Our family Astrologer who had worked out our Horoscopes was a lanky man who could afford only two pieces of cloth to wear. A white rough long-cloth (Dhoti) covered him from his hips to the knees and the other an ochre coloured cloth with Slokas from Vedas written thereon covering his shoulders. He walked bare feet through muddy village roads. He accepted without looking, whatever sum was being offered by the families he visited occasionally, in token of his services. The thought of being poverty-stricken never occurred to him, for he valued his knowledge of Astrology, which he acquired in traditional learning centers of Varanasi, the city that has preserved the old Vedic leanings and its Sanskrit language. I remember my father, a school teacher, with barely enough to maintain his family, laughing together with the Astrologer over a glass of tea, when he predicted looking at my horoscope that I would soon go to a foreign place for some years. It was nothing but a joke for someone who would think twice before taking a bus ride to the nearest big-town, 60kms away. Yet after tea, he told my parents to be ready, for the calculations showed no ambiguity and must come true. As it happened about a month later a young college professor who knew us, (he is still there and is a well known person) brought a form, filed it up and asked my father to sign. In a few months time two consecutive exams took place and out of thousand or so candidates, six students got scholarship from The Government of India to study in costly prestigious schools. My school was thousands of miles away, where the language, culture and people were all in a sense foreign to us, even though it lay within the geographic limits of India. I was then ten years old and indeed spent my next seven years in this foreign place. Neither my father nor the Astrologer had ever heard about such scholarships and such schools. Yet our Astrologer, just by basing his calculations on the position of certain prominent heavenly bodies, from the moment of my birth, could predict correctly or in other words, could look ahead into time.
Ask a Physicist; and to him such ability to look into the future or into the past is an impossibility, and he will look-down upon you for believing in such Astrological predictions and consider you superstitious.
This is just one instance of numerous such predictions from him from time to time. The horoscope could predict the mental inclinations of us brothers, the direction of the locality and profession of our future brother in law ( the person to whom our elder sister would be married to ), what kind of job we were likely to hold, the likelihood of any major sicknes, how prosperous we would be etc. etc. Most of the predictions, if not all, have come true. Not only us, but this is true for thousands of families, who have knowledgeable Astrologers to consult. Later in my life, I have had prediction from other Astrologers regarding future of my sons, about my difficulties in my career etc. which have come true.( even though I normally do not consult, as I am afraid of getting adversely influenced by negative predictions, which might not let me live and take things as they come in life. But once in a while I am compelled by my wife, for she finds strength in the favourable predictions during our times of difficulty.).
I am a student of physics and got my Masters Degree from a respectable university. Prior to my college education in Physics, I considered Astrologer's predictions as something that was just available if you wanted, without thinking much about what and how of it. But after studying Physics, I was astounded by this ability to calculate out events in future, even though in an imprecise general manner, from the position of certain celestial bodies at the Moment of Inception in the womb or from the moment of Birth of a baby. I would not have believed, had I not seen umpteen predictions within our family coming again and again true. The nature of these predictions and degree of accuracy left no room for any doubt, that there is something in these calculations, which has not been yet discovered by our present crop of scientists.
The predictions are not always direct or precise. I give an example. When I was 2000kms away studying in this boarding school, I fell sick of Jaundice. No communication reached either from the School, as my house was in a remote village and communication even by letter was difficult. A few days later I received a letter from my father written much before I had fallen sick. It told me not to eat meat and egg for sometime, at the astrologer’s advice. Everyone knows that these items are prohibited when suffering from Jaundice. The letter also told me not to go near a well. It shows that I had possibility of two perils, out of which I suffered one. It also might indicate some error in prediction, which could be due to imprecise data in my horoscope or due to inherent impreciseness of Astrological calculations. I really don’t know.
Of all physical and non-physical dimensions defining Existence, 'Time' is the least understood of all. The proper place of Time in our Reality is an enigma. It baffles all Scientists as well as the common people. The very fact, that Astrologers can predict future events about a person’s life and can recite past happenings based upon his empirical calculations, shows that there are aspects about time still unknown to modern Science. We cannot throw away the ability of Astrologers to see trough time, using his empirical calculations based on the positions of nearby prominent cosmic bodies.
There can be no Effect without Cause. Whether the planets have any effect on our lives through some yet-unknown force of nature or it is due to the effect of gravity or the curvature of Space-Time caused by these bodies or through some yet unimagined cosmic factor, we do not know. The important fact to note is that the Astrologer bases his empirical calculations on the position of planetary bodies and are able to predict happenings.
The universe is incomplete without any one of us. We are integral part of the universe and are connected with it in vary many different ways. The intelligence in the neuron-circuits in our brains is also somehow intimately connected to the outside universe. The mind (intelligence and knowledge) is the essential part of our existence. The body is only an accessory to keep it alive and to carry out its commands. Is it not illogical to think that, just as our body matter is influenced by Gravity, the intelligence content is also similarly affected by some yet unperceived all pervading cosmic influence, specially so when the seed is implanted ie at the moment of our inception.
When unable to discard the correctness of predictions of an Astrologer, some people explain it as Sixth-sense or Special Powers of the mind, unconnected to the planetary position calculations. But the basic fact remains that if the predictions are made correctly they has to have a scientific explanation. If a person is endowed with Special Powers, even then his mind has to find a path to get information from the future or from the past. This definitely shows that there is some property i.e. something in the nature of “Time”, which enables the person/Astrologer to see ahead through his Special Powers or through his Planetary Calculations.
Therefore instead of hiding like the proverbial Ostrich from the predictions of the Astrologers, we need to study his methods, using the reasoning powers and tools of Physics and performing suitable thought experiments. I believe that Astrology is a chink in the seemingly impenetrable armory of Nature, which can lead to understanding Time more correctly, than we do now.
If long distance space travel to other stars and galaxies is to be made possible in real-time by human beings, then we must understand Time better. i)The predictions of Quantum physics allowing a particle to be present at two different locations in the universe simultaneously, ii) the possibility of travel to far off places in space through worm-holes; thanks to Relativity, iii) using certain hidden facets of Time yet unknown to us (but hinted by Astrologer’s predictive ability); any of these or all of them may one day allow humans to become space-faring civilization. But for all the three options to be utilized by us in the distant future, deep understanding of the entity called “ Time” is a must.
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