Learning Jyotish

[Guest guest]

Namaste!

 

Dear Natabara,

 

I really needed that posting this afternoon! Thank you. It is a fascinating

story that you tell of how vedic astrology 'came' to you. I see now why you

said on another post about all your travels! Fascinating life.

 

I envy you the way you started with astrology by researching in the area of

astronomy first. Because I took Latin at school and not Geography (we had to

choose between the two),and, as a woman was not allowed to study physics or

chemistry, I feel a definite lack in this area and need to brush up on any

astronomy I can. When I first downloaded Alexander Zavalishin's planetary

software the other day, I had to email him and ask him where earth was. All the

way from Russia, Alexander very gently explained to this dumb woman that it was

below me!! IE I was standing on it!! Oh dear....

 

I was particularly interested in the interpretation you gave of the signs. In

none of my reading so far have I come across anything like that. It really made

a lot of sense and very deep. I particularly liked this following passage of

yours:

 

 

We are here in this material universe because somehow we have achieved a

horoscope. According to our destiny we are supposed to follow certain

guidelines. The planets or God never chastise us, it is us that we sometimes

want to run in a channel which is not destined to us and therefore, the planets

just "correct" us, to make us go to our destined channel.

 

This is exactly how I see my life has run (we are roughly the same age by the

way so there is quite a lot of experience under the bridge!). I see the

planets, even the malefics, as my friends, who guide me, caress me, teach me,

help to get back onto the right path when I am seduced off it, or fall off it,

and mainly to guide me to a deeper and deeper understanding of why I am here.

 

Srila Prabhupada published a nice book which can give you a better idea. It is

called "Raja Vidya, The King of knowledge".

 

Through my new cyber friends on the GJ list and others, I have been guided to

certain readings, and, the other night the first book I downloaded of Srila

Prabhupada was "Raja Vidya, The King of Knowledge". Strange that this is the

one book you emphasize particularly here. It is almost as if Jyotish is not

only opening the channels in my mind to astrology, but also guiding me in ways

that perhaps it is now time for me to travel. This is why I say that I view the

planets (even my dear old retrograde Saturn and Rahu in my 8th house) as my

friends. It may get very rough materially sometimes, but spiritually it just

gets better and better.

 

I also found your simple explanation of duality very good. I always try to keep

in my mind this phrase from that great Catholic theologian, "We are not human

beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human

experience." This neatly sums up the duality of existence for me.

 

Thank you for the interesting posts on the lists. Although the interpretation of

charts is paramount for a beginner, it really broadens one's study to have posts

that also explain the philosophy, the background, the scriptures, other people's

experiences of Jyotish, when one is working alone and in a country that is

pretty barren of Jyotish as far as I can ascertain (South Africa).

 

Many thanks,

 

Om Tat Sat

 

Robyn