Any normal individual perceives Time in three separate segments: present, past, and future. The present is what one lives, the past is lived and hence known, and the future is uncertain. These normal individuals assume that their thoughts, words, and actions are performed by them. That’s how nature works in our world.
Further, reactions to stimuli generate similar behaviour in them. Tasty food, good clothes, and an expensive house are liked, and the opposite is disliked. Appreciation and reprimands have the same effect. Loved, they like; rebuked, they hate. This is true for all normal people. That’s how nature works on them, almost like a rule. Tantra uses this to administrate nature and people. Deviations from this rule make the administration of Tantra jittery.
Money, property, name, fame, sex, food, work, love, etc., are instruments of Tantra for administration. More of these is desired and less of these is undesirable. Deviation from these likes and dislikes is an aberration. This anomaly confuses the Tantric Administration Mechanism (TAM).
Tamas guna is very easy to administer. Raja guna (power, happiness, control) is slightly difficult to measure and administer. Satwa guna (wisdom, knowledge, selfless action) is difficult to administer. In TAM, the Tatwas are used to administer these. The principle is very basic and simplistic. The Gunas and their interplay are manifested through the Tatwas, and we are only puppets at their disposal.
Sāṅkhya Kārikā 22 (The Tattvas)
प्रकृतेर्महांस्ततोऽहङ्कारस्तस्माद्गणश्च षोडशकः ।
तस्मादपि षोडशकात्पञ्चभ्यः पञ्च भूतानि ॥ २२ ॥
prakṛter mahān tato’haṅkāras tasmād gaṇaś ca ṣoḍaśakaḥ |
tasmād api ṣoḍaśakāt pañcabhyaḥ pañca bhūtāni ||
From Prakṛti arises Mahat (Buddhi);
from Mahat arises Ahaṅkāra;
from Ahaṅkāra arise the sixteen evolutes;
and from five of these arise the five gross elements.
Kārikās 11, 12, and 13 are the strongest verses to quote because together they establish:
- Everything manifest is constituted by Guṇas.
- All behaviour arises from Guṇic interaction.
- The entire cosmos unfolds through Tattvas.
Bhagavad Gita 14.5
सत्त्वं रजस्तम इति गुणाः प्रकृतिसम्भवाः ।
निबध्नन्ति महाबाहो देहे देहिनमव्ययम् ॥
Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas arise from Prakriti and bind the imperishable embodied being to the body.
This verse establishes that bondage itself is due to the Gunas.
Bhagavad Gita 7.4
भूमिरापोऽनलो वायुः खं मनो बुद्धिरेव च ।
अहङ्कार इतीयं मे भिन्ना प्रकृतिरष्टधा ॥
Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, and ego constitute My eightfold divided Prakriti.
Tantra, through TAM, using earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, and intellect, works through bondages (money, property, name, fame, sex, food, work, love, etc.) and administers everyone. Ego is beyond Tantra. Here, ego can be interpreted as the will to overindulge in or disregard bondage. Devas disregard bondage, and Asuras overindulge.
An astrologer uses bondage in the required measure and helps people bypass the Tantric Governance System (TGS). This use of bondage is extremely essential to understand TAM and outsmart TGS. Unless the Tantric mechanism is understood, it cannot be outsmarted.
This is the purpose of astrology and the duty of astrologers.
The crucial element is EGO. Tantra, quite frankly, is afraid of EGO. EGO helps a person believe that he is supreme after comparison with others—a sense that he is better compared to others. Ego prompts a person not to obey the Tantric mechanism. The best mechanism to explore Ego is Yoga. It is important to understand Yoga and Tantra from a practical point of view.
Yoga is independence. Tantra is submission. Tantra is submitting oneself before nature and flowing with nature without questions. “Let it be” is the attitude. Yoga, on the other hand, is asking “Why?” or questioning the system. Further, Yoga is finding ways and means to break the shackles of the Tantric mechanism. This is not easy.
Tantra is like a King. If one completely submits before the King, the King becomes happy and asks, “What do you want?” The person says, “I want to liberate myself from the Tantric mechanism.” And the King smilingly says, “OK. Granted.”
But a Yogi questions the King. This the King doesn’t like. He puts the person through all kinds of hardship for disobeying. The Yogi doesn’t stop here. He devises ways and means to gather that which puts the King at discomfort. Because of constant and persistent effort, the Yogi becomes so capable that he challenges the King. It is the turn of the King to be afraid now. The Yogi, by his efforts, has developed ways and means whereby the King’s systems can no longer punish him. The Yogi becomes a King. This is sometimes referred to as Raja Yoga.
If one observes carefully, in our world Yogis are generally poor and without many possessions. But if that person is committed to yogic ways, he enjoys Raja Yoga. These are people who endure a lot of hardships in life because they generally question the world order.
Tantric people, on the other hand, are people who say “Yes” more often. They ride the ladder of success quickly. But these people generally become miserable later because they actually feel like servants of nature.
Spiritual reality is different. Let’s take one form of spirituality: Chakra Sadhana. At the bottom exists the Muladhara Chakra. In Tantra, this chakra, when not activated, is laziness. But once it is activated, it leads to confusion, and this confusion leads to indecision. As no decision is taken, one doesn’t look forward to results. These people are happy people without much pressure to deliver. They generally prefer to leave the Grihasta Ashrama and escape to something like a forest where they do not have to take decisions. A let-go attitude or a “let it be” way of living.
Yoga is the attempt to move from the Muladhara to the Sahasrara (at the crown of the head). In the journey from the Muladhara to the Sahasrara, the Yogi gathers information and the power to negotiate through the Tantric mechanism. At the Sahasrara, he becomes a King. Another King (the Tantra King and his system) cannot cause him harm.
The issue is that this King becomes too lonely too soon. His aim is union. This Union is YOGA. The yogic journey is over for now, but the urge for union becomes intense. He looks toward a concept called God, to get united. It is very difficult to leave the citadel of the King.
In desperation for union, he again travels down to the Muladhara Chakra to be united with the female force, or Nature. This journey from the top to the bottom is a Tantric journey.
The sadhana of an astrologer is, at the least, the completion of this one round of travel (from bottom to top and back from Sahasrara to Muladhara). This Sadhaka is aware of both the Yogic and the Tantric mechanisms.
Astrologically, the Sun (Soul) is exalted in Aries. After a full circle of the Zodiac, it comes back to Aries again. The Sun has to go down to debilitation and make a journey to reach exaltation again. Both astrology and spirituality are nothing but the journey of the Soul, and this journey is their primary concern.
I am giving two horoscopes to examine:
- Time of Birth: 2:57 AM
Date of Birth: 28th April 1968
Place of Birth: Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India - Time of Birth: 4:37 PM
Date of Birth: 27th August 2003
Place of Birth: Cuttack, Odisha, India
Deliberately, precise seconds have not been given. We will examine these for free will, spirituality, and enlightenment subsequently.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
