Planetary Influences On Human Affairs

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In this book I have tried to present a case for astrology, and to refute the charge that a belief in astrology implies a belief in fatalism which in it.stnrn paralysea human endeavour and retards human progress. Fate and Freewill are relative terms. Science cannot leave things in nature to blind chance and so-called necessity.

There is a good deal of misunderstanding and wrong notions about astrology, Karma etc due partly to Ignorance, partly to indifference and mainly to preconceived opinions. The philosophy of astrology has as its strongest weapon relativity, and is based on the truth that ethereal vibrations extend from the Sun to the great planets and from planet to planet, All space is a network of interacting forces.

I have tried to prove that the concept of Karma Theory is not a wishful imagination but a product of daring thinking based upon cause-effect relationship so clearly discernible in physical phenomena. Bertrand Russell, Jung, Plank, Heisenberg, Bohr and Eddington have all been quoted to show that Modern Thought has been approaching the fringe of Reality realised by the Maharshis of India thousands of years ago. In fact, I have tried to link up traditional philosophy with modern scientific thought. The new concepts about space, time, matter and the universe have after all revealed that astrology marks the relationship between man's conscious ego and what we call Nature.

No 'scientific authority' accepts the suggestion thnt. the proper way of dealing with the problems of astrology is not to theorise about, and condemn them but to investigate them by the aid of well-attested facts. Such an idea seems to be quite foreign to the habits of thought of our scientific opponents. As Dr. Richard Garnette wrote, "the study of facts and the observation of nature must always be stronger than any abstract reasoning; and the investigation of the arguments brought against astrology will disclose a great reluctance on the part of the objector 'to resort to the testimony of facts, and a thoroughly unscientific habit of mind,"

If I have succeeded in stimulating modern thinkers to take a more positive interest in the investigation of astrological truths, my labours will have been amply rewarded.

Planetary Influences On Human Affairs incorporates material based on investigations into cosmic-terrestrial relations that are being carried on by several men of science with whom I had the good fortune of personal discussion during my visits to Europe and America.

Chapters dealing with the relation of Astrology to medicine, weather forecasting, and predicting earthquakes have been added. The last chapter "Astrology vs Futurology" adopts a challenging tone questioning the scare-mongering forecasts of the "Futurologists" and assuring the puhlic, on the basis of ancient Hindu astronomical and astrological concepts, that the world will not be destroyed for millions of years to come. .

Experimental evidence presented in these pages cannot fail to impress even those orthodox scientists who continue to believe that a branch of knowledge to be valid should fit into the framework of known laws of science, and not otherwise.

Scientific laws which our text-books have taught us to look upon as eternal truths have collapsed like a pack of cards and new ones still lack the authority that their predecessors enjoyed. Scientists have also grown a little more circumspect and no longer proclaim general laws with the facility of their 19th century predecessors. Because of these developments, some of the scientists in the West have begun to view Astrology with less scepticism and more seriousness.

In Carl Jung's opinion, "Western civuisation, by ignoring Astrology, gains little and may be losing much" by what he calls "the contemptible treatment and defamation of an ancient art which defied a reasonable explanation" and, "after 200 years of intensive scientific progress, We can risk testing them in the light of modern truths."

This book explores certain concepts cherished by generations of thinkers in India that vicissitudes taking place in any part of the heavens must have their repercussions on human affairs because man is a part and parcel of the universe.

Thanks are due to DBS Publishers' Distributors Ltd., New Delhi for having brought out this new edition attractively.

It has been customary to assert that until the coming of modern science, man was loaded down with superstition. It is far too easy for some of the so-called educated persons to dismiss certain fields of knowledge as astrology as unscientific because of ignorance. Astrology has been revealing, and this is amply borne out by researches of scientists in the West, a set of rational hypothesis challenging some of the orthodox scientific beliefs with their materialistic and deterministic tenets.

How did the astrological laws come into being? Upon what kind of postulates were they based? Was astrology an obstacle to progress or was it the reverse? These questions can only be answered by a meticulous analysis of the philosophy of the complex culture which fashioned the thinking of the sages who brought astrology into being with the other branches of knowledge. The sages viewed astrology as a quest for verifiable knowledge. They were not primitive men merely cnscious of the lure of the heavenly bodies as some of the modern educated ignoramuses think. The greatest superstition of today is the thinking that until the age of Galileo or Newton, man was ignorant. This fictitious belief has been systematically spun by a section of the Western thinkers and assiduously contrived by some of their Indian counterparts. Before Darwin, there was a Kanada in India; before Newton, there was a Bhaskara; and before any other physicist or biologist worth his name came on the scene, there were sages like Parasara and scientists like Varahamihira who were creative innovators and who recognised the simple but profound truth that man and the universe were not unrelated. The strivings of these sages are our heritage and they found the way by means of which we can unlock the door of Time.

In India, astrology had always occupied a unique place and found illustrious supporters until perhaps the advent and consolidation of the British power when for a time skepticism and derision were the predominant features, characterising the intellectual equipment of the then educated Indians, who looked down upon astrology and allied subjects as fit for study only by unscientific minds. In fact, the downfall of astrology appeared irremediable. It was at this time that late Prof. B. Suryanarain Rao undertook the task of reviving the subject by diverting the thoughts of the Indian cultured public to the secrets of a unique class of phenomenon, hitherto the object of ridicule to others who pass for better minds under the convenient name of men of science. For a time the mere use of the word astrology was likely to creat an attitude of disparagement which effectually prevented many people from an impartial examination of the facts.

Today a great desire for serious study of astrology has overtaken the vast majority of the educated people.

Even today the attitude of some of the educated people here and in tlie West is still largely dominated by nineteenth century materialism which is generally unsympathetic not only to claims of astrology but to the spiritual view of life in general.

But Indian society has been permeated by faith in the spiritual aspect of things and fortunately today a great desire for serious study of astrology has over taken the majority of the educated people.

There is a great grass root to support for a radical and thorough reinvestigation of the general standpoint of Astrology as a branch of science of permanent interest, capable of adding to the sum- total of human knowledge. There is keen desire that the contributions to culture and civilization made by our Maharshis (sages) in the past shouldbe brought to light today when India has achievednational independence and resumed her free career as a civilised self- governing nation in the van of advanced nation of the world.

The general scepticism consequent on the pre. valent matenallsm derived passively from western currents of thought should not come in the way of the claims of astrology being recognised as a contribution to modern science and the art of life in general, espe.cia} by for the reason that such sceptical attitudes are being counteracted by many powerful trends even in the West. The latest advances in relativity and atomic physics have led to second thoughts even amongst men of science themselves. Einstein himself has expressed in favour of theistic hypothesis. Eddington and Jeans have been led from the intelligibility of astronomical phenomena in the remotest galaxies to the idea of a Cosmic Intelligence indwelling in them in some mysterious way.

The materialists and sceptics have never had their own way at any time whether in the East or the West. In India we had the Lokayats or Charvakas (pure materialists) but they were few and far between and they could riot maintain their position against the dominant schools.

In view of the vast mass of evidence in support of astrology, the attitude of deriders would appear to be the very reverse of scientific. In fact, as Dr. Whitehead has pointed out, modern materialism is not a straight reading from science at all but a misreading in terms of prejudice misled by the popular idea of sticks and stones-unthinking sub- stances unrelated to consciousness.

Dr. Whitehead has put it on record that modern scientists have their own superstitions. This is valuable testimony, coming as it does from such a great mathematician.

It may be said that in the eyes of commonsense, there is an antecedent improbability or even impossibility in the claims of astrology the essence of which is that the planets and stars in their positions and mutual relations influence human lives in their minute particulars.