The Crystal Gazers

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Srimate SrivanSataopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

The Crystal Gazers

 

We sit in suspense before him, tense with anticipation and

anxiety. We stare at his bent head, waiting for the moment he would

speak out and provide us answers to the myriad questions we have. We

linger with impatience while he pores over our horoscope, our mind

teeming with queries—would I go abroad and find a lucrative

position that would enable me to settle down financially for the rest

of my life, would the daughter, for long in search of an ideal groom,

find one early, would the chronic disease that has crippled life and

limb give me a respite, would I build the house of my dreams at last,

would I secure admission in a reputed college for a course of my

choice—these and a hundred other questions like these haunt us

day and night, for which we desperately seek answers.

 

Fortunately or unfortunately, the answers lie not in the realm of the

present, but belong to the Future. And the problem is that Future is a

closed book, the leaves of which cannot be opened and perused till the

appointed time arrives. It is a blind turning, with little clue as to

what lies round the corner. This makes us more anxious, for it is the

suspense that is unbearable, not even the actual future event,

whatever it be and whenever it happens. It is this anxiety and

suspense about how things would turn out, that drive us almost

insane. It is then that we turn to the Astrologer, who, we believe,

is capable of foretelling our prospects and putting us wise to what

the future holds for us, whether it be bouques or brickbats, whether

it is a harbinger of good tidings or bad, whether the portents are

auspicious or ominous. Since the very course of our lives depends

upon what the soothsayer is about to pronounce, we hold him in high

reverence and regard, clinging on to every word of his.

 

It would appear that the wisdom of the present day man has contracted

considerably, compared to that of his forebears. We are told that

Rishis of yore knew not only what had happened, but also what the

future held in store for anyone—what is popularly knows as

“GnAna Drishti”. When we consider this, our own plight of

poor memory of things past, our lack of comprehension of even present

day events and our total ignorance about the outlook and

opportunities the future holds for us—all these put us to

shame. Thus, the eagerness to know our prospects drives us to the

astrologer, in the obvious belief that forewarned is forearmed.

 

Without in any way casting aspersions on fortune-tellers, whether they

are mere gypsies in tents gazing at crystal balls, the one under the

banyan tree who puts our entire future in the beak of a parrot which

picks up a card on which a stereotyped message is printed, the

way-side wonder wielding a magnifying glass with which he is able to

read a wealth of information from our open palm with apparently

little effort or the learned vidvAn of JyOtisha ShAstra, well-versed

in HOrA skandam, professing the capablity to predict the events of an

entire life , with data on just the hour and second of the

subject’s birth—without in any way belittling these

worthy gentlemen and ladies who specialise in this rather dicey

profession, we must agree that most of the time, what we are fed by

way of predictions is just tripe, pure and simple. If we ask

ourselves the important question as to whether these gentlemen would

be where they are, if they really knew their own future, the answer

would tell us what degree of credence we should attach to their

soothsaying. In many cases, it turns to be a case the blind leading

the blind—“andhEnaiva neeyamAnA yathA andhA:”

 

 

Astrological consultations are not only strewn with the aforesaid

pitfalls, but also lead us at times to forbidden paths forsaken by

our elders, especially in the name of PrAyaschittam. Many a time we

are told that the only way to avoid some inauspicious future event or

other is to perform a hOmam, to wear a particular coloured stone, to

worship a particular demigod. All these, apart from being of dubious

efficacy, lead us away from our chosen path of Prapatti and may well

result in a significant setback in the Pilgrim’s Progress.

 

In tailoring our attitude towards anything, we should be guided by the

conduct of good people of impeccable standing and

superiority—“yat yat Acharati shrEshtta: tat tat Eva

itarO jana:”says the Gita. Going by this maxim, if we scour the

scripture for instances of great people consulting astrologers for

learning this or that aspect of their future, we are unable to find

any significant indications in this regard, search as we might.

 

When His coronation failed to materialise, when He was forced into

exile in the inhospitable jungle for fourteen long years, clad in

little more than tree bark and deer skin, when His beloved wife and

the apple of His eye was abducted by a notorious rAkshasa, when both

He and His beloved brother were felled by the foe’s nAga pAsa

and the outcome of the bloody war became uncertain—even when

faced with all these trials and tribulations, Sri Rama did not rush

to a soothsayer even once, to find out whether the day that would

dawn would hold better hope than the day on which the Sun had set.

True, we hear of Sage VasishttA taking into account the movements of

planets for fixing the ill-fated Coronation of DAsarathi, but there

does not appear to be any mention of recourse to fortune-tellers, for

divining what was in store.

 

Similarly, when the Divine Toddler was beset by one marauder after

another, sent down to GOkulam by the cruel Kamsa, we do not hear of

Yasoda or Nandagopa trying to peer into the foggy realm of the

future, with the aid of an astrologer, for what might happen to their

“iLam singam”. Nor did the PANdavAs, despite all their

unending travails, having lost their thrones, their vast kingdom,

untold riches and their very wife, seek the services of a soothsayer

for finding out when their troubles would end.

 

Nor even do we hear of our learned Acharyas consulting jyOtishIs for

learning this or that aspect of their future.

 

Hence, if we are indeed to follow the example set by Great Ones, we

should be content to wait for the future to unfold itself, without

attempting to obtain a sneak preview with the aid of those who

profess to show us the same.

 

While it is natural for a person beset with apparently insurmountable

problems to try and find out whether the status quo would improve or

not, an appreciation of the causative factors for such a state would

surely dissuade him from any such attempt, for whatever we reap today

is indeed the crop of what we sowed yesterday, in yesteryears or in

our previous births. “DEha yAtrai karmAdheenam” our

Acharyas tell us, clarifying that whatever happens to us now, good or

bad, is but a result of our accumulated KarmA, over which we have

absolutely no control and which has to be lived through, whether it

is pleasureable or painful. “adukku karaya

vENdA”—Acharyas forbid us from worrying about the current

state of affairs or living in a constant state of suspense about what

the future would hold for us, for every happening, past, present and

future, and every intricate detail thereof, have been preordained by

our mixed baggage of good and bad deeds, and no amount of tears nor

of peering into the future would make an iota of difference to the

course of life’s events.

 

Hence, as surrendered souls or Prapannas, what we need to have is

absolute confidence in the Lord’s dispensation. We should stand

secure in the belief that whatever happens in future, palatable to us

or not, is for the best. If it is something not to our liking and

results in unhappiness and despair, we must take it that the Lord,

the impartial arbiter that He is, has chosen this way of washing off

our Karma. If the future turns out to be a rosegarden, with nary a

care but filled with fun and happiness, this too should be accepted

as a mode of exhausting the merit acquired earlier. It is only when

puNyam and pApam are either worked off by being experienced or the

sins being pardoned by the Lord as part of the Prapatti package, that

a person becomes eligible for emancipation—“puNya pApE

vidhooya niranjana: paramam sAmyam upaiti”.

 

Thus, from a layman’s viewpoint, it appears as though we

Prapannas have nothing to fear about the future, having dumped on

Emperuman’s everready shoulders the responsibility as well as

the fruits of our future lives (“aham mad rakshaNa bharO mad

rakshana phalam tathA…na mama, SreepatErEva iti AtmAnam

nikshipEt budha:”). The Future holds a terror only to those who

are afraid of the slings and arrows of fortune, who lack the

equanimity to accept the good with the bad and those who are beset

with familial and other obligations. To us, however, who have not a

care in the world, having accepted the Lord as our Saviour and the

one responsible for our welfare, whatever He deals out is accepted as

Bhagavat Prasadam—the question of its being liked or otherwise

doesn’t arise, for it is indeed His will, and He can never put

us in harm’s way. When the world around us might await the dawn

with brows lined with care and thoughts muddled with fear of the

future, we Prapannas, when we lay our heads down to sleep, enjoy the

slumber of the newborn, our minds unclouded by what the morrow holds

for us, secure in our maxim, “nirbharO nirbhayOsmi”.

 

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri

Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

Dasan, sadagopan