A lot of people believe that the future can be seen through the horoscopes. Some even go to the extent of declaring that it is a science. The perennial skeptic that I am, I refuse to believe such things. After all I believe in rational historical materialism. Not the sort that is preached by Ayn Rand but the original version of it. We see horoscopes in newspapers, astrologers on footpaths in Mumbai, and now even on SMS. Some people make it a point to see what’s in store for them before leaving for work. This is big business.
Now coming to my experiences with “the beyond”, yesterday a doctor came to pay us a visit. I was in another room, surfing the net and listening to some music. I went out to take a leak and saw the doctor telling people something about some planets. I immediately figured what was going on. A nice little session of astrology. Now according to the astrologer, I was going to have a good time and get amazing results if I put in a lot of hard work. That was apparently due to the positioning of Saturn in my horoscope. And I was going to get myself a girl in 2008 for sure. He was ready to write it in ink. I didn’t know how to react. So I laughed it off. But my uncle, aunt and my parents were really taking him seriously. Few minutes later I came to know that my aunt was a disbeliever like me but due to a couple of incidents she was a convert. Same with my father, my brother went through an almost fatal health problem when he was in his third grade and it had been written in his horoscope that it would happen. My uncle went through a tough phase and again it was predicted.
I sometimes wonder whether this all has some science behind it. Why do millions all around the world believe in it? Not only in India but in the west too. They have their western astrology with all kind of animals for months. I fall into the category of scorpions. I am intense and revengeful and a passionate person. People who know me will say I am anything but intense! Now let us look at this as rationally as possible.We all want to know what the future holds. It would be better if we knew what was in store. We would get rid of all the insecurities that we have. All the emotional ups and downs would be over. Then the question arises, do we want that to happen? It might sound strange that I want to go through the hardships that are “supposedly” in store for me. They make me a better person. They make me value what I have. That inspires me to achieve what I want, at all costs. It is a famous saying that “Failure teaches you more than success.” And I am fully aware that writing such things on a blog is easier than facing it, and I am writing all the right and clichéd things. Think again. Why are these things right and clichéd? Obviously, because they hold a certain amount of truth and substance in them.Taking the western methodology first and briefly. Our traits are signified by certain creatures which are attributed to us according to our birth. Each of these creatures, have traits which are shared by us. To dismiss this in not many lines, I would like to give examples of two great sport stars with whom I share my birthday. Courtney Walsh, the great West Indian fast bowler and Diego Maradona. Both were born on the 30th October. But while Maradona is passionate and all that, Walsh was the coolest person on the field most of the times.
After their illustrious careers, while Walsh has maintained a low profile, Maradona has been in all sorts of problems. Why, if both were scorpions, make different choices? Then the “free will” jargon is thrown in. It can be easily refuted by arguing that their socio-economic conditions had a lot to do with the choices they made. Hence, there is no divine intervention there.
Firstly, if we are to assume that there is some truth in astrology, it is a pre-condition that we believe that everything is destined. We are just playing out the part that someone wrote for us. Thus far it has not been the worst script. The astrologer that I was chatting with said that I haven’t met a person who has achieved great heights without having a powerful horoscope.
Secondly we have to presume that someone is up there looking after us. I have had serious “faith fights” with myself in the past. I came to the conclusion that I would rather not “believe” and do the right thing than believe and conform to all the ills of my religion. Hinduism particularly has inherent evil class-caste barriers and information control mechanisms. You will say how this is relevant.
Now let me start dissecting the topic. We must also bear in mind that this is in essence a Hindu “science” (?). The Hindu religion is plagued by the caste system. Where the scope of achievement of individuals is restricted to their birth. A “Kshatriya” will be a warrior and king, “Brahmin” will be a teacher and a priest, “Vaishya” will be a tradesman and craftsman, and “Shudras” will do all the sanitation and other “unwanted jobs”. Furthermore, Shudras are almost abandoned from the society; they do not mix with other castes, not allowed to read the Holy Scriptures (a major knowledge source in those days) and other disciplines, as that privilege is retained only for the higher castes.
This is just my conspiracy theory but let me go ahead with this. By believing in these methods, even partially, you tend to become fatalists albeit in a little degree. This restricts your scope of achievement. You tend to accept setbacks without much remonstration. Which is good for your spiritual health, but I see another societal control mechanism in this. How easy would it be to rule a bunch of fatalists? Easier than the followers of revolutionaries, I’d say. Krishna himself tells Arjun that you are mere tools for the execution of the divine plan. And what does Arjun do? He kills his “adharmi” brothers and sisters. Now as blasphemous as it may sound, the Islamic terrorists do the same thing for Islam! Bin Laden says that Allah will shower blessings on you and they are ready to kill people and blow themselves up in the process. So such things are in tune with the Vedas and other Scriptures which promulgate acceptance and fatalism. All a conspiracy to maintain a status quo. Imagine, even after killing thousands of people Arjun and his mates all go to heaven while a poor Shudra, if he even reads the scriptures or accidentally kills a cow or something of that sort, he burns in hell for a lot of time and then is reborn as a filthy animal. And I can put my neck on the line for this. Even after working hard for almost an entire life, a poor laborer dies in oblivion. While a useless king, who kills his father to get to the throne has a lavish life and is chronicled in history! All because the planets wanted it to be that way. All because it is written in the stars! I don’t subscribe to this unjust system.
All this doesn’t mean that I am against astrology because it is a by-product of Hinduism. I am against it in any form. We must fight this, although not by ridiculing the believer but by presenting arguments to the contrary. We must fight against conformism and dogmatism. We must fight for the legitimization of liberal dialogue. This change is important towards building a progressive society.
2008 is supposed to be a very good year for me. It will reap me benefits if I put in the effort. Fair enough. If that is the master plan for me, let it be. I don’t want myself to be bothered by it. I want the uncertain to be that way. I will go by the war cry of Che “Until victory, always!” I shall struggle for what I want, until victory. Let the scorpion and Saturn perform its duties. I am doing my work. I shall try and do good things around me, so that this place is better when I leave it.
it was nice and well thought of. but lacked in one main aspect, research. astrology can be safely called a science. how that we will talk when we meet. but yes, like all sciences it is just a guideline. nothing more. people who depend on it completely are really going to be disappointed some day. coz it is not so easy to know the future after all. but because all want to know it, in more ways than one and in more places than one it has now become a good business in whatever form, astrology indian or western, tarot cards palmistry etc…
again u are short on research when it comes to religion, and the correlations are poor (eg, osama with krishna or arjun. there is a lot of background that goes into it). also you need to read up a little bit of hinduism to know what it really says. what stage the castes sys came into being, what is the real religion (vedantic religion that includes not only the vedas, but upanishads, and other scriptures also) castes were first mentioned in the manusmriti. u will find the followers of ambedkar hating that book. and in the original religion and society at that time, people were permitted to change their caste if they so wished to. the word is not shudras, but in reality kshudras, which is in actuality the service class. all people involved with services were kshudras. services did not only include bhangis. but a tailor was also the same. if a kshudra by birth wanted to study scriptures he was permitted and in the end he became a brahmin. it was after the pauranik era that social deterioration started when brahmins started subjugating other castes, more so the kshudras. it was wrong by all standards and still is. but then deterioration of society is due to the people in that society, not its religion. it is a fault with humans that shows. selfishness and greed for power are human attributes and not of religion. if u read a little about other religions also, u will know that all religions actually say the same thing, indifferent words. even islam for which so many are fighting say do not fight, protect women and children and old, indulge in charity etc…. so i would not put the blame on any religion. but i strongly believe it is a stupid, selfish hedonistic and greedy humankind that is responsible for deterioration of any social fabric.
Comment by parth — January 2, 2008 @ 6:31 pm |
there is a correction here “….. u will know that all religions say the same thing, ‘in different words’”.
Comment by parth — January 2, 2008 @ 6:40 pm |
Parth, thanks for your appraisal. This is just a blog and not a research paper, so I would appreciate if you pardoned me onthe research bit. Anyways, religion can’t be viewed in isolation. Any religion for that matter. So originally every form of knowledge is pure. But you will see that each religion became a tool for reaffirming power structures as argued in the article. For example, take Marxism. in its pure form is an amazing socio-political critique. But what Stalin did, has, with the help of propaganda machinery, demonized Marxism. Is that fair? I would say, partly yes. At the end, he was posing as the beholder of the worker’s revolution. Similarly for religion. It will manifest itself like the people want it to. And hence I am criicizing that form of religion or religion per say.
Comment by Anshul Trivedi — January 2, 2008 @ 10:13 pm |
As I told you on phone, I would make a distinction between Astrology the science and Astrology being used as a power mechanism. I would partially agree with Parth that Astrology can be safely called a science. Historically we find that those who have undue concentration of wealth and power or those who have some kind of monopoly use it to establish their social dominance. In this case of Astrology the astrologer has “informational advantage” just like a lawyer or doctor. Therefore in my view the astrological science has substantial credibility, I told you a lot of incidents on phone as well. But the fact that it is used as a power mechanism by a certain class to suppress the lower classes by telling them they are destined to live a miserable life creates havoc. We will meet in college and discuss whether this article is biased or not.
Comment by Aseem Naphade — January 4, 2008 @ 4:37 am |
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Trackback by Resource and Information — February 3, 2008 @ 3:02 am |
Anshul hasn’t understood Astrology. Western Astrology is nonsense, so is the horoscopes that come in SMSes and Newspapers. Astrology doesn’t say anything of certainity, all learnt in astrology will tell you this. What astrology does do is say if a time is good or bad for you. Whether it is a science or not one can’t say without having understood science itself. Like for example, the Moon exerts a force on the Earth as all matter does, Aryabhatta made the theory of Gravitation and told us this. Today when we see tides we know it is due to the force of Gravitation the moon is playing on the Earth. Without knowledge of this if one says, “It is illogical to say something that far has any effect on Earth” that person will be called a fool.
Materialism, is an ignorant theory that needs no comment. It doesn’t bring into play the nature of induviduals which is indeed a factor. Now today like a wild ape, you might say Astrology is not a science and the stars, planets have no effect on us. Will it be proven a science in the future? Why did our ancestors call it a science? Ah! Of course, because they were un-educated, brainless savages, right Anshul?
Comment by Vivek — May 19, 2008 @ 4:00 pm |
You hate for anything that is western is apparent in this post as well. [:P] Anyways, who in the world told you that materialism does not take into account the nature of the individual? Materialism views it as a response to the material conditions and not as the actor.
What I am saying is simple, a science has to be empirical and Astrology certainly isn’t and hence all this is blind faith. Again if it were a developed science, during our hallowed ancestors’ time, (I have told you before also), it would have become the basis of social change and activity. And an established science cannot become extinct due to depleting intellectual capacities as it has been proved by empirical science that the intellect of human generations is increasing. Just like now the nuclear technology cannot become extinct, same applies to astrology. but somehow it became extinct because we dont have the mental faculties … is it, Vivek?
Comment by Anshul — May 19, 2008 @ 4:14 pm |
My point is it is quiet ignorant of many to make comments without even having read much on the matter. Anshul, like Marx speaks of the Caste System. Check the Earth today, we have manual workers, we have teachers, accountants, lawyers, government officials, soldiers, writers and many many occupations. What are these if not a class divide. It has been the Marxist goal of eradicating culture, or so I have been told. Anshul well knows what the original caste system was, Vyasa the Brahmana (highest caste) was born of a “low” caste. Valmiki who became a sage (Brahmana) was a dacoit, the truth is caste system was a class, what you became nothing else. It got corrupted later true, but does that mean we should ridicule all our culture? We need to revive our culture. Marx made his ideas in the West and to be very frank, read the history of Europe for the previous millenia. If you had, or will you will see much wars, destruction, ridiculous rules like Droit De Signeur, Witch hunts, Public prosections, Blood sacrifices and what not. Marx’s theory was “for mankind” but not all of “mankind” has behaved or lived the same. Now what do we see in Communist nations like China? Lack of rights for people and violence. This theory is FAR FAR from Liberal. Marxist imposes an ideology of “Atheism” just as religious institutions like the Church imposed “Christianity”. Forget all that, look back at Indian kingdoms. Ashoka had Buddhist, Hindus in his kingdoms, not one noble ruler as Ashoka ever rose in the West. And why? “Indians” did war at times, but none was encouraged. Similar things have happened in Europe and they become the “Crusades”. The truth is Indians don’t need the nonsense of Marxist philosophy which destroys religion as a quick remedy to end state troubles. I believe in Zen philosophy which doesn’t really make a deal about God, but emphasis on right action in right time. But to comment on Religion and Politics, the truth is “Religion doesn’t directly cause war. Man USES religion to cause war”. Men will use any ideology to cause war, and that includes Marxism. The nature of induviduals in the society must change, you can impose million laws, savages will not change from within but look for opportunities to go through the laws. In the same way imposing Marxism will in no way destroy the conflicts caused by religion. This is a product of uneducated philosophers like Marx. I am aware how much Marx learnt on India to comment on him. The only way is to educate the society by making people understand the path they are going to, imposing anything is a formula for total failure. Communist nations like China IMPOSE their beliefs.
Comment by Vivek — May 19, 2008 @ 4:19 pm |
Anshul, “Astrology” is not extinct
Comment by Vivek — May 19, 2008 @ 4:20 pm |
I don’t speak “against” the West, anything I have said of them is verifiable to readers. It is all the disgusting truths of them. I agree we Indians like all other humans warred, but in all truth there is no comparision between the two histories. I agree that West had some great things. I am not Anti-Western, let me make that clear. But concerning violence, yes it has been there much more than in India for a given area. But my basic point is we need to work towards reviving our culture, not abandoning it and adopting Marxism. Again, I am not denying that Marxism has its merits, but Marxism is not the solution to today’s India. The Marxist societies in Soviet Union didn’t allow Christianity or any religion. How does this ideology get classified as liberal?
Comment by Vivek — May 19, 2008 @ 4:45 pm |
Your claim that Marxism has set out to eradicate culture is crap. Where does Marx come in to it? I did not even borrow any of Marx’s thoughts for this article. Uneducated philosopher Marx! haha … How much of Marx have you read and understood to make such a sweeping statement? what do you know ogf his views on religion? the truth is that you have no understood one bit of Marxist perceptions! But how does marx come in to this?
Comment by Anshul — May 19, 2008 @ 4:48 pm |
Okay Anshul I apologize for that comment on Marx calling him “uneducated”. But I have read the philosophy of Materialism which is a form of Physicalism. Marx was a proponent of materialism too. The very idea that the only thing that can be verified is “matter” is illogical and I am free to discuss this. Firstly, your thoughts which very much exist are not matter.
Comment by Vivek — May 19, 2008 @ 10:14 pm |