My Basic Philosophy (of Astrology)

First of all, I absolutely do not believe that you are controlled by stars and planets. Humans are the “adults” of this world, so we have freedoms. With freedom comes responsibility, which is why adults are held responsible for their actions. What many perceive as “fate” or “destiny” is really the universe holding us responsible for how we have used our freedom.

I absolutely do believe in reincarnation. It is merely the “Law of Conservation of Energy” applied to the enegy of our souls. For many lifetimes we have used or misused our freedoms, and that’s why we start this life with a certain “destiny” already in place.

The configuration of heaven and earth at the time you start your life reveals the initial destiny for your current lifetime. Why?

I definitely do not think it is because the configuration of planets and stars somehow influences us with rays, gravitons, waves, or whatever. Instead, I believe it is the compassion of our mother, the universe, to communicate to her children via the movements of her body, the stars and planets.

Questions Relating to God, Fate, and Reincarnation

does lord krishna have control over the planets in astrology?

The us Government makes laws. In that sense they have control over US law. The police and courts enforce the laws, invested with the power of the US Government. Still it is the citizens who either break or obey the laws. The Government or police does not (ldeally, at least) bend the laws to make an innocent person guilty or a guilty person innocent.

Similarly Krsna has made the Purusha. the Purusha makes the universe with all it’s laws. The planets and other devas enforce the laws being invested with the power of the Purusha, who is the conduit for the power of Krishna. So in this sense Krishna has control of all the planets.

But the planets, Purusha and Krishna do not exercise favoritism. They use their control over fate only to ensure that it is enforced impariatially. Just as it is the citizens who control their punishment or reward by deciding if they will contradict or cooperate with the laws – similarly it is only you and I who truly controls our own fates.

who should we worship to ease the negatives of our planets?

Merely the concept of wishing to worship will itself ease the negativities, because most of the negativity arises from refusal to cooperate with higher authorities and powers. Worship ameliorates this rebelliousness, and therefore in and of itself is very efficacious for easing karmic negativity.

Those who still desire to enjoy power and prestige in the temporary world should worship various temporary deities to get their petty desires fulfilled. Those who are lucky and smart will want a permanent solution to suffering and negativity – and they will therefore seek emancipation. Such persons can only worship Vishnu’s category of divinity – for Vishnu is the god of pure clarity (sattva-guna), and therefore he alone can grant emancipation to pure clarity. I discuss this in more detail in my reading of the Bhagavata, here: On God and Gods

also when we die do we go straight to our next life?

No. Time is extremely complex and difficult to grasp. It is not as iron clad as the human mind in this era of human history perceives it to be. Aeons and milliseconds can be equalized by the powers of the universe. So time is a bit irrelevant what considering some questions, such as this one.

Every individual is slightly different. The general process, as far as I understand it, is that some time is spend in disconnecting ones emotions and attachments to the body and identity and life which has just expired. Thereafter, Yamaraja – the ultimate judge of karma – takes sometime to review things. Thereafter one is sent to the next destination. But the next destination is not always a birth in a conventional sense. Sometimes it is a manifestation on higher or lower planes of existence (heavens and hells). So there is a flexible amount of time, could be short or long, between one tangible birth and the next. Also the next tangible birth is (quite often nowadays) in subhuman wombs. Depending on how low down the evolutionary chain the birth is, it can take quite some time before the soul ascends the evolutionary ladder again to have the Human opportunity. Therefore there is absolutely no set time between one human birth and the next.

and why are there so many lower life forms than humans,

The universe was created for souls who dreamed of enjoying Gods varieties. Most of that is done very nicely through the minds and senses of various creatures.

The human form of life is quite sophisticated. The special feature of being a human is having intellect, and therefore the ability to communicate and thus read knowledge that humanity has accumulated. So the true purpose of human life is to elevate oneself and improve one’s fundamental nature, not just to enjoy the varieties of manifestation in Gods creation – but to come into better harmony with that creation, not as an enjoyer of it but as a lover, a giver of love to God through it. So interest in this facility is comparatively quite scarce among all the souls here in this world. Even among those who take human birth, explicit interest in such topics is relatively scarce. Therefore there is little need for zillions of human beings to exist at a time, or for there to be zillions of humanlike species. That said, however, I have heard that the Veda specifies 400,000 subspecies of humanity. Though I have no idea how fine the differentiation has to be to get that many, nor do I think that all 400,000 of them co-exist at the same points in history.

is the human life something that is very hard to get back after this life is over?

Not if you have not wasted your human life. If you have made use of your human facilities, nature will quite happily supply you with another one immediately or quite soon – probably even an improved one. But yes, after wasting a human life by not utilizing its intellect to come into better harmony with creation and God… then it usually takes quite a while, but it depends on how severely one has no interest in the human faculties.

What is Morality?

An important thing about morality is revealed by studying the 9th house. To find it in the sky – look straight up and then look just to the west of that. That area is the 9th house. When you look up you are looking at the open sky – thus you are looking at the area which symbolizes the public, society, and your role in it. That is the 10th house. If you look to the western horizon you are looking at where the Sun sets, opposite to where the Sun rises. The place the Sun rises represents our birth and being in this worl. The opposite place, the west, represents all the other people in the world with whom we relate. That is the 7th house. The 9th house is between these two. It is the western neighbor of the 10th house. Thus it represents how our role in society afftects other people. That says a lot about what morality is. It is an awareness that everything you do impacts everyone else in the world – and therefore your own desires should be tempered and limited by the needs of others.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

What is the goal of your life?

The ancient seers of India described human life as having four stages, or four goals – along with a fifth which is hidden beyond and within them all. The fifth goal comes from the element of ether which pervades everything, yet is outside them all. The other four goals come from the four elements: air, earth, fire and water.

The first thing a human being needs is pleasure. Not just human beings, but all life has this as the basic underlying motive. Air creates sensations, and is responsible for making us desire pleasurable ones. The air signs, Gemini, Libra and Aquarius mark the way points along the evolution of this goal of life.

After pleasure, what we need next is stability. We all want lollipops, for example. But one you get a lollipop you start to worry about where the next one will come from. You start to want some sort of stash of lollipops. You want some allowance, some salary to insure that you can get a lollipop whenever you want one. The earth signs, Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn are responsible for achieving and evolving this goal of life.

Once you have stability you become a target. You got your stash of lollipops, and here come sean and scott, the neighborhood brutes, to take it from you by force. That’s a big problem, be it with a stash of lollipops or a mugging, bank robbery or embezzlement. So the third goal of life is moral structure to ensure us against the loss of our treasure of lollis. The fire signs, Aries, Leo and Sagittarius strike back at the thieves and cheats – create structure and government, and give moral guidance to accomplish and evolve this third goal of life.

Finally, you sit there with your bowl of lollipops safe on your morally sound lap… and you start to reflect. “What the hell is all this fuss over lollipops in the first place?!” You become pensive and look within. Is there something deeper than all this elaborate civilization we have built around, basically, candy? You seek for inner truth and enlightenment. The water signs, Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, are responsible for creating and perfecting the impulse to achieve this goal of life.

What is the fifth goal, you ask? The goal which permeates and transcends all others? The one thing which is in itself the supreme pleasure of air, the supreme treasure of earth, the supreme moral of fire and the supreme emotional enlightenment of water?

Those ancient seers called it “prema” – divine, selfless love.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

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