Astrology the synthesis of all sciences and its uses

In the last few years, Astrology has become a subject of great dispute. In recent times, more fuel has been added to this by a decision of the pervious N.D.A. Govt. of India by virtue of which Astrology was included in the syllabus of university education. A label of unscientific, totally baseless and a cheating one has been stamped on this subject by the people of different classes of the society, particularly some intellectuals and self- advertised scientific minded ones. In other countries also an effort was made to preach such an opinion in the names of some eminent scientists. The reasons behind this are:

1. Many scientists do not believe in Astrology.

2. Some predictions of many astrologers were proved to be wrong.

3. Many unscientific ideas are included in Astrology viz. (i) Sun, Moon, Rahu (Dragon’s Head), Ketu (Dragon’s Tail) have been described as planets and (ii) Uranus, Neptune, Pluto etc. are not taken into account in astrological predictions.

4. The very basis of Astrology is wrong because prediction of future events is not possible.

5. The moving planets and the fixed stars in the sky can not influence human body.

We shall first discuss about the justification of these arguments.

That many scientists do not believe in Astrology can not be a proof against the authenticity of this subject because the same for any subject is not dependent on the belief of some individuals or some groups. Some hundred years before, chemistry was not recognized as science, but later the same was established as a very important discipline of science. Secondly, extensive enquiries revealed that many scientists whose names were propagated as non believers in this subject do not exist at all in reality. In this respect, the renowned “Raman Publication” of South India conducted a thorough investigation the result of which was published and the same proved this effort of the western world negative. Further, some scientists may not believe in the truth of this subject but there are more who do believe in the same on the basis of their research work and unbiased outlook. Of them, two very important personalities were Percy Seymour and Michel Gauquelin. The astronomer of international reputation i.e. Percy Seymour conducted an extensive research in this matter and announced his findings and opinion in his works titled “Astrology the evidence of science”. It may be definitely concluded that to opine a subject as baseless and unscientific without any knowledge about the same by the so called scientists is more irrational than the same by the common people because while accepting something without test is unscientific, it is equally same in case of rejection and this is more offensive when the same is committed by the so called scientists.

It was written by the world famous poet Tagore in a verse which means that in the Nature there are streams of songs sung by different poets of the universe, animate or inanimate to form a unique concert with which every being has link. This in a way provides a definition for the word “Science” which was more elaborately defined by the eminent scientist Thomson in his famous works “Philosophy of Science” as: - the arrays of events which we come across in this universe at every moment appear to have links with one another. The task of science is to explore the links underlying these events and to predict other events on this basis or to create newer events in the laboratory or elsewhere. On the basis of this definition, it may be said that it is not permitted by science to conclude that there is no link between terrestrial phenomena including life activities with the transits of stellar bodies in the space-time continuum. This becomes evident when it is observed that some terrestrial phenomena are changed with the lunar days or with the appearance of Sun-spots. Therefore, it may be rightly concluded that unbelieving opinions of some so-called scientists or better termed pseudo-scientific personalities can not be the last word about the underlying truth of this vast and long-cultured subject and this is more so when it is observed that there are differences of opinions among the scientists themselves.

The second allegation raised against Astrology is that many predictions of astrologers have been proved to be wrong. If we accept this argument, then many other subjects should also be rejected as being unscientific. For example, the solution of a mathematical problem may be made different by different persons or as is very often found in these days, the diagnosis of a disease is made in different forms of which only one or none at all would be correct and so also is the case with mathematical problem. Therefore, following this argument against Astrology, mathematics and medical science should also be declared as unscientific. Further, there is a faculty termed “Weather Forecast’ which is treated as science probably because here some instruments are utilized, but the correctness of the predictions regularly made by this faculty need not require any comments because these are daily experienced by the people and in some cases these become laughing stocks only. Yet, this branch is accepted as science because of the utilization of some instruments in making such predictions without caring for the outcome. But for Astrology, there is no excuse for any mistake committed by some astrologer in prediction and even a very small mistake is exaggerated as a great one but in doing this, nobody bothers to think whether the mistake is a personal error of the astrologer concerned or of the subject itself. Now-a-days, thanks to the print and electronic media, huge numbers of information are regularly obtained regarding the serious mistakes committed by the doctors which even cause the death of the patients and the question naturally arises how many such cases are obtained regarding the astrologers which lead to death. Moreover, regarding expenses of money, no astrologer can be paralleled to any doctor or medical organization. But no scientists or pseudo-scientific personality bothers to draw a parallelism between the two. A few years ago, a public interest petition was moved in the Highest Judiciary Bench of the country to declare the subject as a cheating one for telling upon the life and wealth of the public. It need be commented here that the credit of cheating people is not the monopoly of astrologers, but it is spread over all the sectors of society and in some cases like medicine, education etc., its degree is far, far beyond the reach of Astrology. And regarding the risk of life, not even a single example could be cited against Astrology but which is innumerable for medical practitioners who receive their dues in most cases by the grace of the affected public. But by the propaganda of the communicating media, those pseudo-scientific people accuse Astrology as being an unscientific subject inviting rejection by the society. Therefore, it may be concluded that such an objection can not be recognized to challenge the scientific basis of Astrology.

The third objection raised against Astrology is that many unscientific data have been included in Astrology viz. 1. to recognized the Sun, Moon, Rahu, Ketu etc. as planets and 2. to make no comments about the influence of Herschel, Neptune and Pluto on human life. In this context, it need be mentioned that regarding the first objection, the persons blaming the same do not know even the A, B, C of Astrology. The actual stellar identities of these were very well known to the ancient astrologers, but these were termed as planets only in respect of their similarities of actions on the terrestrial phenomena including human life and these are clearly written in the ancient standard astrological works like “The Suryasiddhanta” and regarding the apparent silence about Uranus etc., it need be mentioned that detailed information were not available in ancient times although these were mentioned in other names in the standard astrological works, but in the modern age detailed studies have been conducted on them and the results thereof are available in the modern astrological works. Inspite of this, this discipline may be at best treated as an incomplete one but it can never be termed as wrong and unscientific. Further, no body can claim that even a single discipline of knowledge has attained its fulfillment because knowledge and wisdom are ever ascending and expanding to find newer targets. The same is also applicable for Astrology as well. Therefore, what is required is to conduct researches with a free and unbiased mind but it should neither be accepted nor rejected without extensive test because while acceptance without test is unscientific, the same is equally true for rejection without test and this is more so when it is done by so-called scientific-minded personalities.

But from the above discussions, it can at best be said that the arguments raised against Astrology have no merit at all, but no positive support can be obtained in favour of Astrology from this and it is needless to mention that the truth underlying any discipline cannot be established with some negative arguments. It remains, therefore, the task to find positive supporting arguments in favour of Astrology. And at the very start, the question automatically arises – what is Astrology? The primary reply to this is Astrology is a discipline to predict the future events of human life and other natural phenomenon. And in more details, it may be said that the Zodiac alone signifies the God-instructed life pattern which the human being in general should follow to attain the perfection of the individual soul and the stellar bodies on the background of the Zodiac signify by their transits the events which a native has to come across due to the inherent complexes by virtue of the positions and transitions of the stellar bodies. It becomes, therefore, the inevitable question whether prediction for future is at all possible from the scientific view point and to find this linkage, what is essential is imaginative power which gives rise to the development of some theory the truth of which can be established with the help of events under examinations.

In the Newtonian mechanics, the concept of universe was developed on the basis of the space and time being considered independent of each other. In the space, there was existence of objects the nature and position of which would vary with time. But with the development of the “Theory of Relativity” by Einstein, the concept of separate existence of Space and Time came to the end; instead the idea of Space-Time continuum was put forward which included in addition to the three dimensions viz. Latitude, Longitude and Height, the fourth dimension i.e. Time. Consequently, the concept of object-based three dimensional world was replaced by event-based four dimensional world. Minkovoski, an authority on the Theory of Relativity, described an event by a point in the space at a particular moment and to explain this, Sir Arthur Edington wrote “Events do not happen; they are just there and we come across them” (Space, Time and Gravitation – Edington). In other words, it may be said that whereas in the three dimensional world, we find the position of a body moving along three different axes at definite distances, in the four dimensional world we come across different events by moving along the Time axis at different intervals. This means that as the existence of a body in the three dimensional world does not happen after crossing different distances along different axes, but its position become simply visible to our eyes; similarly in the four dimensional world a particular event becomes noticeable after passing through some definite periods of time. In short, it may be said that the three dimensional world is concerned with the existence of objects while the four dimensional world is comprised of various events; therefore if an event in space-time be pre-fixed, it is quite natural that human being will try to foresee the same beforehand with the natural inquisitiveness and this is the basis of astrology which means that the fundamental basis of Astrology is well supported by modern science and as such the fourth allegation against this subject is also totally baseless.

The next question, therefore, automatically arises whether the stellar bodies can at all influence the human life or in the greater sense the terrestrial phenomena and if it can, to what extent and through what mechanism. That the stellar bodies can influence the terrestrial phenomena becomes evident when the degrees of ebb and flow in the rivers and seas are altered in different lunar days and similar is the case with the effect on human body and mind such as for mental patients, persons suffering from Arthritis etc. The alterations of many terrestrial phenomena are also observed with appearance of sun-spots at definite intervals. These are but very common examples of the effect of stellar bodies on human life etc. Of course, it need be thoroughly investigated whether the stellar bodies alone influence the terrestrial phenomena. After birth, a native starts being influenced by the climate and natural environment of the native place, the socio-economic structure and the national or territorial situations, the genetic factors received from the parents in addition to the theory of reincarnation and doctrine of deeds in previous births according to Hindu Philosophy. To these are added the influence of stellar bodies at the time of birth and through the entire life process by transitions. The inevitable next question arises whether the positions of stellar bodies at birth and later on are significators or controllers of human life. In this respect, a difference of opinion exists. While one group is in favour of the theory of significance, the other group is for that of the control. In the humble opinion of this author, both the two are true because if all events be predetermined according to the Theory of Relativity, then the stellar bodies are but significators only. But to determine the exact nature of an event in variance with the position and time, the stellar bodies function as controller. Therefore, taking all these factors into account combinedly, it may be concluded that the exact shape of any earthly event, the stellar influences act together with the other factors i.e. in a line, it may be stated that the stellar influences are but one of the factors influencing earthly phenomena but not the only factor.

Naturally the next question arises about the mechanism of the stellar influences. In general, it is said that the cosmic radiations emanated from the stellar bodies influence the human life. But to determine the exact mechanism, thorough researches need be conducted taking all the relevant disciplines of science into account and after exploring this, this motherly subject can be utilized for the further progress of various branches of science. To put it in a nutshell, it may be said that Astrology can be utilized for the exploration of the system of the genetic transmission and thereafter to develop processes for the production of advanced-brain human beings, to utilize the inherited and acquired qualities of the individuals in the best possible ways to avoid the misuse and loss of human resources.