper. If the model is not working it only means that it is inadequate - not that determinism is not true. Regards, K.Ravindran

Dear Appolonius, As an after thought , I am writing this post. In my previous mail I assumed that you are a simpleton and want to just get rid of the ghosts and want a peaceful life. But who knows? you may be a dare devel - like me - who actually want to possess the ghosts and control them. (If I were in your position I would do this - and not get rid of them - as I am a dare devil). There is a sadana for this - just in case you are interested. There is a deity called Kroda Bhairava - a terrible form of Siva with power to kill any booda. His mantra is : "Vajra jwaalena hana hana Sarva boodhan hoom phat". Think of Krodha bhairava as ten millioon sun's brightness and from each hair holes of his body lightening (Vajra jwaala) emerges out. Think of your self as krodha bhairava, and do japa of the above mantra. This mantra has the power to kill any booda instantly. You need to make siddhi of it of course by chanting it a large number of times ( traditionly one lakh japa will give siddhi) It is rather time consumming of course but the advantage overweigh the effort. it is wort the effort. The advantage of this siddhi is that you can control any booda as per your whim and fancy. you can call any ghost and make them slavishly serve you. Once you attain siddhi, then chant the mantra stating the name of the desired boodh in the place of 'sarvaboodan' . In your specific case , the mantra would be like this: Vajra jwaalena hana hana Kshtrum hoom phat. Vajra jwalena hana hana Sasikala hoom phat. Just chant these mantras for 108 time, ( after you obtain siddhi). these two entirties will surrender to you pleading and begging, and will be willing to do anything you want out of them. (If they dont obey you Kroda bhairava will instantly kill them. if they dont want this fate they will have to please you by doing what you say). At this time you can demand them anything . You can ask them to be obediant slaves to you for life-long and they will obey you. With these two entities (or even with one of them)under your control you can do wonders -man - you will become a powerful sorcerer yourself. What a golden opportunity! If I were you I wont let it go. Regards, K.Ravindran

Dear Appolonious, I have been following your case for some time. I din't want to give you my advise as there are so many people helping you and You will perpase be confused or will switch over the sadana or try to take up all of them , out of your desperation. To succeed in this kind of stuff you need to stick with one. If you find that Chinnamasta is effective then you can continue with that sadana.(Demons and spirits will tell lies and threaten and do all sort of things to dissuade you from effective practice. This is a proof that they are scared and hence you are doing the right thing. You must continue with that one the ghosts descourage you from doing. But you must be adament and bold. Tell the ghost to go to hell and continue with one sadana.) There is another strategy. If the demon uses Siva's name you take up siva worship. If the demon is a siva bakta, it cannot harm another siva bakta. It will start helping you and serving you rather. That is if you are sportive and are up to convert the curse in to blessing and become a powerful sorcerer yourself, then you can do it. In this strategy You will not get rid of it. It will stay with you forever. But it will not trouble you It will give you power rather. You can do antthing with it. You can become a Kshutra vidya master ( blak magicion) If you want to get rid of it I have a suggestion for you. I have a very powerfull method that relives the problem completely and immediately. This is an authentic solution for any possession and witchcraft. No matter however powerful the spirits are , if you resort to this technic it will give you immediate and complete relief . And the best part is that it is very simple and chiep. This technique is from Adarva veda. This is the worship of fire.( agni). If you worship fire witchcraft effects and demons will instantly leave you or they will get burned and destroyed. Aterva vada declares as the most powerful, ultimate vidya and the final one at that. It will never fail even if everything fails. You need to make a fire with dry cow dong and dried sticks (twicks of any tree will do. but if you are particular, then get the twigs that are used for homa- any bhramin priest doing homa would know the names of the plants of these twigs - in some religious centre and temple where homa is a regular affair these twigs are sold. But remember the power is not in the twigs but in fire itself. Hence any twigs of any tree or small bushes will do) Light the fire with dried cow dong cake and with twicks heeped on it. Pore ghee to make the flame burn well. Ther invoke god fire in it and worship agni with his hyme from adarvaveda or his simple mantra : (1) Om ram agnaye swaha. You can also state your intention in the mantra. (2) Om ram Agnaye sarva kshutra devatam sarva kshutra prayogam vinasya vinasya swaha. Again do not worry if you don't manage to obtain adarva vadic hymn of agni and waste time and wait for it. The tantric mantras stared above are equally potent. Invoke agni with this mantra( expecially the first one : om ram agnaye swaha) Then worship agni with light, inscence stick smoke, some fragrent substance like sandal powder , flower and fruits, (as if the fire is some statue in a hindu temple) . Imagine that the fire god is actually present in the fire. Then Pray to the fire god to burn the disturbing demon or black magic effect present in your body and house. Then Chant the mantra (Either the first or the second) 108 times. Chant the mantra silently in your mind only - not loud. After finishing the mantra jaba 108 times , once again perform worship of the god of fire as before with deepa(light) doopa ( agar bati smoke) Ganda ( fragrant past or powder like sandal) Poospa( flower) and Naivadya( fruits of some food offering). And once again pray to god agni with foolded hand and finish your worship. Let the fire burn onits own till the contents become ashes. Dont put off the fire . This will defenitely solve your problem and does not cost much. In fact you can do this daily as a routine in your house in morning and evening sunrise and sun set time . (Though the first day itself you will be cured of your possession and you need not repete it in any case more then three days) . This daily worship will protect you and your house from all kinds of possession and black magic prayogas and immence merit (Punya). This is supposed to be very powerful. There is no failure in this technique. And this technique works immediately. The first day you take up the worship itself you will be completely relived from your problem provided you are possessed. It never fails. There is only in one condition that it can fail - if the trouble in not spirit possission or Kshutra prayoga( black magic) at all. Therefore if this fails you need not wast yout time in further seeking new and new remedial measures for possession. It clearly means that the trouble is Schizophrenia - a mental disorder very difficult to cure even by psychiatric treatment. (However it can be controlled by right medicine). If your problem is not solved by the fire worship then you need to seek right medical advice. I know you are convinced that you are not mentally ill and convinced that it is possession. I also know that you get wild even at the suggestion that it could be a mental illness. Dont mistake me and get wild at me for mentioning an alternate possibility. I dont know you and hence I am not assuming that you are mentally ill. All that I am suggesting you is to try the remedies with open mind and don't close the mind with one diagnosis. Afterall your diagnosis could be wrong isint it? The fire worship technique that I am suggesting is the highest and hence is a conclusive diagnostic tool too. If you are not cured by this then nothing ( no yantra, mantra or worship and no tantric however powerful ) can cure you. If Your problem does not disappear at the very first day itself then you should know it is not possession at all. (I know what I am talking about). There is no harm in trying this technique as this is chiep, easy to do and you yourself can do it. (In fact you yourself should do it). You dont have to waste mony time and effoert in doing tedious sadana going from post to piller or seeking tantric masters any more. This will defentitely cure spirit possession or it will leave with the right diagnosis. In any case this is advantagious to try this Isint it? Regards, K.Ravindran

Dear Rajan Astrology is based on the theory of determinism. Everything in the universe is determined. For example, assume that a paper on your table moves now. According to the theory of determionism, it didnot happen accidently, (the paper has no free will). There is a cause to it. It moved because there was a wind flowing through your window. The wind caused the papper to move. Now why did the wind blew? It did not happen accidently.( The wind has no free will either) The pressure at some place far-away changed and caused the wind flow. But why did the presure changed? Not accidently. The temprature at that place changed causing the pressure change. Anw why the temprature.....etc etc. You get the idea of determinism? Everything in the universe is determined. If you know some cause in the causal chain of events, you can predict the entire sequence of events and ultimately arrive at the event in question. that is, if you know accurately the temprature change that occured at a past time particular place, far away from your present office, and if you have information of all the objects - trees, buildings etc - between this place and your office, you could calculate the wind force and direction at the source and what would happen to it at its passage to your office, how much force it would retain and in which direction and when will it arrive to your office. There by you could predict in which direction and howmuch your paper would move, much in advance. This is the essence of the theory of determinism and is the bases of physical sciences. Every thing in the universe is casually comnnected. Nothing is free to do what it wants to do. (Nothing has free will and choice) There is no free event. Events are law bound and predictable because of this determinism. Astrology too is based on the seme scientific concept of determinism applied to human life events. Human life events dont happen out of free choice. There is no such free choice Everything is determined by the causal chain of karma. Hence your assumption, that somebody freely choosen their wife or husband is not astrologically tenable. Who will choose whome - like every other matter -is already predetermined. This is the basis of astrology Otherwise prediction is not possible. Every relationship is equally important from a nutral; scientific point. Parrents, coborn, friends, Wife , children, boss- in fact all people one comeaccross in ones life in whichever capacity- are all determined. It is not the case only husband and wife are related deterministically and hence their hooroscopes influence eachother. Every thing in ones life is ineterconnected by the theory of determinism and nothing happen loosly, freely, or by accident or chance. However it so happens that we are more concerned about our spouse and parents and children more then our distant relative and friends and strangers. This special emotional concern makes us value and explore these relations more and seek astrologers help in divining about these relatives. We dont normally seek astrologer's help regarding the strangers we meet or even about our friends. As a result , astrologers of all ages have perfected the prediction techniques around these issues which human being value. This is how wife's horoscope or parents horoscope or childrens horoscope appears to have influence on our own horoscope. It is just an apparant phenominon due to our subjective importance to these issues. Astrologically, everything is linked , and can be predicted, provided you have interested in knowing them. (For example it is a routine matter in astrology to check the buisness partners horoscope just like marrage matching). Your assumption that some choices are indipendant and free is not tenable astrologically. If it were so astrology is not possicle. Your question of uniqueness of individuals is also problamatic scientifically. If every body is so unique, if every event is so unique, then generalization of any sort is not possible. Science works not with uniqueness but with generality. Astrology is no exception to this. Let me explain. If water found in different places are different and unique we will not be able to come ourt with the scientific formula, of H2 O. By this formula we meen, irrespecticve of which part of world we take water as our sample , irrespective of which drop of water we investigate water will turnout to be made up of two hydrogen and one oxygen molecule. All laws of science are of this nature they are generalizations. Science deals with generality not uniqueness. Astrology as a science deals with general rules. - (All those born in Aris will be so and so Tauras will be so and so ...ect.) There are only 12 zodic signs and nine planets. and hence how many unique permutation this system permits is finate - though this number is very large. Thus every body born in the world at ant time will have only one of these repetable charts. And any two people with the same chart in every respect- in rasi, hora, navamsa and so on, will end up having same pattern of life. If this was not the case if everybody is completely unique, astrology is not possible as no generalization could be made about anybody of anything. To sumup, Individualls are neither that unique nor free - there is no free choice as your question assumes. The uniqueness that we come accross is a case of a huge number of possible general typologies. Astrology is based on these premises otherwise astrology is not possible. Your puzzle over astrology arises out of violation of two assumptions of astrology - and any science for that matter. Once you assume free will (or free choice) or extreem uniqueness to each individuals, then of couerse no predictiobn is possible isint it? This is true for any science. Determinism ( that is no free will) and fixed and finate number of typologies ( that is no infinate varities of things) are the charateristics of all sciences. Physics, chemistry, biology and astrology all operate with these assumption. In physics there are only few fundamental forces and few particles that account for all that happen in the universe. In chemister there are only 100 and odd elements that account for all substances. In botony there are only finate number of plant classification. Given the type we can predict their property that is quite fixed and determined. This princiople is the same in astrology.All the people ever came and yet to come are classifiable by the confugeration of fixed number of twelve sign and nine planets. And once this configuration is known, everything about that being can be deterministically predicted. Regards, K.Ravindran

Dear Kumar daran, The kundalini awakening is a very serious and rigorous parth. There are many techniques and paths to awaken kundalini. some are very slow and take years of practice but safe. Some are very fast. It is said that in certain tantric systems kundalini could be awakemned in just a few seconds.But they are risky. You may decide what kind of dicipline you are prepared to go through. You will get , nowadays excellent descriptions and details of the paths. Bihar school of yoga is one source you can try. They have excellent authentic publications. Vivekananda's Rajayoga gives an overall introduction to the path. For your convenience I am outlining the essential technique here. There are two essential pre requirements for kundalini yoga. 1) Bhramacharya (celibacy). Kundalini is a power transmuted from Semen. Hence before attempting to awaken kundalini by long period of celibacy Semen must be conserved. This is a decisive rule. Kundalini shakti cannot be awakened without stringent celibacy. 2) Vegitarian and satvic food. Your nadi must be purified before kundalini is awakened. For this you must, amoung other things, live on pure vegitarian satvic food. Whic means not only no meat but also no spices - no masala- no chillis no salt. With these regulations you can practice first nadisuddhi pranama first. this is a simple pranama. You inhale through one nose and Exhale through the other. then reverse the sequence inhale through the same nose you last exhaled and exhale through the nose you originally inhaled. This is one round. You need to practice this for many many rounds in four times a day, Morning sun rise, midnoon, evening sunset, midnight. If youy are regular and regorous in this practice with in 3 months nadisuddhi is attained. Signs of nadi suddhi are your mind will be calm and peaceful. Thoughts will stop when you sit for meditation. ( other times like when you are working,houghts will come). Your body will emite a mild fragresce when you perspire. You can sometimes see subtle things and here subtle sounds. You will gain a clear body awareness. You will be aware of every part of - each and every cell of -your body. These are the signs of nady suddhi. Once this happens you can proceed to activate kundalini. Holding the breath (Kumbaka) and intence one pointed conscentration (dharana) are the main techniques for kundalini awakening. Practice kumbaka pranama and some form of Dharana. For dharana, mantra dhatrana will do. Chant your istadevada's mantra mentally, silently and with complete concentration -with the exclution of every thing else - along with kumbaka (holding the breath in naval) . this will heat up your root centre and kundalini fire will be kindled and awakened, provided you had followed celibacy and conserved your semen. There are many techniques of kundalini awakening . You may find them in yogic texts. What I have given here is the essential method. This essential method will work if you practice them for long enough. Defenitely it will work if you practice it regularly for twelve years. ( your kundalini might be activated much before. It all depends your constitution and rigor of practice). You can also awaken your kundalini if you could find a siddha guru who can by mere touch or glance awaken your kundalini. But such gurus are rare and cannot be found easily.The method of dharana and kumbaka pranama outlined does not require a guru. Its merrit lies in your practice. Regards, K.Ravindran

Dear Ancient Mariner, Can I beg to differ with you on two oppinions of yours? 1) That Kundalini yoga is not not present in Bagavad Geeta. All yogas are present in it (and that is why it is considered to be one single most holy text of hindus - it represents all the doctrines and vastness of hinduism). Perhaps the name kundalini may not be present. But that does not mean that the science of kundalini yoga is not there. Bagavad geeta discusses many systems of yoga - they are kundalini awakening scienses. 2) That Kundalini awakening is not nessary: Without kundalini awakening no god realization is possible. Kundalini yoga is the science of god realization. Even Bhakti yoga (which you will agree is prescribed in Bagavad geeta) is a form of kundalini yoga as bhakti is a means of awakening kundalini. Yogic texts refer to this fact (for example refer Patanjali yoga sutra), and many sadakas following bhakti yoga report kundalini awakening . (Rama krishna Parama Hamsa is an ideal example for this. Though he has practiced many tantric techniques of kundalini awakening, even before he practiced the path of tantra yogas, his kundalini was already awakend by his mere Kali bhakti). Kundalini awakening is a very important and essential thing in the progress of spirituality. All religious experiences are due to kundalini awakening - whether the experiencer knows this - conscious of this - or not. No Kundalini awakening No spiritual/religious progress. K.Ravindran

Dear Ce moi, The word Cit is pronounced as 'chith' The 'ci' of cit is prounced as the chi in chips( Potato chips or computer chips) or of the Chinese word for meridian energy 'Chi'. The last letter 't' of cit is pronounced as 'th' of 'the' or of thesis. Thus Cit =Chith. I am yet to figure out how to write the sanscrit scripts in this forum . Hence I cannot show you the sanscret letters to you right now. Perehaps if you or someone show me how to write or include other language chataters in this forum I will show you the original sanscrit letters for this word. Regards, K.Ravindran