Mother's Chronicles - Book Five

10

Astrology

"Aurobindo had a profound faith in astrology," averred D. K. Roy. "He admitted the influence of the planets on human life. He had not the least doubt that one can know about the auspicious and inauspicious events of a man's life by studying his horoscope.... I got a horoscope of Aurobindo's life prepared by Sri Kalipada Bhattacharya, who was well-versed in astrology.¹ ... When I met him afterwards, Sri Bhattacharya told me, 'Your pupil is an extraordinary man. Although he stands high in the Maharaja's favour, there is a lot of hardship and suffering in store for him. He is not destined to enjoy much of worldly life.'" D. K. Roy was a bit sceptic of this forecast. Hardship? thought Roy, why, is he not enjoying perfect health, and earning a good salary! "Besides, Aurobindo was just then becoming eager to get married, so what's this about not enjoying much of worldly life ?"

About one year after his marriage, Sri Aurobindo wrote (2 July 1902) to his wife Mrinalini Devi confirming his faith in

1. See this horoscope on the following page.

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astrology. "Forgot to write one word in the letter. You said you have got a horoscope ; send it to me. Jotin Banerjee is here and I wish to show it to him. I have faith in astrology— ten years' experience confirmed. But also amongst a thousand, nine hundred know nothing about it. A few know but most make mistakes, e.g. non-performance of the coronation ceremony of the English King this year was declared several months ago —the causes even. If there be evil consequences then there are means of knowing them beforehand —as they can be cured often. If your horoscope can't be found, the exact time of birth will do, but it must be correct to the minute."

Lagna [ascendant] in karkata [cancer]; lagnapati [lord of the ascendant],

the Moon, is in the sixth ( = enemy)

[Mangal = Mars; Brihaspati = Jupiter; Ravi = Sun; Sukra = Venus;

Budh = Mercury; Sani = Saturn; Chandra = Moon]

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Many of us have heard of world-renowned astrologers and their striking prophecies. Cheiro prophesied that Crown Prince Edward, son of George V, would lose the throne because of a woman. Then there was Cagliostro, "a mystic freemason with great prophetic power," said Sri Aurobindo, "who prophesied about the French Revolution, the taking of the Bastille and the guillotining of the King and Queen." And who has not heard of Nostradamus? "He wrote a book of prophecy in an obscure language," said Sri Aurobindo to his disciples who did not seem to have heard of Nostradamus, "and foretold, among other things, the execution of Charles I, the establishment of the British Empire and the lasting of the Empire for 330 years (to be counted from James I)." It so happened that Mother had seen the old Book of Nostradamus in the original form and she said that "anything could be made out of anything from it."

As a rule, people notice only the prophecies that come true and ignore most of those that don't. So what is the actual truth of astrology? In an article written in 1917, Sri Aurobindo dealt with the subject. "This at present depends upon the experience of isolated individuals, a very unsatisfactory basis. But if this experience could be collected, sifted and published, I believe it would be found that a formidable prima facie case exists in favour of astrology." He then illustrated this point. "I may state my own experience in the matter in the belief, justified by many instances, that it is only typical of the experience of hundreds of others. My first accidental contact with an Indian astrologer was not encouraging. This gentleman was

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the most accomplished thought-reader I have ever seen; for he asked me to think my question without speaking it and not only successfully named the unspoken question I had fixed on, but three others which had crossed my mind, one of them only in the merest flash and without leaving any impression behind: this he pretended to do by mathematical calculation, an operation which I took leave to regard as humbug or professional parade. For when it came to his answers, I found that he was still doing thought-reading and not astrology; he simply echoed the hopes or thoughts in my mind and his predictions did not come within one hundred miles of the truth." This remarkable experience occurred at Baroda. It was Sri Aurobindo's house-manager Chhotalal who had taken him to this thought-reader.

"Other practitioners," went on Sri Aurobindo, "I have found to belong, a few plainly to the class of mere flattering charlatans, but most to the inefficient who read by rule of thumb and have made no profound study of their science." It was perhaps to this type of practitioners that Sri Aurobindo referred to when he said, "Astrologers tell all sorts of things that don't come true." To a disciple who referred to Sri Aurobindo's arrival at Pondicherry as 'the birthday of Pondicherry and of the Earth,' Sri Aurobindo wrote back saying, "Pondicherry was born long ago —but if X means the rebirth, it may be, for it was absolutely dead when I came. I don't know that there is a horoscope of the Earth. There was nobody present to note the year, day, hour, minute when she came into existence. But some astrologer," he suggested with gentle irony, in May 1936, "could take the position of the stars at the

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moment when I got out of the boat and build up the terrestrial consequences upon that perhaps 1 Unfortunately he would probably get everything wrong, like the astrologer who predicted that I would leave Pondicherry in March 1936 and wander about India till 1948 and disappear while bathing in a river among my disciples. I believe he predicted it on the strength of Bhrigu Samhita — the old dodge; but I am not sure. Long ago I had a splendiferous Mussolinic-Napoleonic prediction of my future made to me on the strength of the same old mythological Bhrigu."

Apart from readings, the Bhrighu-jyotish (astrology of Bhrigu) also makes predictions by studying the pattern of the lines of the thumbs, and as no two patterns are alike it indicates the individuality of the person. But, as said Sri Aurobindo, "I showed my hand twice or thrice but the readings about the future didn't come true."

Another type of forecasts are made by shadow-astrologers who, by measuring the shadow of a person and then correlating the signs, are able to tell one's past and predict one's future with exactitude.

But there are astrologers and astrologers. "On the other hand," continued Sri Aurobindo's text of 1917, "with capable astrologers the results have been often of such a remarkable accuracy as to put quite aside any possibility of chance hit, mere coincidence, intelligent prevision or any of the current explanations. I may instance the father of a friend of mine, a deep student of the science but not a professional, who predicted accurately the exact year, month, day, hour and

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even minute of his own death." The case in point was that of Khaserao Jadhav's father.

"The Mother told me of a French astrologer whose prediction of the future came out true." Sri Aurobindo recounted this in 1940 on Mother's birthday. "He predicted that a particular man would die of sea water. He gave the date, even the time. His people took him away from the sea, and on the day the accident was to take place they were dining together. Someone remarked ironically: 'Where is the astrologer's prophecy now ? The time he gave is passing away and there is no sea here!' Just at that moment the man who was eating a sea fish got a fishbone stuck in his throat and at once died. The hour was exactly the one mentioned by the astrologer."

Champaklal ejaculated, "It was fated that he should die."

Sri Aurobindo replied, "In this case it was." "If one is destined to die," opined Dr. Manila], "one can't escape."

"There is no fixed destiny always," countered Sri Aurobindo, "destiny can be changed. And there are many destinies." In other words, there is no inevitability about the various fate-possibilities. "Destiny does not mean that a thing is fixed. It is just a sum of forces that can be changed." For instance "by entering the spiritual life one opens to a new force which can change one's destiny."

Sri Aurobindo cited another example of accurate prediction, this time from History. "There are instances in which the exact hour and minute has been predicted," he said.

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"Did I tell you the story of Louis XI and his astrologer ? He was invited by Charles of Burgundy." Louis XI (1423-83) was King of France (1461-83); Charles, the Duke of Burgundy, is commonly known as Charles the Bold (1433-77). "Louis consulted his astrologer whether he should go or not. The astrologer said, 'It is quite safe, you can go.' And Louis was imprisoned! From the prison Louis arranged to have his astrologer murdered. But the astrologer came to know of the plot from the hangman. The plot was that when the astrologer would go away after seeing the king in the prison, the king would say, 'Peace be with you, peace be with you,' which would be the signal to kill him. So when the astrologer came the king asked him, 'By the way, do you know the hour of your death?' He replied, 'Exactly twenty-four hours before your death.' The king got the fright of his life and accompanied him all along the way to see that he might be quite safe. But it turned out later on that the king died actually twenty-four hours after the astrologer."

"In my own case," Sri Aurobindo's article went on, "accuracy was hampered by the inability to fix the precise moment of my birth; still some of the results were extraordinary. Two may be mentioned, from one and the same astrologer, which related to my public career. One, given when I had not yet plunged into the political vortex and my then obscure personality was quite unknown to the astrologer, predicted as an inevitable certitude of the future a political struggle with powerful non-Indian adversaries during which for a time even my life would fall under the shadow of danger. The other, given at the time

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of my first prosecution in the Bande Mataram case, predicted three successive criminal trials in each of which the prosecution would fail." This was Narayan Jyotishi, "a Calcutta astrologer, who predicted, not knowing then who I was, in the days before my name was politically known, my struggle with Mlechchha enemies and afterwards the three cases against me and my three acquittals." Sri Aurobindo was taken to Narayan Jyotishi by Jatin Banerjee. "When my horoscope was shown to him, he said there was some mistake about the time of my birth. When it was corrected, he remarked, 'Ah, the lead is turned into gold now.'" He "predicted also that though death was prefixed for me in my horoscope at the age of 63, I would prolong my life by Yogic power for a very long period and arrive at a full old age." Sri Aurobindo did exactly that.

Sri Aurobindo mentioned that plenty of people can prophesy and that that capacity is very common among Yogis. "When I was arrested," said Sri Aurobindo, "my maternal grand-aunt asked Vishuddhananda, 'What will happen to our Auro?' He replied, 'The Divine Mother has taken him in her arms: nothing will happen to him. But he is not your Aurobindo, he is the world's Aurobindo and the world will be filled with his perfume."

Sri Aurobindo gave an example of a different type of prediction. "I may instance also two predictions by the book in which Slokas from Sanskrit astrological writings indicating the result of certain conjunctions or planetary positions were shown to be applicable to my horoscope. One foretold specific chronic illnesses for the body of which there was no sign at the

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time, but long afterwards they put in their unexpected appearance and persisted." Giving an example, he said, "I was suffering from some intermittent fever in the North for a long time. It continued here also. In the course of the fever someone above or something within me said, 'No more fever.' Something in my being accepted the suggestion and there was no fever !"

There was the second prediction. "Another indicated very precisely that one of my future activities would be to found a new spiritual philosophy and its discipline; at that time I had no knowledge of philosophy or Yoga and no turn or inclination in my mind which could make the realisation of this prediction at all probable. These are only the most precise examples out of a number."

However, Sri Aurobindo did not find it completely true that man's life is governed by the stars. "Astrology?" he wrote to a disciple. "Many astrological predictions come true, quite a mass of them, if one takes all together. But it does not follow that the stars rule our destiny; the stars merely record a destiny that has been formed, they are a hieroglyph, not a Force,—or if their action constitutes a force, it is a transmitting energy, not an originating Power. Someone is there who has determined or something is there which is Fate, let us say; the stars are only indicators.... Moreover, the stars often indicate several fate-possibilities; for example that one may die in mid-age, but that if that determination can be overcome, one can live to a predictable old age." He was, it would seem, referring to his own case! "Finally, cases are seen in which the predictions of the horoscope fulfil themselves with great accuracy up to a

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certain age, then apply no more. This often happens when the subject turns away from the ordinary to the spiritual life. If the turn is very radical, the cessation of predictability may be immediate; otherwise certain results may still last on for some time, but there is no longer the same inevitability. This would seem to show that there is or can be a higher power or higher plane or higher source of spiritual destiny which can, if its hour has come, override the lower power, lower plane or lower source of vital and material fate of which the stars are indicators. I say vital because character can also be indicated from the horoscope much more completely and satisfactorily than the events of the life."

In their turn both Sri Aurobindo and Mother made predictions. Some results are still hidden in the future, to be proven by Time. For Time is the great uncertain factor in the revelation of prophecies. For instance, at the beginning of our own century Mother made a prediction that "Italy and England would go underwater." Over the decades she reiterated that the island of Great Britain was destined to sink underwater. Interestingly, English experts found in the seventies that London was becoming "more vulnerable to floods owing to the fact that England is slowly tilting over." I suppose we shall have to wait to see it happen!

But we need not wait at all to see another of their predictions that came true. It was one day in 1920 when Mother was meditating with Sri Aurobindo. They were seated facing each other across a table. Deep in meditation "I went to a place," Mother told us in 1953, "or reached a state of consciousness

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from where I told Sri Aurobindo, just like that, very simply, 'India is free.' He then asked me 'How?' And I replied, 'Without fight, without battle, without revolution: the English will go away by themselves, because the world condition will be such that they will have no choice but to go away." Mother had seen India's freedom as a fact in 1920. For it to become a fact in the physical realm it took another twenty-seven years.

Sri Aurobindo too had forecast India's freedom from colonial rule in 1909. He had even given an assurance about it to A. B. Purani in 1918. And, of course, in 1935 he wrote in reply to a question that the question of India's freedom "is all settled. It is a question of working out only." But the great question was: "What is India going to do with her Independence? The above kind of affair?¹ Bolshevism? Goonda-raj? Things look ominous."

1. Nirod had written about "the atrocities committed by some Mohamedans on Hindu families in Bengal."

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