09 July 2018
The story of Mahabarata, one of the greatest epic in the ancient Indian literature, starts its opening with “Time is God.” Mahabarata, one of the oldest and lengthiest epic in the world, is nearly three times as long as the Judaeo-Christian Bible, which contains many interpolated stories and moral treaties, with its treatment of time swinging back and forward in very much Indian style that which is not always chronological. My American astrologer friend, Doug Adams, loaned me the Mahabarata movie tapes during one of school holiday. Maybe it was more than twenty volumes set or so. By the time I finished watching it day and nights, the old VCD player also was spoiled. It was a long movie with much unfamiliar Indian mythology and religious cultural nuisances blended together in the narrative pattern.
Though I didn’t understand it all at first, I could at least capture the entire story in fairly good grasp, of which it would have been impossible by reading the books. In the story, its time is intertwined multifold usually in eons and the various characters of the epic—mystical gods, demons, sages and humans with fantastic supernatural powers, etc—do not always appeal to our normal sense of time and space. If one doesn’t believe in the theory of reincarnation and karma, the epic can look like a fake or else s/he can be convinced to believe it by the end of the story. I was the later.
Time is God?? What does that mean? To fully understand its statement, I had to wait more than a decade with the planetary configurations always swirling in my head. As I learned the language of the stars and lived with it, I gradually come to understand that they are not just some shining masses of gases in the night sky up there, but the very entities of concentrated life energy that are constantly watching, living, and breathing into our everyday life. Just we are not aware how closely influenced and intimately connected with them in everything we do and everything that happens to us. Each planet holds unique life stories to each of us, and the language of the stars can reveal that to you.
As for me, it was first through Doug Adams, Mr. K. N Rao, and then later, Mr. Ernst Wilhelm, from whom I heard my own planetary stories, got fascinated and became an astrologer myself, so that I can tell others their story! It gives much relief, not fear, to know how our life runs independently in the best way for us in the long run, despite whatever we think of ourselves at the present. If you know your own planetary story, you will be amazed also. They are not our threats but the very best friends, aids and companions life after life when you know how to appreciate and approach them. They are our guardian gods, and Time within which frame they function is the Big Head, God.
The way its Time unfold in our individual life has its predetermined pattern of which we need to do some astronomical calculation based on our birth details. Our life is beautiful and candid stories of the nine planets—Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn and Mecury— each are pregnant with certain promises, determined by our past action, that which will influence our present and future life. When they will come to actually manifest, however, is all depends on “Time” or “Dasha” in astrological term. Each planet has its own story to tell, intermixed with good and bad indications. Their effects will be more obvious when they get their “Turn” that which operates in the sequence mentioned above. Their governing time is usually very long; the shortest, like Sun’s time, lasting for 6years while the longest, Venus, lasting for 20 years! To finish all their turn one by one, it takes total 120 years. Since we can’t live up to that good, old age, some planetary dasha we will get while some others won’t. It all depends on individual’s birth details. That doesn’t mean any of the nine planets are irrelevant to us. One way or another, they all come to influence our life in very intimate way. You just wait and see.
Because each planetary time is so long, each major dasha is again divided into few levels of nine sub-sub dashas, usually lasting much shorter, from few months to 2 ½ years, so that all the nine planets can exert their power in the course of our limited lifespan on earth. Whether we could accept or not, could wait or not, they never give all at once but one at a time, when the time is right, despite whatever wishes we might have otherwise. Even the mighty gods and super humans in the mythology, not to mention us, the mere mortals, all fall into victims. Thereby Time is God.
It is our natural tendency to avoid anything that is unpleasant or painful while desiring for something pleasant, comforting and happy at all cost. Yet, in life, there is no such thing as continuous euphoric rise or hellish downhill. Our fortune or misfortune always alternates according to its seasons; rain today and sunshine tomorrow; success and happiness today, and failure and sadness tomorrow, etc, that which is governed by our own planetary configuration and Time sequence.
Sometimes, when we are caught up in the present ups or downs, we might forget that there is such a thing as “Time” exists. Very often, we want to rush or postpone the results of our action according to our own wishes. Time is God because it is never influenced by anything else but by its own eternal rhythm that rolls according to its own preconceived Divine Plan. Whether we want it right away or not, be aware of what is coming or not, it never forgets its due, to exercise its Power only when the Time is right. Sometimes it gives so much just to take away after a breath of excitement from those who raced against time by force. How many high achievers we know or heard of, who faced spiral downhill or suddenly passed away leaving behind all that they had sought with hearts and souls through their entire life?
Many people are short sighted to function in two-dimensional world, thinking that they can get away with what they can’t see or hear at the time. However, karma always catches up with us. The planets that live in us await for their turn in the three-dimensional world to give what they supposed to. The better strategy will be, instead of fearing them, we learn to be humble and modest despite any Time we are in. When we are in good time, we don’t forget to remember difficult times and share the good fortunes with others; when we are in bad time, we remember the saying from the wise “this shall pass” so that we can handle challenges with perspective. That takes wisdom, far-sightedness and sense of direction to be able to see through what our five senses can’t perceive.
Indian astrology, or Jyotish, meaning light of life, renders a good aid into that. It reveals very well of our inherent tendency as well as individual dasha that which is mapped when we were born. If we can know of what our individual jyotish entails, then, we can save much of our head’s bangs against the walls in our quest to find the ultimate utopia while slaying the devil on the way. The story of Mahabarat, full of magic, mystery, gods and demons, shows the mighty power of Time that which is God. All the heroes, heroines or demons alike in the story, their rise and fall are all subject to Time. When the Time is right, either be good or evil, they will rise but when the Time is up, they just have to give way no matter how unfair it seems at times.
In the Wheel of Eternal Time or Kalachakra, no one is free but forced to learn its mighty power till one can achieve eternal freedom or enlightenment. The field of Kurushetra, in where the great epic war of Mahabarat was held, is our very life from where we play and pursue different roles and aspirations. The mighty gods and demons are all but our alter egos of which we go through in daily basis—generosity, loving kindness, gratitude, greed, anger, fear, desperation, etc, they are all in us. Just that…sometimes one face is more obvious than the other, but we all are divine as well as demon. However, if we can tune ourselves into the wisdom of Time, and know how to act accordingly, then one day we become one with God in times to come, that which is the supreme goal of human spirit to be united with the Highest Power. Union with God, small self becoming big Self, that is the actual meaning, the highest form of Yoga we can achieve; yoga means union, to bring together of body, mind and spirit with breath through which means we become united with God. Since we have entered in the path of yoga, why not aim for the highest? Through the daily, weekly sweats we perspire, thought you are just trying to shed some weights or stresses, in fact, you are becoming that much close to God. I bow down to the eternal being in you, God, Namaste!