The Broad Challenges before Vedic Astrology
The IT revolution has enabled Vedic astrology to cross the 'seven-seas', surmounting in this process, as if in a single gigantic stride, all the high barriers of culture & religion, even language & world-view. Apart from the lakhs of Hindus at home and abroad who are the natural votaries of this Vedic discipline; there are probably tens of thousands of perceptive seekers from the Western world- who by opening themselves spiritually to the Vedas & all forms of Sanatana Dharma [either through their own enquiry & self-study, or through association with 'Hindu' Spiritual Masters] in one way or the other - have happily been able to take to Vedic astrology without much ado & cultural-resistance.
This worldwide receptivity to Vedic astrology places a new challenge before this ancient discipline, in that it is now obliged to address itself to the problem of reformulating many of its sutras, so as to correspond now to a modern society, which has come to be set in a Western secular and technological mould and which is therefore very differently structured, in so far as the classical Hindu goals of Dharma, Artha,Kama & Moksha are concerned [See Secs. 2 & 3 of Part III]. If Vedic astrology responds to this challenge satisfactorily and in this process makes this esoteric discipline more intelligible and appealing even to non-Hindus, who may not have any familiarity with the Hindu spiritual ethos of Sanatana Dharma; then its blessings for a section of Western society which has already turned spiritual and is continuing in this vein - whether this is to a lesser or a greater Sattvic degree is not the pertinent question here - are bound to increase even further in the future.
Traditional Hindu & Vedic societies held Moksha to be the summum bonum of human life, while the other Purusharthas, namely Artha & Kama, were deemed to be of lesser import, and often as impediments in the way of the fulfilment of the highest goal of life [Ref 7, Pg 26]. In modern contemporary society, on the other hand, while Moksha may be considered at best to be a highly esoteric goal of life, trodden by no more than a slender minority, it is Artha & Kama, which paradoxically have come to occupy the exalted status of the summum bonum of life! The emerging global avatar of Vedic astrology has to contend with this paradoxical topsy-turvy reality and thus be prepared to reformulate many of its ancient sutras, which pertained to more spiritual ages in the remote past, when Dharma & Moksha occupied a place of pre-eminence, outshining the lesser mundane goals of life of Artha & Kama.
In fact, this slow process must have already begun in an imperceptible way, ever since Vedic astrology was introduced to the West some 50 years ago by that pioneering & renowned Vedic astrologer from India, Dr. B.V. Raman [10]. Consequent to this initial 'seeding', and with an appreciable time-lag, there emerged - this time from the West - a fresh reciprocal impetus to Vedic astrology, coming from such pioneering American Vedic astrologers as James Braha in 1986 [11] in the beginning and then in a more concerted way from Pandit Vamadeva Shastri - when he made available his comprehensive correspondence course in Vedic astrology [also in 1986], with its emphasis on the spiritual life. In 1993, when the American Council of Vedic Astrology [ACVA] came into existence, through the pioneering efforts of Pandit Vamadeva Shastri and other American Vedic astrologers, the next important milestone commemorating the Western assimilation of Vedic astrology was crossed.
Acceptance of Vedic Astrology in the West
Being passionate seekers & having the gift for intellectual enquiry, Westerners who had already accepted the spiritual light that India had shown them, were quick to recognize and value the astonishing problem-solving power of this ancient discipline. Pandit Vamadeva Shastri, the founder of the ACVA [American Council of Vedic Astrology] had remarked in 2004, after a full decade had elapsed since the founding of the ACVA:
"Today, there is a community of Vedic astrologers in the West that is rapidly growing. The level of expertise in the subject that they have achieved is becoming equal to that of Vedic astrologers in India. All these factors point to a renaissance in Vedic astrology and its spread world-wide..." [ 6 ]
Thus, it is not surprising that with their passion for technology and rational analysis, Westerners have been the ones who have also been the pioneers in creating the most comprehensive and best Vedic astrology software programmes. All these commendable efforts have resulted in the acceptance & practise of Vedic astrology across continents, much like how in the course of the last three centuries, the English language had come to penetrate all the non-Western cultures of the world as well.
Now that we are witnessing the process of emergence of the global avatar of Vedic astrology, it may not be out of place to remind ourselves of a testimony for the efficacy of the Remedial Measures of Vedic astrology, coming from the Western world and from a 'new Sage', Edgar Cayce. In the clear formulation of his revelation, this Christian mystic accommodates both the truths - one of karma and 'destiny' and the other of surmounting karmic-obstacles through man's exertions. In the Vedic astrological tradition, these human exertions went by the name of Remedial Measures. In Part X, wherein we examine 3 spiritual charts, we shall have further occasion to take a brief peep into the psychic-life of Edgar Cayce, one of the great American prophets of the last century.
"The inclination of man is ruled by the planets under which he is born. In this far the destiny of man lies within the sphere or scope of the planets. With the given position of the Solar system at the time of the birth of an individual, it can be worked out - that is, the inclinations and actions without the will power taken into consideration. [emphasis mine]
"But let it be understood here, no action of any planet or the phases of the Sun, the Moon, or any of the heavenly bodies, surpasses the rule of man's will power - the power given by the Creator of man, in the beginning, when he became a living soul, with the power of choosing for himself."- Edgar Cayce [21][See also Sec 4, Part I]
Shift in the Purusharthas-A Challenge for the Emerging Global Avatar of Vedic Astrology
Vedic astrology, belonging as it did to the spiritual ethos of the Vedic peoples, had used a number of spiritual-insights, spiritual styles of thinking & perception & Spiritual-Remedial Measures, all of which belonged only to the matrix of the Vedic society [See Secs. 2 & 3. of Part III] and this is bound to appear rather strange and archaic to our modern scientific sensibilities. To overcome this seemingly difficult spiritual as well as cultural-barrier, the new 'global avatar' of Vedic astrology will have to learn to speak in a modern language, intelligible to people, unfamiliar with the spiritual ethos of the Hindus. But the question remains, whether this is an achievable task at all?
At first sight we will naturally have our doubts whether the globalisation of Vedic astrology should be achieved at all by relinquishing the spiritual ethos of Vedic astrology, which has always been its very soul & inner life? We may even hold this globalisation to be an impossible achievement, without its votaries from non-Vedic cultures making a serious effort to imbibe the spiritual foundations underlying Sanatana Dharma as well as Vedic astrology. In fact, even if globalisation is to be achieved in a wise way by Vedic astrology 'walking only on the middle path'; this must still entail two simultaneous reciprocal gestures, by both Vedic astrology as well as by Western society - involving nothing less than a symbiotic giving & taking.
In such a symbiosis between Vedic astrology on the one hand & its savants and votaries from non-Vedic cultures on the other; Vedic astrology, touched by the difficulties and aspirations of its new savants and votaries - who are on the other side of the cultural barrier - must make every effort to bring home its truths; partly by 'raising the spiritual consciousness' of these new savants and votaries and thereby aligning them with the Vedic spiritual ethos and also partly by making a serious effort to explain its truths in modern metaphors and in 'the new styles of thinking', intelligible to people accustomed to a Scientific world-view.
In Vedic astrology, taking this bold initiative and 'wishing to walk on the middle-path', it should not commit that fatal error of omitting 'Divinity' and the reality of 'consciousness' from its own soul and attempt to clothe itself in the respectable 'secular-attire' of the Sciences just to make itself more palatable to a civilization which has gone in for 'the apotheosis of Science and Technology'- casting out 'God' in the course of this whole unspiritual process of ' Scientific & Technological progress'.
Fortunately for us as things stand, there is ample evidence that though Vedic astrology in its new still emerging global avatar has boldly taken the initiative in both these directions in a sure footed way, it has not committed that fatal mistake of compromising its spiritual integrity in the process of reaching out to a universal audience, who are not deeply familiar with its age-old spiritual ethos.
So far as the new Western Vedic astrologers and votaries are concerned, they must utilise their gifts of passion & analytical prowess to go seriously & deeply into the Vedic spiritual ethos, which is at the very heart of Vedic astrology. The use of technology by the new Western savants and votaries, for developing excellent Vedic astrology software programmes, has been such a welcome blessing to all Vedic astrologers world-wide, since this has completely eliminated the drudgery & the laborious calculations, which had engaged the precious time & attention of Vedic astrologers in times past. Thus there is indeed good evidence for an ongoing process of a symbiotic exchange between Vedic astrology in its 'Indian form' and its new savants and votaries from the West.
There has been a second signal contribution, which has taken the form of a slow feed-back from the West towards India - as modified Vedic astrological sutras, which are applicable to modern societies, patterned after the Western model and therefore profoundly engrossed in the mundane spheres of Artha & Kama. Beneficial though this reciprocal impact from the West on the state of Vedic astrology in India has been; in the author's perception, the profound contribution of reformulating Vedic astrology with a strong emphasis on the spheres of Artha & Kama, should have come from the West - but as this did not happen - it was destined to be developed indigenously by a very gifted contemporary Indian Vedic astrologer, Prof. Vinod Kumar Choudhry, the founder of the Systems Approach to Vedic astrology. [ 7, 12, 13, 16 ]
In fact, if we were to look at the development of the milestone events in Vedic astrology, strangely we will find in this a testimony & a grim reminder to us-to what an appalling extent a traditional Hindu society, which originally had a healthy & happy bias towards Dharma & Moksha, succumbed to the pressure of Westernization & transformed itself, in the image of its Western role-model - becoming in this process, one engrossed in the mundane spheres of Artha & Kama.
It is for this very reason that only a Vedic astrologer, living & working on Indian soil, and at the same time thoroughly soaked in the Hindu spiritual ethos, in his day-to-day life, was the one destined to make the contribution of boldly revising traditional Vedic astrology, so as to make it now perfectly tally with the mundane spheres of Artha & Kama, in which modern man world-wide has come to be engrossed in this present materialistic age.
Thus, Prof.V.K. Choudhry remarks in one of his important works [ 7, Pg26 ] :
"Therefore, the classical principles of astrology as given to us by Maharshi Parasara in Dwapara Yuga are not applicable verbatim to human beings in KaliYuga. While status, wealth and married-life were considered to be obstructions in the way of spiritual attainments in Treta and Dwapara Yugas, it is not so for human beings in Kali Yuga." [See also Sec. 3 of Part V, which follows]
The Challenge of a New Simple Terminology
Through his remarkable Systems Approach, Prof.V.K. Choudhry has furnished us with a research-based system of Vedic astrology that has successfully addressed itself to the two challenges facing the 'global avatar'. In response to the pressing urgency 'to lighten' the sophisticated spiritual terminology of Vedic astrology, he has introduced in our modern language - just to take an illustrative example - his key astrological concept of an 'affliction', as much of the analysis in his Systems Approach consists of studying the 'afflictions' and other weaknesses of the planets/houses in the natal chart.
Though the astrological concept of an 'affliction' does have its age-old existence in the Vedic astrological Samskrit literature, nonetheless, Prof. V.K. Choudhry has certainly modernized this ancient term and breathed new life into it, through its systematic quantification - thereby leaving behind classical interpretations of this 'affliction' in terms of 'sins committed in some past-lives'. However, contrary to him, a Vedic astrologer from traditional Hindu society, will speak not in terms of this easily-acceptable and conveniently quantified concept of an 'affliction', but will insist only on sourcing the misfortunes, tied up with this 'affliction' to some 'curses from former lives.'
Through such simplifications in terminology, he has arrived at this powerful but simple SA sutra on the consequences of these dreaded 'afflictions':
"'Afflictions' cause misfortunes, while weak planets merely cause delay in the fructification of their general significations & the significations of the Houses they happen to rule, during appropriate sub-periods."
While the concept of past-lives may also be accepted by most Westerners, who accept Vedic astrology, yet it would also be better to provide a more concise, mathematically quantified and modern astrological concept, such as the 'affliction'- as these 'afflictions' have such an important and recurring role to play in the SA. While these cases of 'curses from past-lives' vis-à-vis the 'affliction' are only a corresponding pair of concepts that illustrate the swing of Vedic astrology from the matrix of a traditional Hindu society to the world-stage in modern times; in our own times too, Vedic astrology has also a much larger and newer responsibility.
In that, it cannot leave any uncomfortable questions unanswered, but, must rather make an attempt to present its truth - which is couched in the language and worldview of an ancient spiritual-civilization - in a modern language and idiom, but without losing its original spiritual profundity in the process and at the same time without forsaking its spiritual foundations. This will be the third challenge facing Vedic astrology, as it gets ready to manifest on the world stage in its form as the emerging 'global avatar' still in the making.