Why *Jyothisha* ( Vedic Astrology) is not working in my case?

Hare Krsna

Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada

Though *Jyothisha* (Vedic astrology) is known to be the eyes of the Vedas, it is not working in my case . So , I believe *Jyothisha* is baseless". This is a complaint we often hear from many "Secular" Hindus.

*Jyothisha* is a divine tool. Great Rishis and Acharyas have utilized this instrument, to know about hidden truths and Bhagavan's will . *Jyothisha* is an integral part of our Temples. The condition of the Temple and the attitude of it's Deities are known from *Jyothisa-rituals*. According to the rules, any practitioner of *Jyothisha* , (Jyothishi OR Astrologer) must not demand any fee from his customer. He must accept just whatever is offered as *Dakshina*.

*Jyothisha* is meant only for Bhaktas. Anyone disbelieving the Vedas, is not eligible to have this service. Bhagavan Sri Krishna, very often uses the *Jyothisha* as a means to communicate with His Bhaktas.

Bhagavan Sri Krishna says in Udhava Gita

"Although I (Sri Krishna) the Supreme God, can never be captured by ordinary senses, My Bhaktas may use their intelligence and perception (vedic instruments such as Jyothisha) to directly search for Me through both apparent and indirect symptoms."

In this verse and purport of Srimad Bhagavatam (quoted below) Srila Prabhupada writes that the state should "sumptuously" , that is, richly reward a qualified astrologers. That is not happening now, ISKCON certainly doesn't, and as the original writer states an astrologer should just accept whatever is offered. Today this means that people (especially in ISKCON) want everything for free and will give crumbs to an astrologer. To be truly learned in this science takes many years of hard work and study yet those who come will give as little as they can because they think it is "free." The astrologer's land lord wants his rent every month, the electricity bill comes every month, food, clothes etc -- these suppliers do not give the astrologer anything because he is a brahmana. Yet the astrologer is supposed to live in poverty.

I have seen persons insult a very learned and accurate astrologer by offering 100 Rps for his consultation. My maid gets paid more than that. This astrologer usually charges 20,000 Rps/hr (yes twenty thousand rupees per hour) but didn't say anything and just wanted to see what they would give. After they left he told me "I would starve on such 'Dakshine.' " He didn't take the money but instead put it in the hundi. He discourages students telling them there is no use to study astrology for a living - you study for 10 years to become as accurate as possible and after studying a person's chart for 2-3 hours they give you 100 or 200 rupees. Better to do anything else than take up astrology.

Why then would anyone want to spend years of their lives mastering a subject and be treated with such disrespect. Especially in ISKCON we see that brahmanas are not actually respected or supported. They should give everything for free but they can go to hell and live like beggars on the street. This is the unfortunate state of ISKCON today regarding supporting brahminical culture.

And because people are not supporting Brahminical culture you see the rise of so many cheaters claiming to be astrologers, people who study a few books and then start predicting. Really qualified astrologers are out there but they are not "sumptuously" supported by the state and instead charge money so they can live.

The cheaters will sell gems and do homas for you that you don't need. And since they hardly spent any time studying it is no loss to them.

SB 1.12.29

"Thus those who were expert in astrological knowledge and in performance of the birth ceremony instructed King Yudhishthira about the future history of his child. Then, being sumptuously remunerated, they all returned to their respective homes. "

The Vedas are the storehouse of knowledge, both material and spiritual. But such knowledge aims at perfection of self-realization. In other words, the Vedas are the guides for the civilized man in every respect. Since human life is the opportunity to get free from all material miseries, it is properly guided by the knowledge of the Vedas, in the matters of both material needs and spiritual salvation. The specific intelligent class of men who were devoted particularly to the knowledge of the Vedas were called the vipras, or the graduates of the Vedic knowledge. There are different branches of knowledge in the Vedas, of which astrology and pathology are two important branches necessary for the common man. So the intelligent men, generally known as the brahmanas, took up all the different branches of Vedic knowledge to guide society. Even the department of military education (Dhanur-veda) was also taken up by such intelligent men, and the vipras were also teachers of this section of knowledge, as were Dronacarya, Kripacarya, etc. The word vipra mentioned herein is significant. There is a little difference between the vipras and the brahmanas. The vipras are those who are expert in karma-kanda, or fruitive activities, guiding the society towards fulfilling the material necessities of life, whereas the brahmanas are expert in spiritual knowledge of transcendence. This department of knowledge is called jnana-kanda, and above this there is the upasana-kanda. The culmination of upasana-kanda is the devotional service of the Lord Vishnu, and when the brahmanas achieve perfection, they are called Vaishnavas. Vishnu worship is the highest of the modes of worship. Elevated brahmanas are Vaishnavas engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, and thus Shrimad-Bhagavatam, which is the science of devotional service, is very dear to the Vaishnavas. And as explained in the beginning of the Shrimad-Bhagavatam, it is the mature fruit of Vedic knowledge and is superior subject matter, above the three kandas, namely karma, jnana and upasana. Amongst the karma-kanda experts, the jataka expert vipras were good astrologers who could tell all the future history of a born child simply by the astral calculations of the time (lagna). Such expert jataka-vipras were present during the birth of Maharaja Parikshit, and his grandfather, Maharaja Yudhishthira, awarded the vipras sufficiently with gold, land, villages, grains and other valuable necessaries of life, which also include cows. There is a need of such vipras in the social structure, and it is the duty of the state to maintain them comfortably, as designed in the Vedic procedure. Such expert vipras, being sufficiently paid by the state, could give free service to the people in general, and thus this department of Vedic knowledge could be available for all.

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Somayaji July 18, 2014 at 6:19pm

In this verse and purport of Srimad Bhagavatam (quoted below) Srila Prabhupada writes that the state should "sumptuously" , that is, richly reward a qualified astrologers. That is not happening now, ISKCON certainly doesn't, and as the original writer states an astrologer should just accept whatever is offered. Today this means that people (especially in ISKCON) want everything for free and will give crumbs to an astrologer. To be truly learned in this science takes many years of hard work and study yet those who come will give as little as they can because they think it is "free." The astrologer's land lord wants his rent every month, the electricity bill comes every month, food, clothes etc -- these suppliers do not give the astrologer anything because he is a brahmana. Yet the astrologer is supposed to live in poverty.

I have seen persons insult a very learned and accurate astrologer by offering 100 Rps for his consultation. My maid gets paid more than that. This astrologer usually charges 20,000 Rps/hr (yes twenty thousand rupees per hour) but didn't say anything and just wanted to see what they would give. After they left he told me "I would starve on such 'Dakshine.' " He didn't take the money but instead put it in the hundi. He discourages students telling them there is no use to study astrology for a living - you study for 10 years to become as accurate as possible and after studying a person's chart for 2-3 hours they give you 100 or 200 rupees. Better to do anything else than take up astrology.

Why then would anyone want to spend years of their lives mastering a subject and be treated with such disrespect. Especially in ISKCON we see that brahmanas are not actually respected or supported. They should give everything for free but they can go to hell and live like beggars on the street. This is the unfortunate state of ISKCON today regarding supporting brahminical culture.

And because people are not supporting Brahminical culture you see the rise of so many cheaters claiming to be astrologers, people who study a few books and then start predicting. Really qualified astrologers are out there but they are not "sumptuously" supported by the state and instead charge money so they can live.

The cheaters will sell gems and do homas for you that you don't need. And since they hardly spent any time studying it is no loss to them.

SB 1.12.29

"Thus those who were expert in astrological knowledge and in performance of the birth ceremony instructed King Yudhishthira about the future history of his child. Then, being sumptuously remunerated, they all returned to their respective homes. "

The Vedas are the storehouse of knowledge, both material and spiritual. But such knowledge aims at perfection of self-realization. In other words, the Vedas are the guides for the civilized man in every respect. Since human life is the opportunity to get free from all material miseries, it is properly guided by the knowledge of the Vedas, in the matters of both material needs and spiritual salvation. The specific intelligent class of men who were devoted particularly to the knowledge of the Vedas were called the vipras, or the graduates of the Vedic knowledge. There are different branches of knowledge in the Vedas, of which astrology and pathology are two important branches necessary for the common man. So the intelligent men, generally known as the brahmanas, took up all the different branches of Vedic knowledge to guide society. Even the department of military education (Dhanur-veda) was also taken up by such intelligent men, and the vipras were also teachers of this section of knowledge, as were Dronacarya, Kripacarya, etc. The word vipra mentioned herein is significant. There is a little difference between the vipras and the brahmanas. The vipras are those who are expert in karma-kanda, or fruitive activities, guiding the society towards fulfilling the material necessities of life, whereas the brahmanas are expert in spiritual knowledge of transcendence. This department of knowledge is called jnana-kanda, and above this there is the upasana-kanda. The culmination of upasana-kanda is the devotional service of the Lord Vishnu, and when the brahmanas achieve perfection, they are called Vaishnavas. Vishnu worship is the highest of the modes of worship. Elevated brahmanas are Vaishnavas engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, and thus Shrimad-Bhagavatam, which is the science of devotional service, is very dear to the Vaishnavas. And as explained in the beginning of the Shrimad-Bhagavatam, it is the mature fruit of Vedic knowledge and is superior subject matter, above the three kandas, namely karma, jnana and upasana. Amongst the karma-kanda experts, the jataka expert vipras were good astrologers who could tell all the future history of a born child simply by the astral calculations of the time (lagna). Such expert jataka-vipras were present during the birth of Maharaja Parikshit, and his grandfather, Maharaja Yudhishthira, awarded the vipras sufficiently with gold, land, villages, grains and other valuable necessaries of life, which also include cows. There is a need of such vipras in the social structure, and it is the duty of the state to maintain them comfortably, as designed in the Vedic procedure. Such expert vipras, being sufficiently paid by the state, could give free service to the people in general, and thus this department of Vedic knowledge could be available for all.

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Why Jyothisha ( Vedic Astrology) is not working in my case?

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