Ardra Naksatra: Siva destroys himself and becomes a goddess!

This is an excerpt from the draft chapter on Ardra, the sixth star of the Vedic sidereal zodiac, from my forthcoming book.

Protector of the Divine Beauty of Rasa

Residents of the holy city of Vṛṇdāvana is tell a sacred legend of Śiva as “Gopeśvara Mahādeva.” This tale beautifully illustrates how Ārdrā forms a wall barring the undeserving from entering the realm of Rohiṇī; how destruction of the unreal and utter forgetfulness and abandonment of ones ego is required before one can enter into the true beauty and pleasure of spiritual abundance. I will now tell you that tale:

In the middle of the full-moon-lit autumn night, Śrī Kṛṣṇa held the magnificent “dance of rasa,” manifesting the true infinitude of abundant romantic beauty that is partially reflected by Rohiṇī’s fullest glory. You should already know what rasa is, and what its significance is, because we discussed it while discussing Mṛgaśīrṣā.

Śiva rushed to the spot to participate in the rasa-dance. Vṛṇdā, the goddess of Vṛṇdāvana, stopped him in his tracks at the outskirts of the forest groves. “You are not permitted to enter!” She declared.

Śiva was crushed and dejected. “Why!?”

“No male exists in the rasa-dance except Kṛṣṇa,” Vṛṇdā explained. “Because you hold on to the false-identity of being a male, your presence cannot be tolerated there. You are barred from entry!”

From a great distance, Śiva could hear and see and smell and feel the excitement of the rāsa-dance. He could taste its intoxicating sweetness on the breezes. This drove him mad with desire.

“I am Rudra!!!” He declared. “I can destroy, dismantle, and put an end to everything!!! Therefore I will destroy my own male ego!” With this ferociously powerful determination he entered meditation upon the supreme female, Śrī Rādhā, the central figure of the rāsa-dance, seeking her blessing.

Hearing his prayers, Śrī Rādhā sent her closest confidant, Lalitā, to Śiva, who sat in fiery, passionate meditation at the edge of the forest. Lalitā imparted to Śiva all the profound conceptions required to develop the inner ego of a purely feminine goddess fit to partake in Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s paramount revelry of rāsa. Yet Śiva’s male body remained.

Lalitā escorted him to the Yamunā. “Submerge yourself in it,” she commanded. By her blessing, when Śiva again emerged from the water his possessed a new physical self to matched his new internal self: he had the form of a divine goddess of rāsa, a Gopī.

When Śrī Kṛṣṇa saw this new gopī entering the rāsa-dance hand in hand with Lalitā a surge of happiness and mischief erupted from his transcendental being. Because this gopī was none other than Śiva (who is called Maheśvara, the great controller) Kṛṣṇa playfully nicknamed her Gopeśvara.

When the annihilation and destructive force of Ārdrā is given spiritual direction, it dismantles the false ego and one can pass its barrier into the blessed realms of Kṛttikā, Mṛgaśīrṣā and ultimately Rohiṇī.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

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Krishna and Radha dancing the Rasalila, Jaipur, 19th century. Opaque watercolour with gold on paper. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hitler’s Venus

About Hitler… April 20, 1889 at 18:30 in Branauan Inn, Austria. (Calculated using sidereal stars [nakshatras] and tropical signs [rashis])

Hitler has Venus in Taurus. According to my own textbook, Venus in Taurus should bring the following effects:

Self-made Wealth: Venus in her own sign increases our ability to know what we need to do to obtain the things we want.

Good Character: Venus is the senses. Venus in her own sign means that our sensuality is positive and healthy – not a cause for degradation of character. We enjoy living, without the degradation of living merely to enjoy.

Reliable: Venus in her own signs inclines our sensual desires to be healthy and not a distraction or violation of our duties and responsibilities. Thus it enables us to be a more responsible and reliable friend, partner and family member.

Famous & Fearless: Venus in Libra increases our ability to be influential and attractive – fame. In Taurus, Venus increases our sense of being strong, grounded, and fearless.

Obviously Hitler was very famous, influential and fearless. Also it is clear that he was “reliable” in that he lived for a clear purpose, not for quick temporary desires. He lived for an ideal (a horrible ideal, but an ideal nonetheless). Which is a trait of Venus in her own signs. We interpret “Good character” in the same manner. His senses were in his control and he stuck till the end by his principles (as monstrous as they were). Obviously also Hitler exemplifies self-made wealth, both for himself and for the country he led (Germany’s hatred of the jews had a lot to do with the fact that they somehow had most of the wealth. So Hitler represented self-made wealth, for himself and for his people.)

Why does Hitler’s Venus have such a ghastly twist on these themes?

It is outside the scope of Planets in Signs, but it is difficult not to note that his Venus is

• exactly conjunct Mars (planet of anger, warfare and violence)
  
• in Bharani (the star of Yama, god of death)
• in the dark 8th house
• with a profound, nearly perfect aspect from the ill-doomed Saturn

- Vic DiCara

http://www.vicdicara.com

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Can we Change our Fate?

Can we Change our Karma / Fate?

Think of it like this:

If there is a ball in your hand, you can choose where to throw it. If you throw it through your window, you will come to regret it. Once you have thrown the ball, you’ve thrown it. There is nothing else you can do about it once you have thrown it. You cannot change the fact that you’ve broken your window – but you can change your karma in the future by taking care not to throw another ball through a window again. That is how you change your fate.

You cannot erase the fate you have already created, but you must learn from that fate to make a brighter one for your future.

Can God / Krsna Change our Karma / Fate?

Yes, but why would he?

You can destroy a complicated machine that you have created, but why would you? Fate / karma is not a mistake and is not evil. It is a carefully, meticulously planed machine that teaches us in an extremely deep and real way all the lessons we need to learn to gradually become more and more selfless and eventually become enlightened.

 

Does Devotion/ Bhakti “Burn” Fate/ Karma?

Yes, but not all at once. Sri Rupa describes how bhakti destroys karma (BRS 1.1):

Karma has several stages. First are all the things and situations tangibly manifest right now in your current life. That’s called “prarabdha-karma.” It’s like the broken window you’ve thrown a ball through.

Then there is also a long line of karmic reactions / fates waiting in line for the right opportunity to manifest. You’ve already caused these fates to happen, they just have not yet gotten the correct moment to do so. This is called “aprarabdha-karma.” It’s like you’ve thrown the ball at the window, but the impact hasn’t happened yet.

Then there are three more subtle states of Karma: First is “bijam” the seed of karma, the desire in your heart to, for example, throw a ball through a window.

More subtle is “kutam” which is the “point of origin” for desires; the soil in which the seed of various desires take root. In the example of throwing a ball through a window, kutam might be a sense of mischievous curiosity.

Finally, the ultimate root of karma is “avidya” – “unknowing.” Because we don’t know our true self, we develop inclinations towards desires for self-centered decisions and actions – which then start the wheel of karma moving.

Bhakti will burn the avidya completely to the root, and this will cut off the power to the spinning wheel of fate / karma. The first thing to blackout without power will be the general curiosity “kutam” and inclination towards self-centered acts.You will feel this right away as you take up a spiritual practice like bhakti. You will notice that your genuine curiosity for selfish desires is rather quickly sapped of energy and replace with curiosity of a spiritual nature.

Next, all the specific desires (bijam) for specific self-centered acts will be burned. After some time of serious practice you will start to tangibly perceive this karma disappearing: your desires for various specific self-centered activities will receed, disappear and be replaced by spiritual desires for love of Godhead.

After this, bhakti can burn  aprarabdha-karma. God sees that you have already learned through your spiritual path the lessons you needed to learn through karma, the machine of destiny deletes those karmas, which your sincere spiritual endeavors have now rendered redundant. It is difficult to directly perceive this because the effect is on an intangible thing. The result is that the long line of future births you are scheduled to have gradually becomes shorter and shorter until it finally evaporates completely and you require no further births.

At this elevated point you are left only with prarabdha-karma – the tangible destiny of your current life and body. You cannot keep a physical body in the material world without this karma. It burns very slowly and is not completely eradicated until one obtains prema-bhakti: full realization of divine love, at which point one no longer is kept within a material body in the material world, but enters directly into the divine play (lila) of Krsna. You may feel the very initial effects of the burning of prarabdha-karma as a gradual lack of bodily fixation, eventually a lack of bodily awareness, and finally a lack of a physical body entirely – when you enter into the spiritual realm.

Thank you,

Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

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Image via Wikipedia

Astrology of King Yudhisthira, Recorded in Mahabharata

Describing the astrological conditions of the birth of King Yudhisthira, the Mahabharata says, starting from 114.4:

muhUtrte ‘bhijite ‘zthame
divaa madhya-gate sUrye
tithau puNye ‘bhipUjite

The first line means Yuddhisthira was born, “at the moment of abhijit / eighth.”

Abhijit is never considered the 8th nakshatra (it is counted as the 22nd or sometimes the 20th to the best of my knowledge) so “eighth” must refer to another subject – probably the lunar phase. So I believe we are being told that Yudhisthira was born when the Moon was in the 8th phase (a half moon, very auspicious) in the stellar section ascribed to the constellation of Lyra/ Vega (Abhijit).

The next line says “brightness/daytime, to the middle portion went the Sun.”

Now, this may mean that the daytime sun got to mid-day, highnoon. OR it may mean that the 8th lunar phase was in the “bright” half – the waxing half,and the sun was at noon. I favor the later because the former is a redundant phrasing – and good authors avoid immediate redundancy.

The third line clarifies that the previous descriptions have pertained to the “tithi” – the lunar phase. And that overall this tithi was most auspcious and respectable.

From this seed “Half waxing moon, in Abhijit, at noon.” The following elaboration can be extrapolated:

• Yudhisthira was born in the month of Kartik, for the bright half-moon of Kartika falls in Abhijit. (this could be confirmed to be sure)
  
• He was born at a simultaneous Moonrise and Noon – for the waxing halfmoon is always 90 degrees progressed from the Sun.
  • Thus he was born with the Sun in the 10th house
  • Moon in the first

There is no information given regarding rashis. Without knowing the ayanamsha current for the year, it is not possible to calculate the rashis. We can estimate that the birth was approximately 5,000 years ago. Which, I believe means that the ayanamsha would have been around negative 30 degrees. Which would mean that the rising Moon would have been near the end of Scorpio / beginning of Sagittarius, and the Sun near the end of Leo/ beginning of Virgo. However, information about natal rashis simply is not recorded in this ancient Vedic astrological description – so we can only extrapolate the information.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

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