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

Limitations of Astrological Compatibility

Image by Toban Black via Flickr

Compatibility is about relationship durability; the “glue” that either makes it easy or, by lack thereof, difficult for a relationship to persist.

In a sense this talks about the good/bad of the relationship because durability is quite an important factor of any good relationship. And in a durable relationship, love is an investment that can prosper and multiply. But durability is not the sole factor of what a relationship actually feels like.

Take a person with a hypothetical birth chart that shows terrible relationships. That person can meet someone with whom they are very “compatible.” The result? A long lasting horrible relationship.

This is a simplified example of course, to get the basic point across. Real world cases are more complex. People have all sorts of conflicting karmas happening almost at once in their lives. We have 18 things giving so many different varieties of good relationship karmas, and 4 things giving so many different types of negative relationship karmas – and these things come to the fore at different moments in our life depending on the astrological cycles and whatnot. So at one stage in our life, meeting a person with whom we are highly compatible creates a very good relationship. At another stage – when a different karma is bearing fruit due to our astrological cycles – the same level of compatibility in a relationship causes a lousy, painful experience that is difficult to break off.

Past Lives and Retrograde Planets

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Question

 

Retrograde planets have to do with past life connections?

Is this true, do you find that the retrograde planets in your chart make connections to past lives or karma?

Answer

EVERYTHING about my present is a result of the choices I made in my past, just as everything in my future depends on what I do now, in the present. Therefore everything in the chart reveals the past life. There are some factors that are *particularly* revealing of the past life, but I don’t really see retrograde planets as one of them. It strikes me as an ill-held opinion.

Source(s):

http://vicdicara.com

 

 

Astrology and Bhakti? Is Karma Relevant to Spiritualists?

Student: Before I studied astrology with you, I thought that it could never predict spiritual things since spiritual things transcend karma. But reading your descriptions of Prabhupada and Aindra’s horoscopes shows me this is not the case.

Vic: Yes, excellent question. It is important to have a clear and conclusive understanding of this topic. The question raises itself not only in relation to the charts of spiritualists like Aindra Ji and Prabhupada, but even more deeply in relation to the horoscopes of incarnations of Godhead such as Krsna, Rama, and Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

Student: Yes yes! I told a devotee about your reading for Krishna‘s chart and they told me, “He shouldn’t do that.”

Vic: The vaishnava-shiromani (the jewel on the grown of devotional spiritualists) Srila Vishvanatha Chakravarti told me the positions of the planets in Krsna’s horoscope, in his commentary on Srimad Bhagavatam. Am I to conclude he told me these because I should not consider them carefully? That would be silly, right? One who can understand Krsna better and explain about Krsna to others by examining those positions outlined by Vishvanatha should do so. That is Krsna Katha (discussion of Krsna, a major practice of devotional spiritualism), isn’t it?

Student:

Vic: Bhaktivinode Thakur gives the Horoscope of Sriman Mahaprabhu in his commentary on Caitanya Caritamrta. Should some relatively neophyte devotee say that it is improper to study the planetary positions of spiritual beings in the face of Vishvanath and Bhaktivinode doing so?

Student: Amazing.

Vic: Vaishnav-aparadha (needlessly criticizing a devotee) is much worse that being ill informed or neophyte, so I should really watch my mouth and not offend any devotee who feels that astrology has no place in Krsna Consciousness. But I have explained the reasons why I myself would not accept that conclusion. Even in this I have offended Vaishnavas and so should be very careful to state clearly that I respect their devotional sentiment although I quietly and humbly hold to a different conclusion on this particular subject, and humbly request their consideration of my opinion.

Student: Yes.

Vic: Anyway, let me answer your question before class time runs out.

Student: Yea!

Vic: The question is answered from two angles. From one angle the answer pertains to when the influence of bahiranga-maya (the potency facilitating ignorance) ceases to have karmic influence over a spiritualist. From the second angle the answer pertains to how antaranga-maya (the potency facilitating the enlightened state) acts within the material sphere.

Student: I see.

Vic: Lets cover the first angle first.

Student: OK.

Vic: Right from the very beginning of devotional spiritual practices (sadhana-bhakti) the effects of karma begin to dissipate. There are four stages of karma: unmanifest (aprarabdha), inclinations (kutam), actions (bijam) and manifest reactions (prarabdha).

When ones spiritual practices dawn on perfection one attains the level of bhakti-yoga termed bhava-bhakti. At this stage only manifest reactions remain (prarabdha). There is still karma acting even at the stage of Bhava-Bhakti, but it has no significant momentum. It is only the shell of the final reactions of a soul’s karma. Thus the bhakta at this level continues to exist in a body and in the material world – this is the extent of the prarabdha karma.

When pure love of godhead becomes absolutely integrated into the spiritual ego one attains the level of bhakti yoga termed prema-bhakti. At this point the bhakta is physically reborn into the activities of Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as they are currently being manifest in one of the material universes. Certain experiences of separation from Krsna during that final transitional birth cause the last whiffs of the final shreds of prarabdha karma to disappear, and at that level one attain a fully transcendental existence, form, residence, etc.

Student: Awh yess, i seee.

Vic: So, to put it plainly, the extent that one is not yet in Krsna-lila – the extent to which one is not actually interacting in tangible reality with Krsna – that is the extent to which karma (and thus astrology) still holds potential sway over the person.

For practical purposes it can be said confidently that one at the level of bhava-bhakti is sufficiently freed of karma, and have no measurable need to care for its effects. Therefore they have no real need to concern themselves with astrology. Stretching it a bit further, we can extend this immunity to karma/astrology even to the spiritual practitioners who are beginning to acquire asakti (devotional addictions) and ruci (devotional enjoyments) as a result of performing their sadhana (practices) on the platform of nishta.

In short the degree to which one has attained realization of krsna-prema is exactly proportionate to the degree to which karma (and therefore astrology) becomes meaningless to one.

Student: I see.

Vic: There is no reason to limit this to Astrology. To the degree that one attains prema, in the equal degree one will have no need for material support in their spiritual efforts, whether from astrology, social institutions, or religious practices of particular varnas (social roles) and ashramas (spiritual roles).

That is the first angle on answering the question. Is that much clear so far?

Student: Yeah. It is so far.

Vic: The second angle on the question is that Krsna appears in this world, ya know? In it. That is why he comes through the agency of Ksirodakshayi Vishnu (the supreme lord of the material universe). And this is why karma of this world moves into a particular astrological alignment to make it possible to manifest krsna-lila (Krsna’s pastimes) here within the material sphere.

Student: Ahhh!

Vic: I mean, isn’t this exactly what Vishnu told Brahma when Brahma went with the demigods and Bhumi (the Earth Goddess) to ask for an incarnation to happen!? Vishnu told Brahma, “OK, I am going to incarnate in the Yadu dynasty. Now, all of you demigods make the preparations and take your places.”

Right?

Student: Mhm.

Vic: The navagraha (Nine Planets) are demigods, you know. They too listened to this order from Vishnu and fulfilled it.

Student: Ahh.

Vic: So the second angle on answering this question is that karma can act under the direction of yogamaya (the potency that facilitates not ignorance but the enlightened state). When Krsna appears in the world, yogamaya takes over the functions of universal karma to make it possible for spiritual reality to manifest within the material sphere.

Not just for Krsna but also for parama-siddhas like Srila Prabhupada, you can say that the karma in his chart is an orchestration of yogamaya to facilitate and manifest the lila (activities) that Krsna wanted and needed Prabhupada to manifest.

Okay?

Student: I’m understanding now.

Vic: Great! That is my job, and my pleasure.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

© 2010 Vic DiCara, All Rights Reserved