Response to Dhira Krishna Prabhu

[Guest guest]

Dear Dhira Krishna Prabhu

 

Please accept my humble obeisances .All glories to Srila prabhupada

 

> Here I'm sitting very peacefully behind my laptop, and I don't want

> anything of this envy which is going around in the Jyotish world, time

> again and again.

 

I'm not sure what envy you are specifically referring to but since the

subject matter has been Sanjay Rath's appointments of Gurus and Professors

at the SJC I assume it has some thing to do with that .

 

To earn a Professorship at a University one has to practise a discipline for

many years and one has to work through various stages ; pass degree, honors

degree , masters degree and Doctorate . To out of the blue appoint

Professorships does not show proper respect to the title . Perhaps some of

the people who are critical of the appointments are actually showing respect

to those persons who have genuinely earned the title and are concerned that

these appointments will bring ridicule to jyotish .Remember that Jyotish is

a sacred subject and we should not act in a way that opens it up to

belittlement .

>

> Yes, I have had some dispute with Mr. Rath some time ago, and took the

> opportunity of an auspicious muhurtha to ask for forgiveness. Is it

> hypocrisy to change one's mind? If so, then tank you for calling me such.

> First Dina-natha had written something similar to me in private, but since

> you now bring it to the open, I'll reply to the open as well. Ask

> yourself, what is better - unity, or separativeness? To ask forgiveness,

> or to envy a person?

 

Again there are better alternatives to asking forgiveness or being envious .

It is not an either / or situation .

 

 

>

> You probably will have an astrological reason for all this strange news to

> happen... Do you? You have seen the flaws in the chart of Mr. Rath, but

> why don't you reveal your own birth data then, so that we cannot see the

> flaws in your chart as well? Why are you hiding them?

 

If someone does not want to reveal their birth details then I respect that

and believe they have every right to their privacy . They should not be

accused of trying to hide something and their decision should be respected .

>

> Indeed, unfortunately the 8th house which gives the study of the occult,

> also represents secret enemies, and that's why there is so much envy in

> the Jyotish world today.

 

8th house gives esoteric knowledge and also secret enemies but in practise

one can have esoteric knowledge and no secret enemies or one can have secret

enemies and no esoteric knowledge .So simply because the 8th house is

activated in a chart we cannot conclude that the native will posess unusual

knowledge or secret enemies .

 

 

> and that's why there is so much envy in

> the Jyotish world today.

 

 

The implication here seems to be that those who are critical of the SJC are

motivated by envy .But in most of the cases I have seen the motivation has

been concern . I saw the thread on Moola dasha as addressing the following

widely held major concern .I will state it specifically .

 

" Sanjay Rath is presenting the use of too many techniques many of which he

himself is only vaguely familiar . "

 

 

 

It should be remembered that many acknolwedged masters of jyotish used only

one dasha system yet the SJC are presenting many dashas to new students . It

takes many years to master Vimshottari which is well known , widely written

about and well sign posted in the traditional jyotish literature .Certainly

Parasara gave it pride of place .

 

 

So as devotees foremost wouldn't it be wiser to at least become mediocre

with Vimshottari than be hopeless with a dozen dashas .

 

Sanjay eagerly came up with his presentation of Moola dasha . But the first

problem is that he presented it on a chart that is mostly unknown .I even

saw that it was being reconsidered whether the 5 exalted planets being

referred to might include Rahu and Ketu .In teaching one has to move from

the known to the unknown .Here neither is well known .Perhaps rather than

envy what we are seeing is concern about the quality of teaching .

 

 

Someone forwarded me some posts from the Vedic-astrology list in which

Nrsma Rao disagreed with the way Sanjay had calculated the dasha . You have

probably seen that many programs give different tallies for sad bal or even

ashtakavarga .When we move into areas of jyotish that are not well known or

understood and we depend on translations of texts there ends up being plenty

of scope for interpretation . Perhaps rather than envy what we are seeing is

concern that our devotees time is being misspent .

 

> I just now recall the example of the

> mirror-effect: those flaws which are present in our own hearts, we will

> see them in the hearts of those we envy. Probably the rishis of ancient

> times knew to deal with these things, and could keep their minds cool with

> sadhana of mantra recitation. I don't say you are not doing like that, you

> are a devotee.

 

In my experience Sanjay Rath is a nice person who has great faith in jyotish

and wishes to share his knowledge with his students . However on what I have

seen I could not recommend that people learn jyotish from him . I think the

experience you would get from learning from Sanjay would be similar to that

got from reading his book " Crux of Vedic astrology " . There are certainly

some gems of knowledge there but also a lot of muddlesome stuff that would

most likely confuse rather than enlighten .Each however is free to follow

their own judgement on this matter .

 

 

>

> Regarding your charges of teaching the wrong things, there is a distinct

> difference between siksa in Jyotish, which is a vedanga, and the

> Veda-philosophy. You must know this. E.g. the art of shooting an arrow,

> and the art of pleasing Krsna with a puja and understanding of

> bhakti-yoga, is it the same?

 

Personally I am uncomfortable with devotees in Iskcon referring to Sanjay

as Guruji .It strikes me as not being respectful to our Diksha Gurus who are

our life and soul not Jyotish .

 

I am thankful to Shyamasundara Prabhu for discussing the shortcomings in

Sanjay Rath's presentation . I found it a valuable exercise in terms of

strengthening the powers of discernment as to what is the wood and chaff of

Jyotish .

 

Your Servant

Yadu Srestha