Practising Vedic astrology

Auroville Today: Vikram, how did you get into Vedic astrology?

Vikram: It was an interesting journey. In the 1990s I studied economics and statistics at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, during which time I also developed an interest in occult sciences such as reiki, healing crystals, aura reading, tarot and the iChing. I dabbled in all of them and wanted to continue when I got back into India. But I found nothing like that in India. Then, one day, I saw a three-line advertisement in a newspaper announcing a programme in Vedic astrology. The course was given by ICAS, the Indian Council of Astrological Sciences. I signed up, and there has been no turning back since. I developed a passion about the Vedas, and have been studying Vedic astrology, yoga, cosmology, philosophy and vedic mathematics for several decades. I completed a post-graduate diploma in Vedic Astrology, and subsequently taught astrology for three years at Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan in Bangalore. By now I have more than 20 years of experience in reading charts and teaching Vedic astrology to people from all over the world.

So you became a full-time Vedic astrologer?

Not in the beginning. After I returned to India in 1997, I worked for companies outside Auroville, then taught at Auroville’s Future School and afterwards joined Auroville Consulting. Vedic astrology was consistently there in the background. It was only this year that I decided to make the jump and fully devote myself to Vedic astrology – a bit of a challenging decision as I wasn’t sure I could earn an income doing this work. Now I run a unit under the KKT Trust of the Auroville Foundation. I offer private consultations and teach a one-year on-line programme, meeting a couple of hours a week on-line, along with off-line retreats.

Astrology is often judged as a pseudo-science. What’s your take on this?

Let me first give you the official position. In 2001, India’s University Grants Commission (UCG) decided to include Jyotir Vigyan (the ‘science of astrology’) as a course of study in Indian universities. The decision was challenged in court, with the petitioners stating that the UCG’s decision was wrong as the accuracy or correctness of Jyotir Vigyan had never been established by scientific tests or experiments. It went all the way up to India’s Supreme Court which, in 2004, dismissed the petition on the grounds that the Expert Body of the UGC had examined this question and had recommended including Jyotir Vigyan for study and award of degrees in universities, and that it was not up to the courts to decide as to what course should be taught in a university. Today, astrology is being taught at more than 25 universities in India.

For me, the discussion whether or not Vedic astrology is a science is a bit beside the point. I am well aware that many western and Vedic astrologers engage in predicting the future and that the validity of such predictions has often been tested to the reality that later developed. But for me, that’s not the essence of Vedic astrology. The objective is self-realisation. Vedic astrology is a tool to help that, not a tool to predict.

Yet, in India astrology is often used to assess the compatibility of the partners before marriage, or for a career move taking up a certain job.

It all depends on the reason why a client wants a consultation. What is the objective of the marriage? Is it wealth, is the objective to continue the family line, to ensure that the romantic life will be okay, or is the objective to realize one’s Self? If the question is on career, why is it that you want to take a certain job? Is it to make more money, or for better job satisfaction, or as a means to develop oneself? Depending on the answer to these questions, the way I read the chart will be completely different.

Let me take the example of an alcoholic. Everything in his birth chart points at him picking up the next bottle. Evidently, this is not his highest interest. I can tell him that. But the decision to change and stop has to come from him. Only then will I look and see what could be done and recommend a course of action such as changing a lifestyle, breaking patterns, sometimes visiting a doctor to get medicines, all for helping the person to open up to the influence from within. But if he responds that he’s fine as he is, then there’s nothing I need to do because he’s living out his natural tendencies. But in both these cases, I don’t predict whether he will quit the addiction or not.

It is a bit like I come in in the middle of a chess game. The pawns have all moved. I analyse the board and maybe suggest sacrificing this pawn or playing the queen. But in the middle of the game, I can’t move pieces back. That is karma, that’s the past. But now the person has to move a different piece. There is a choice, that is free will, but that choice is contingent on how one has played in the past. So there is both fate, which is the past, and free will, but if fate has trapped the king, you can’t move it. I’ll have to advise you to move another piece.

For example, I’m reading the birth chart of a 30-year-old person. What I’m reading is how the pieces were placed 30 years ago, how the planets were placed at birth, which gives an indication of possible tendencies. But the person has played many moves since then. I’ll have to study the transit chart before I can recommend the person’s next moves; but that is a huge task because the transit chart changes from moment to moment. This is where it gets complicated, because I have to take the positions at birth and the positions of every day and every month since, to see what this person has played. Here a certain amount of intuition comes into play.

You have been studying the birth charts of many Aurovilians. Do they have something in common, as they all chose to leave their ‘normal’ lives behind to join this adventure of The Mother?

The questions I get from people outside Auroville are almost always about careers or relationships. Here in Auroville, inevitably, it’s about ‘am I on the right path, am I doing the right thing?’ But apart from these questions, many of their problems are the same as outside. But I haven’t read many charts of the old-timers, those who came here in the early days of Auroville. There may be a difference.

How do you answer the question if someone is on the right path?

I look at how the sun is placed in the chart. Most Vedic astrologers focus on the moon and the ascendant, but I prefer to first look how the sun is placed, because that tells me about the soul’s purpose, even when someone is asking me about relationships or career. The sun is the center around which life is revolving. I consider the sun to be the symbol of the soul or inner self. The moon, for me, symbolises the mind.

To answer those types of questions I work with archetypes. If I choose the archetype of Aquarius, the water bearer, who is pouring water to everybody in the village, my questions will be about who or what a person is serving; and as the water carrier is said to be naked, what does nakedness mean? These types of questions get different answers based on someone’s life situation and aspirations. Is ‘pouring water’ considered a service, then the question arises if the person is of service to others or to a community. If someone is doing that, he or she is going along the flow of a river. But if the ‘water pouring’ is for profit, for their own self-interest, whether it’s in a career or whether it’s in a community life, then the person is swimming against the flow. I may then suggest some strategies, but it is ultimately the person who decides which way to go. I stay away from deterministic statements that this or that is going to happen.

You mentioned one particular archetype. How many archetypes do you work with?

Many. Each sign of the zodiac is an archetype. So we have 12 archetypes. But also each nakshatra, and each planet is an archetype. One of my roles is to find out which archetype is necessary for this person at this phase of life.

For instance, if you ask me a question on your spiritual path, I would study your birth chart and then focus on a certain archetype. If you ask about relationships, I look at Venus in association with the sun. Often, I have to make additional charts, such as the prasna chart which is based on the date, time, and place when the question was asked, to find the most suitable archetype.

You have also drawn the horoscope of Auroville?

Yes. I have made Auroville’s chart taking February 28th 1968 at 10.00 am as the birth details, but you can argue this as Mother’s first public message about Auroville dates from 1965. But the official inauguration was in 1968, so it is probably the best date.

I found that in Auroville’s chart the sun and the moon are in almost the same position. But the chart also shows that they are being covered by Saturn which is in transit through Auroville’s 10th, 11th, and 12th houses. The sun also stands for authority, for governance and management; the moon for nurturing the other person. Saturn’s influence is shaking all these things up, in particular how we manage, how we govern ourselves, how we portray ourselves to the outside world, and how we nurture the community.

Auroville’s birth chart shows other planets in these three houses. There is Mercury, which is the planet of communication, there is Venus, the planet of harmony, relationships, love and community feeling. All these too have been severely shaken up with the transit of Saturn.

Saturn is also influencing Mars – the planet associated with qualities like leadership, strength, ambition, determination, and physical prowess; and Rahu, the planet representing materialism, mischief, fear, dissatisfaction, obsession and confusion. We are truly living under Saturn’s transit in these times.

How long will the transit last?

Seven and a half years, of which about five years have been completed. We have another two, or two and a half, years to go. But that’s not the end of the transit period, as Rahu, which is generally considered to be a malevolent plant, and which is all about wanting more and more, about expansion and abundant expansion, but which also brings a lot of confusion, will next year transit the sun and moon. So it doesn’t look like Auroville will be in calm waters soon.

Can you be more precise about the impact of Saturn?

What Saturn wants to teach is humility, patience, perseverance, discipline, and structure. It’s very easy to apply this to a person. But how to apply this to the Auroville community? For example, how can we promote humility? Is there a sense of ego superiority, a sense of pride? Do we think of ourselves as being spiritually or otherwise superior to outsiders? All these attitudes Saturn is trying to break, and teach us humility. And regarding structures, are we actively looking at developing new structures to organize ourselves that are different from what we used to have? If we don’t try to learn those lessons, the future can become very painful and we will be heading into more chaos.

When you make a chart of an Aurovilian, does it show that people should better leave?

That question has not yet come up in my consultations. But when I speak with people casually, they are often talking about having plan B. Since last year, many of my Indian friends have left Auroville, which is very sad. That’s because of the present political situation. They no longer feel that Auroville is their place.

Something has fundamentally shifted.

Yes. And I have observed that the image of Auroville has diminished because of what’s going on now. Earlier, people used to look up and say, ‘Oh my, you are in Auroville!’ That’s no longer there. There is no longer a charm of being in Auroville. And that also implies that there is no longer a strong attractiveness for somebody to come here and put their money in Auroville.

Have you seen anything in Auroville’s birth chart that would indicate how harmony can be brought?

No, not in particular. But one of the things I have observed is that both sides are stuck in their sense of rightfulness, that neither is willing to step down from their position and attempt to come together and resolve issues. Yet, for me, this is a necessity to bring back harmony. As The Mother once said to two warring factions in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram: “You must all agree. That is the only way to do good work. For everyone to agree each one must rise to the summit of his consciousness; it is on the heights that harmony is created.”

I am convinced that if all of us were willing to let go of our egos, step down from our positions, re-evaluate our beliefs and engage in some form of conflict resolution, for example professional mediation, harmony could be brought very fast.