aTMAKARAKA pLUS

[Guest guest]

Bonjour Martine

 

I am sorry for this delay in writing back but other commitments have delayed

some of my duties like answering emails.

 

Mercy beaucoup for your nice question, which inspire me to answer in the following way.

 

Toi

<< Apparemment le Mal débouche sur le Bien, mais je ne comprends pas bien ce que

veut dire Visti. Ce n'est pas le texte anglais qui me pose problème mais la

signification de l'idée qu'il veut exprimer. Peux-tu l'expliquer ? Cela

m'intéresse d'autant plus que Rahu est Atmakaraka dans mon thème.>>

 

moi

That is one of the reasons why I love the French language, because it is very

philosophical, logical, analytical and inquisitive, like my rising sign of

Virgo.

 

I will try to explain to your question on behalf of other students of Jyotish.

 

Parasara Muni is one of the 18 original fathers of Vedic astrology. He is the

father of Srila Vyasadeva whom compiled and composed the Vedas at the beginning

of this Kali Yuga. We are told that Vyasadeva dictated the Vedas to Lord

Ganesh, whom wrote them on behalf of humans to be born in this Kali Yuga.

 

Before Kali Yuga humans experienced better Yugas were memory, health, life and

happiness was more extensive and better than in Kali Yuga. Before Kali Yuga

there was not need of writing anything because our memory was more retentive

and therefore, knowledge was transmitted in an oral form rather than in

writing.

 

Kali Yuga started on 18 February 3,102 BC and therefore Parasara was around

about some 5,000 years ago.

 

Psychologists claim that humans in the West use one side of the brain, while

those born in the East use the other side of the brain.

 

We can see a clear division in thought, Reason and Intuition, Active and

Passive, Electrical and Magnetically, Day and Night, Sun and Moon.

 

About 50 years ago, Jyotish was mainly practiced in India where we find a more

intuitive brain different from our Roman linear thought as inherited by Western

cultures.

 

The Indian frame of mind is rooted in the Vedas, which are more cyclic than

linear. We have been learning a lot about the gunas or modes of nature, but we

should learn as well about the 3 main paths in yoga.

 

To understand Jyotish we should touch many different branches of knowledge, and

the paths of yoga is essential.

 

One thing is to learn Jyotish and another is to teach it. Every author try

his/her best to explain according to his abilities, but he/she is limited by

his/her own gunas or modes of nature, culture, beliefs, etc

 

One of the advantages, which I had in the beginning of my studies of Jyotish, is

that I did embrace the path of bhakti yoga and therefore I could understand

better the Indian (from India) thought.

 

Therefore in the propagation of Jyotish we can see a division of Indian and

western thought. About 20 years ago, some Western people started to write

books on Jyotish according to how they understood and the understanding of the

western mentality.

 

Still the demand to understand Jyotish requires the understanding of yoga.

 

There are 3 main paths of yoga; karma, jnana and bhakti, or roughly: work,

knowledge and devotion. Or astrologically speaking, karma is the daring or Leo

qualities. Jnana is like the thinking or Geminian quality. And bhakti is like

the feeling or the Cancerian qualities.

 

It is very difficult to find any of those paths in its pure form, because those

3 paths are mixed with traits from the other 2 paths.

 

Even those that claim to be on the pure path of bhakti yoga are likely to have

mixed traits of karma yoga or jnana yoga. And even in the pure path of bhakti

we find grades of pure bhakti.

 

Some people say that all the paths lead to Rome, perhaps but once in Rome, some

people may meet with ordinary people, others with the major or leader of Rome,

and within beautiful Rome we find the Vatican, and some may meet the Pope and

those that are more lucky may meet with God.

 

Here we can see a distinctive gradation in destination in Rome. Therefore,

although all the paths may lead to Rome, the destination may be different

according to our intentions, desires, karma and goals.

 

Some people having a misunderstanding of bhakti are likely to miss the essence

of bhakti. It is good to understand bhakti. The essence of bhakti is love,

affection, devotion, surrender, and service.

 

The 18 fathers of Jyotish were bhakti yogis. Lets see with the eyes of bhakti

that great book called Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra, compiled by Parasara Muni.

 

That great book starts with the worship of Ganesh the son of Uma, the eternal

consort of Lord Shiva. Because Ganesh is the “saint”, “patron” “lord” or guide

to Vedic astrologers, we must give our respects to him. That is bhakti. We

should offer our love and devotion to our guru.

 

Then Maitreya with an attitude of devotion asked Parasara about the secrets of Jyotish.

Then Parasara before answering prayed to Lord Brahma, the architect of this

universe, his eternal consort Sarasvati, the Goddess of learning and wisdom

(the Sophie of Christians), Surya, the Sun and leader of the planets.

 

The Vedic astrologer R Santhanam translated from Sanskrit into English:

 

“Only good will follow the teaching of this Vedic Science to

the students who are peacefully disposed, who honour the

preceptors (and elders) who speak only truth and are God

fearing. Woeful forever, doubtlessly, will it be to impart

knowledge of this science to an unwilling student, to a

heterodox, and to a crafty person.”

 

Then Parasara elaborated about the 3 gunas and their representatives, and about

the origin of everything, God.

 

In chapter 2 Santhanam translated thus:

 

“3-4. The Unborn lord has many incarnations. He has

incarnated as the 9 grahas (Nava Grahas) to bestow on the

living beings the results due to their Karmas. He is

Janardan. He assumed the auspicious form of grahas to

destroy the demons (evil forces) and sustain the divine

beings.”

 

Of course he is referring to Krishna, the Supreme, the unborn. Janardan is one

of his thousands of names. By grahas we understand centres of energies, the

planets, and by the 9 grahas we understand the 9 traditional planets of Vedic

astrology.

 

We can understand here that the grahas are just vehicles, chunk of matter in the

universe, and God is the driver of them. Matter by itself is just death, the

living principle is necessary to make matter works.

 

A body is alive as long as there is a jiva, a soul making it work. The symptom

of the soul is consciousness. Without consciousness, the bodies are death

matter.

 

Then Santhanam translates:

 

“5-7. From Surya the incarnation of Ram, from Chandra that of

Krishna, from Mangal that of Narasimha, from Buddha that of

Buddha, from Guru that of Vamana, from Shukra that of

Parashurama, from Shani that of Kurma (Tortoise), from Rahu

that of Varaha (pig), and from Ketu that of Meena (Fish)

occurred. All other incarnations than these also are

through the grahas. The beings with more Paramatmamsh are

called divine beings.”

 

I have added an “a” at the end to many names as we know them in the West.

 

We arrive here to your question.

 

We can understand that out of love for the souls, Krishna (God) has taking

control of the planets to indicate to them their trends of destiny.

 

Because you want to know about the Atmakaraka, or the natural indicator for the

soul in a Vedic horoscope, I will try here to explain the missions of those

divine incarnations. By reading about them we can understand the main function

of our Atmakaraka planet.

 

You can read about those divine incarnations from the Srimad Bhagavatam.

Because I do not want to lose the continuity in my present thoughts, some other

devotees can refer to the relevant chapters. In the past 2 years I have seen in

the GJ list the postings from 30-40 devotees that I am sure have read the

Srimad Bhagavatam.

 

Although I have the 27 books of the first 9 Cantos and the other 3 cantos in

email format, I do not want to deviate my thought now in searching.

 

At present we live in a tri-dimensional creation, because we the soul

reincarnated in a human body, have 3 main stages of consciousness. The first

of those levels of awareness is in the sleep mode. The second level is the

dream state. The third level of awareness is the ordinary awareness.

 

The 4th state of awareness is when we connect to higher levels of consciousness.

 

This 4th stage is coming more evident as seen from the drastic changes shown by

all the planets in this system. This stage is free and we do not need to pay

materially to connect to it. The only payment required is pure love and

affection, devoid of mundane and selfish intentions.

 

Many are likely to try to profit from the sell of the connection to a higher

stage, but only those in which horoscopes are indicated a good karma will

succeed and others are likely to be cheated.

 

Beware of imitations, only the real thing is right and it is not coke.

 

When the Sun is the Atmakaraka, we can see the connection to Lord Rama.

 

According to the Ramayana of Valmiki, Lord Rama incarnated some 2 million years

ago. His mission was to shown the ideal life of a Vedic king and having a

single wife.

 

Rama, and his close entourage were banned to live in a forest for 14 years. His

wife Sita was kidnapped then by the demon Ravana and taken to now Sri Lanka.

 

Rama did find where Sita was located and with the help of His devotee Hanuman,

Rama crossed to that island, killed Ravana in a fight and rescued Sita.

 

We can see here, the principle of authority, effulgence, honesty, rightfulness,

peacefulness, loyalty, justice and devotion.

 

When the Moon is the Atmakaraka, we can see the connection to Lord Krishna.

Of all the incarnations of God, Vedic scholars consider Krishna the Supreme.

Krishna appears once in a day of Brahma, or once every 8,640,000,000 earthly

years.

 

The last time that Krishna appeared on Earth was some 125 years before the

beginning of this Kali Yuga.

 

In His incarnation as Krishna He showed some of His opulences. He is well known

as having driving the chariot of his cousin Arjuna during the battle of

Kuruksetra. Arjuna was a warrior and his duty was to fight for the right

cause, which was the attaining the kingdom of Hastinapura. In those days, the

king of Hastinapura was automatically the Emperor of the whole Earth.

 

Arjuna had a duty to take the kingdom of the Earth from his cousins the Kurus,

whom had taken the kingdom illegally and in a fraudulent way.

 

Arjuna was one of the 5 Pandava brothers. Arjuna was the son of Pandu and

Kunti, begotten by Indra the king of the gods, whose residence is in Uranus.

 

The other brothers were Nakula and Sahadeva the youngest of all and twin sons of

king Pandu and his wife Madri, begotten by the twin Ashvini Kumaras. Sahadeva

was the Vedic astrologer.

 

Bhimasena was the second child of Pandu and Kunti and begotten by Vayu, the wind-god.

 

Yudhisthira was the eldest son of Pandu and Kunti and begotten by Yama, the

superintendent of death whose residence is in Pluto.

 

Thanks to Krishna, the Pandava brothers won the battle of Kuruksetra and

therefore, Yudhisthira became the king of Hastinapura.

 

Here we can see the principles of supremacy, opulence, mercy, benevolence, justice, and devotion.

 

When Mars is the Atmakaraka, we can see the connection to Lord Narasimha.

 

Narasimha means the incarnation half nara (human), and half simha (lion).

 

According to the Vedas Prahlada Maharaja, was a great devotee of the Lord, but

due to his karma, reincarnated in the family of demons. His father was a great

demon called Hiranyakasipu and hated God. Hiranyakasipu obtained from Brahma

the power that he was not going to be killed by human or by beast, in the air

or on earth, during the day or at night.

 

Once, Hiranyakasipu asked his little son Prahlada, if God was everywhere.

Prahlada said yes, God is everywhere. Hiranyakasipu said that he was going to

destroy one of the pillars of his palace to show that if God was in the pillar,

Hiranyakasipu was going to destroy God. When Hiranyakasipu started to demolish

the pillar, Narasimha appeared out of the pillar, and grabbing Hiranyakasipu

killed him. Therefore, Hiranyakasipu was killed not by human or by beast but

by a mixture of both. He was killed at twilight, not during the day or night,

and not on the air or on Earth, but on the lap of Narasimha.

 

Here we can see the principles of justified violence, correction to atheistic

concoctions, fearless frame of mind, reward to the faithful, strength, faith,

and victory of good over bad.

 

When Mercury is the Atmakaraka, we can see the connection to Lord Buddha. Many

people know about Lord Buddha. There are many Buddha but the original one is

the incarnation of Krishna appearing at a time when people were killing animals

to eat them, under the Vedic sanction. According to the Vedas, humans are

allowed to eat the flesh from animals when there is a danger of starving to

death or when there is a need to balance the health. In ayurveda, or Vedic

medicine, there are some prescriptions to eat the flesh from some animals in

order to restore health. Therefore, people were distorting the Vedic

prescriptions to satisfy their low propensities of satisfying their sense of

the tongue.

 

Vedic astrologers must be lacto vegetarians, otherwise they cannot develop their

sense and understanding of piety and mercy.

 

Mother Nature has given us an ample source of lacto vegetarian food, and

therefore we can survive with a healthy diet of grains, vegetables, fruits and

milk products.

 

Lord Buddha incarnated to tell those people to deny the Vedas in regard to eat

flesh, and to follow Him. To follow Buddha is the same as following God,

although in a different degree of consciousness.

 

Here we can see the principles of piety, mercy, kindness, consideration,

intelligence, and discrimination (between good and bad).

 

When Jupiter is the Atmakaraka, we can see the connection to Lord Vamanadeva.

 

Vamanadeva appeared when Bali Maharaja, a king of the demons took possession of

the universe after having defeated the demigods.

 

Vamanadeva appeared as a Brahman dwarf to Bali. Because Bali had a high respect

for the Vedic principles, he knew that brahmans (Vedic priests) have to be

respected and protected by the king and people. Therefore, to satisfy

Vamanadeva, Bali asked for any desire that he as a king of this universe could

satisfy.

 

Vamanadeva requested from Bali, enough land that he could touch with 3 of his

steps. Bali laughed because as a dwarf Vamanadeva could not reach much land.

But Bali agreed to that request.

 

Then, Vamanadeva touched this Earthly plane with His first step, and becoming a

giant, Vamanadeva touch the limits of this universe with His second step, and

He asked Bali to where He should put His 3rd step, having already touched this

plane and the whole universe. Bali Maharaja had been warned by his guru

Sukracharya (Venus), no to entertain Vamanadeva because Sukra knew about

Vamanadeva real identity. But Bali decided to disobey his own guru to follow

the Vedic principles of respecting and rewarding a Brahman like Vamanadeva.

 

When Bali saw that Vamanadeva had taken a hold of the whole universe, he could

see that Vamanadeva was God, the Supreme, the Absolute. And therefore Bali

surrendered to Vamanadeva and with a humble attitude, he requested Vamanadeva

to place His third step on his head, indicating that Vamanadeva could take hold

of Bali himself.

 

Here we can see the principles of respect, charity, Vedic principles, amassment,

expansion, surrender.

 

When Venus is the Atmakaraka, we can see the connection to Lord Parasurama.

 

Parasurama is the incarnation of Krishna appearing as a warrior when the Earth

was overburden by nasty warriors. Those nasty warriors were exploiting, using

and abusing their position and authority. Therefore, Parasurama appeared as a

great warrior and killed those nasty warriors 21 times, to make sure that they

were not going to come back and continue their evil intentions. This means

that when killed, those warriors just reincarnated again and again with the

same propensities to overburden the Earth, and therefore, Parasurama made sure

that they were not going to be a danger any more to the Vedic balance in this

universe.

 

Here we can see the principles of balance, justice, karmic knowledge,

restoration of good, chastisement.

 

When Saturn is the Atmakaraka, we can see the connection to Lord Kurmadeva or

the giant divine tortoise.

 

Kurmadeva is related to the churning of the ocean as celebrated in stones in the

great temples at Angkor.

 

Once up on a time, the demigods and the asuras or demons joined efforts to churn

the ocean in order to extract from it the elixir of immortality. However, for

such a task they needed the cooperation of Vasuki, the celestial snake, Mount

Meru, and Kurmadeva. Kurmadeva or the divine giant tortoise agreed to carry

mount Meru on his back. Vasuki, the celestial snake agreed to turn his body

around Mount Meru in order to gyrate it.

 

Here we can see the principles of tolerance, endurance, patience.

 

When Rahu is the Atmakaraka, we can see the connection to Lord Varaha or the divine giant wild boar.

 

Once up on a time, the Earth planet fell from its orbit and landed on the mud of

the ocean of this universe.

 

To rescue the Earth lord Varaha appeared. In the form of a giant wild boar, He

lifted the Earth with His tusks and put it back in its orbit. Demoniac people

no knowing how to manage the natural resources on Earth, from time to time make

the Earth change its motion or run off its orbit.

We can see the example of how this present materialistic civilization is based

on the main exploitation of petrol. Srila Prabhupada said once that in order

to satisfy the present demand for fuel, scientists are extracting oil from

Earth without thinking that such activity is going to produce an unbalance on

Earth’s motion and stability. He was told that scientists are leaving huge

empty bags once the petrol is extracted, and that they are filling the empty

space with seawater. Srila Prabhupada said that seawater does not have the

same weight as petrol and it does not produce the same fumes necessary for the

Earth’s equilibrium. He said that mother nature, to serve as giant brakes to

maintain Earth in a determined orbit, put those giant petrol bags there. Once

those “brakes” are gone, the Earth will spin in a different motion and

different orbit. No wonder we are starting to see drastic climatic changes all

over.

 

The greedy exploitation of petrol is attracting a heavy karma, which will soon

show malefic reactions.

 

We may pray for peace on this world but we should pray for humanity stopping the

blind exploitation of our natural resources and the killing of animals to

satisfy the tongue of materialistic people.

 

Those main sinful activities, are enough to attract wars and wealth inequality

in this world. When we want to stop a fire, we must stop the cause of the fire

instead of allowing people to add fuel to the fire.

 

As long as people continue in their mad career to satisfy their perverted

senses, we are going to see wars and a lack of good managers. There is plenty

of natural resources on this Earth to satisfy the natural demands of 20 or 30

billion humans. It is greed and mismanagement that is causing an unbalance on

Earth.

 

Here we can see the principles of rescue, resurrection, normalisation, helping.

 

When Ketu is the Atmakaraka, we can see the connection to Lord Matsya or the giant divine fish.

 

Once in the past, the Vedas were in danger of being lost by a huge deluge.

Therefore, Matsya in the form of a giant fish appeared to save the Vedas.

 

Here we can see the principles of salvation, protection, liberation.

 

Vedic astrologers can draw more principles to those atmakarakas, I have only

mentioned some guidelines.

 

Best wishes

Natabara das