At the lotus feet of Maa Tara and Batuk Bhairav Baba…
Vedic astrology, also known as Hindu astrology or Jyotisha, is an ancient Indian system whose name translates to “the science of light.” While predictive horoscopic systems developed later, Jyotisha is traditionally counted among the six Vedangas, the auxiliary disciplines of the Veda, where its original role was to understand and time rituals.
Mention astrology in a room, and people sort themselves into three groups: the resistive, the champions, and the middle.
The resistive will never believe in astrology, never trust it, and never visit an astrologer. The champions rely on it actively; they do and say things as their astrologer guides them. The middle group is the interesting one: they believe, but they visit an astrologer casually, or when a life event or adversity arrives. I am not here to argue for any of these groups. But one fact we cannot ignore is that astrology has been part of the Vedic tradition from the beginning.
A quick introduction to a few high-level concepts:
Lagna (the birth chart): Your blueprint. It shows your physical body, outward personality, and general life path.
Navamsa: Your inner soul purpose, marriage, and fortune in the second half of life.
Bhava Chalit: Corrects the true house position of the planets. A planet sitting in one house in the Lagna chart may shift to a neighboring house in the Bhava Chalit chart, giving a more realistic view of which area of life it actually affects.
Dasha: A planetary timeline that governs specific periods of your life. It tells you when specific karmas, good or bad, will activate.
From childhood, I met astrologers in my father’s circle: Bejan Daruwala, Parantapbhai, Bhupendrabhai (who I believed had Panchaguli Siddhi), Bipin uncle, and many more. My interest ran deep, and my focus was always the same: what will happen in my life, and when. At various stages, I visited astrologers to seek next steps, to make sense of rough patches, or simply for fun, to see how their predictions aligned with reality. I even learned astrology at a high level myself, to understand how the system works, though I never went deep enough to master every aspect: prediction, prashna (question-based readings), and so on.
As life evolved, I continued to seek out astrologers and met my good friend G. Vijay Shankar (honestastrologer.com). He is truly an honest individual. People I referred to him have told me that if he cannot read their chart, he returns their money. He does not charge the heavy fees many well-known astrologers do, he is deeply pragmatic, and he has said openly that there is no such thing as Sade Sati; the Dashas are the real drivers.
But over the past three years, something in me changed. As I began my spiritual practices, my perspective on astrology shifted. Where I once ran to an astrologer at the smallest obstacle, I slowly stopped reaching out and placed my faith in the deities and their decisions. This does not mean I stopped believing in astrology. I believe. But I stopped treating it as a remedy, or as a forecast of how events and my life would unfold.
Instead, I began approaching astrology with a different purpose, and I must say, I have not yet met an astrologer who can answer these questions for me:
1. What purpose does the universe want me to fulfill?
2. Who does the universe want me to become?
3. Where are my battlegrounds?
4. What challenges must I overcome to become unshakable?
5. What habits must I build to align with my purpose?
These questions matter to me. Through research, reflection, meditation, and introspection, I found answers to each of them, and I have started a new journey. The answers will differ for every individual, but they are there, written in the positions of the planets in your horoscope. The trouble is that we use astrology as a predictive science instead of looking at the planets and asking what they want us to learn and how they want us to evolve.
The planets are there for a reason: not to punish us, but to teach us, to evolve us, and to draw the better version out of ourselves.
So the next time you visit an astrologer (if you belong to the champion or middle group), flip the questions.
Don’t ask when something will happen. Ask what the planets are trying to teach you.